A CENTER FOR 21ST CENTURY LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT:
Where horses and nature bring the best of leadership together for the dignity and benefit of all.
First Nature Foundation is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Your gift is tax-deductible and directly supports healing, leadership, and growth.
October 2026
First Nature Notes: Fostering Hope, One Connection at a Time
Dear Friends of First Nature Foundation,
We’re barreling toward the holidays already! Happy Halloween, a little early, from all of us at First Nature Ranch. It’s hard to believe how quickly the year has flown by, especially when the heat index is still hovering around 90 degrees. We’ll happily take that over 105, though!
We’ve had more rain than we’d like lately, leaving parts of the ranch rather soggy, but a stretch of sunnier weather this week is finally helping our pastures dry out. We’re keeping our fingers crossed that the daily downpours are behind us for the year and that some cooler, drier days are on their way.
We have plenty of wonderful news, exciting updates, and upcoming events to share, so let’s get right to it!
What a night! Our 3rd Annual Whiskey Dinner Fundraiser was a success, raising over $5,000 for our Horse Wisdom for Heroes program and helping us continue serving our local veterans in 2027.
From cocktails and mocktails to horse selfies, a delicious three-course dinner with whiskey pairings, raffles, and silent auction treasures, it was a memorable evening filled with great food, great company, and a mission worth raising a glass to. Thank you to everyone who attended, sponsored, donated, and helped make the night such a success. Your support makes a real difference for the veterans we serve!
A huge thank you to Hooten Young for providing the whiskey, cigars, and entertainment for the evening. Our sincerest thank you also to The Transition House in St. Cloud for sponsoring our catering! We so appreciate our other sponsors for helping us put on an incredible event: Danielle Talbot with Talbot Custom Homes, Ashley Herring from Knight Fitness, Asheley Glover from The Local Habit, and Ivette Tirri from UPS store 7574.
Last Monday, we welcomed the team from CommonSense Childbirth, a 2026 grant recipient of 100 Women Strong, to First Nature Ranch for a special Horses Healing Hearts retreat day.
CommonSense Childbirth works to “eliminate racial disparities in perinatal health by rebuilding trusted, deeply rooted and culturally centered systems of care and support,” honoring the experiences and needs of women, birthing people, their families, and the community-based providers who care for them.
Their hardworking staff spend their days supporting families who often face significant barriers to care. We felt they deserved a day to step away from the demands of their work, connect with one another, and enjoy a meaningful experience with our horses. We were privileged to welcome them to the ranch and offer a little of the same care and encouragement they work so hard to provide to others.
The weekend before last, we were excited to welcome the Silver Spurs Rodeo Marketing Team to First Nature Ranch! They toured the ranch and filmed our Horses Healing Hearts program in action as we welcomed Orlando Health cancer patients and their caregivers. This special program is made possible by a grant from the Orlando Health Foundation, helping us bring meaningful experiences with our horses to patients and the people who support them.
We’re grateful to the Silver Spurs team for helping us share this work with a wider audience, and we’ll be delighted to share the finished video with you as soon as it’s ready!
We were also thrilled to learn that First Nature Foundation has been selected as the charitable beneficiary of the Brushstrokes of Valor event! This special event will showcase artwork created by veterans, celebrating their creativity, experiences, and unique perspectives while raising funds to support our work.
We are truly honored to be included in an event that recognizes and celebrates the talents of those who have served our country. Art, like our work with horses, can offer a powerful way for people to express themselves, connect with others, and share parts of their stories that words don't always capture.
Join us for Brushstrokes of Valor to celebrate the incredible artistic talents of our veterans while supporting a meaningful cause! Your attendance helps uplift those who have served and supports our work with veterans through our Horse Wisdom for Heroes program.
This week, we’re hosting a five-day Capstone event for the Equine Experiential Education Association (E3A)! Our staff, along with five additional E3A students, will spend an intensive week immersed in the E3A modality, with two of their Master Trainers leading us through full days of training. Needless to say, we’ll be putting our brains, skills, and horsemanship to work!
We’re excited to welcome E3A to the ranch and hope this is the beginning of a long-term partnership, bringing the Capstone event back to First Nature Ranch for years to come. It’s a wonderful opportunity to showcase our facility, strengthen our connection to the equine-guided learning community, and raise our visibility in this growing field.
Last month, we finally got to put our Horsepower for Heroes program into action with local first responders, and we couldn’t be more excited about what’s ahead! We’ll be promoting the program more widely in 2027 as we look to expand our reach and serve the men and women who show up for our community every day.
If you are or know someone in a first responder agency who might be interested in enrolling their team, please help us spread the word and connect us with the right people to get this program on the books. We’re jazzed about this opportunity to bring equine-guided learning to Central Florida’s first responders, and we can’t wait to see where it takes us!
Are you active in the community, looking for ways to get involved, or part of a nonprofit or organization hoping to make more local connections? Join us for our final Nonprofit & Community Leaders Roundtable of the year on Monday, December 7, from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the ranch!
We’re lining up an amazing speaker for this themed session, focused on best practices, practical tips, and fresh ideas for nonprofits. But you don’t have to run a nonprofit to benefit! We welcome local and regional business professionals, community builders, volunteers, and anyone interested in strengthening connections and making good things happen in our community.
Come for the ideas, stay for the connections, and leave with a few new contacts in your corner. Keep an eye on our social media and next month’s newsletter for the registration link!
If you’ve been following our newsletter, you’ve probably noticed that First Nature Ranch has been getting busier! Between growing interest in venue rentals for events and retreats and more programming filling our calendar, our facility is seeing more action than ever. As a result, we’ll be increasing our venue rental rates in 2027.
The good news? You can still lock in our 2026 pricing! If you have a date selected and your deposit is paid by December 31, we’ll honor our current rates. Our weekends through the next 2 months are pretty much full, but our weekdays are fairly open! So, if you’re considering the ranch for an upcoming event, retreat, or gathering, now is a great time to get on the calendar before prices increase and available dates disappear.
Haven’t visited us yet? Our one-hour ranch tours have been booking up, too, but we’d love to show you around, introduce you to our horses, and help you envision what your next event could look like here. Simply reply to this email to schedule a visit or use the buttons below.
Is your HR department or executive team ready to tackle 2027 planning? First Nature Ranch offers a refreshing alternative to the traditional conference room with our Annual Planning Package for Senior HR Leaders and Strategic Planning Retreats for Executive Teams.
Whether you're building your annual HR calendar, setting departmental goals, preparing budgets, or aligning your leadership team around organizational priorities, stepping away from the usual workplace can create space for focused conversations and fresh perspectives. Our peaceful ranch setting offers a unique environment to bring your team together, think strategically, and plan with purpose.
Do you know a Chief Human Resources Officer, HR Director, or executive leader who is starting to map out 2027? Please share our information with them! We'd love to help more Central Florida organizations make the most of their planning time.
A note on fostering hope from Allyn, our Executive Director:
This year has been striking in how much the foundation has grown, not just in the number of programs we offer, but in the people we’ve reached and the opportunities we’ve created. Every new partnership, every group that walks through our gates, and every person who discovers something new about themselves through our horses reminds me why this work matters.
Hope isn't always a grand, life-changing moment. Sometimes, it’s a person realizing they’re stronger than they thought. It’s a veteran finding a new perspective, a woman remembering how to use her own voice, or a team learning to communicate in a more effective way. Sometimes, it’s simply having a place where you can pause, breathe, and consider what might be possible next.
We’re honored to create those opportunities, but we can’t do it alone. Because so many of our programs are offered at no cost to participants and partner organizations, the generosity of our supporters is what helps make these experiences possible. Every donation, every shared newsletter, every introduction to a potential partner, and every hour volunteered helps us keep the gates open and the programs moving forward.
As we head into the holiday season, I hope you’ll continue to be part of this work with us. Together, we can keep creating space for people to discover their strength, reconnect with possibility, and move forward with hope.
From Our Herd to Yours,
Kerul and Crew
First Nature Ranch / First Nature Foundation
“Where the past, present, and future of leadership come together for the dignity and benefit of all.”
