A Place To Heal
Synopsis: Happy Dog Ranch therapeutic rescue and sanctuary is a place for horses, humans, and all beings to heal. Located in Littleton Colorado, HDR provides a safe and supporting environment for the journey to wholeness and peace.
Happy Dog Ranch Foundation owners, John and Bernadette Spillane, met in Omaha, while both attending Creighton University. They married during their senior year, graduated, had their first son, Jonathan, and moved to Austin, Texas where John was starting Law School at UT. Following Law School they came to Colorado, where Bernadette’s family lived, and there they had their second son, Dominic. Bernadette ran a martial arts school for 18 years in southwest Denver, while John pursued law in many forms, more recently concentrating on land development. In 2004 John gave Bernadette a horse for their 26th Anniversary, and that was the beginning of Happy Dog Ranch.
Gray Kyle Graves.
HDR Trainer and Barn Manager, Gray Kyle-Graves grew up loving horses, And began riding as early as she can remember. From a smiling toddler, sharing a saddle with her mom, to a horse crazy kid, coming up in the hunter/jumper world, she has always felt a connection with, and a calling to work with horses. Since 2009, Gray has been working with the wonderful herd at Happy Dog Ranch, and has had the opportunity to learn from countless teachers, both four-legged, and two-legged. Gray believes that working with horses is an endless journey, and she strives to always be a student of the horse, first and foremost. She has been supported in that by her work with horseman Mark Rashid, with whom she has had the honor to work since 2009, and has assisted as a student instructor since the fall of 2014. Her other human teachers include Linda Tellington-Jones, Tracy Vroom, Jim Masterson, and others, who have helped her experience new levels of understanding in her work as a trainer, as a horsemanship coach, and as an equine bodyworker. Gray strives to offer softness to every horse, and brings gratitude to every day she gets to share with them.
Contact: gray.kyle.graves@gmail.com or 720-325-0452
Genre
Rated
Language
Run Time
Directed by
Director's Statement
Happy Dog Ranch therapeutic rescue and sanctuary is a place for horses, humans, and all beings to heal. Located in Littleton Colorado, HDR provides a safe and supporting environment for the journey to wholeness and peace.
Director's Bio
I have been interested in film and science since childhood. As an undergraduate, I majored in chemistry, while at the same time shooting films whenever I got the chance. I earned a Ph.D. from the University of Colorado, Boulder then did post-doctoral research at the Center for Astrophysics at Harvard. After teaching for over a dozen years, I switched gears and began focusing on my other passion, filmmaking.
Technical aspects of filmmaking are quite similar to astrophysics. Both rely on light! The creative process is an exploration much like the search for scientific knowledge.
I have also always been a storyteller. As a child, I remember recounting to friends a film I had seen or event witnessed. All in tremendous detail, and it is this attention to detail that serves me well in the scientific world. Often, it is the little things that make the biggest impact!
