BMYR was born out of a story of struggle and hope. Our founder, Katie Rogers, found herself struggling with depression as a teen and young adult. Through God's providence, Katie achieved a lifelong dream and bought her first horse. Freckled Charlie was a scrappy, retired racing Thoroughbred. Through the development of her relationship with Charlie, Katie found a source of hope and healing and Charlie became a relationship mentor, guide, and lifeline to God. In the years since, horses have continued to be a place of meeting with God for Katie, and because of how horses have impacted her in this way, she decided to share her love of horses with those who struggle, and to use horses to help others catch a special glimpse of God through the unconditional love of a horse, just like she did many years ago.

​

Katie has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Arkansas in Human Development and Family Sciences with a focus on childhood development. In addition to her educational background, she also has extensive experience in training and behavior principles with animals while she served as the training coordinator of the canine unit for the local search and rescue team. In 2014, Katie pursued additional training in trauma informed care and uses principles from Dan Siegel, Bruce Perry, Bessel Van der Kolk, Peter Levine, Karen Purvis, TBRI, and Natural Lifemanship when training our volunteers in our mentoring program.