Volunteer Spotlight: Matt Fuller
Matt, his wife Ellen, and daughter Mattie found MVHR soon after relocating to Colorado from Nebraska. They fell in love “with the ideals, the people/horses and the location immediately” in the quest to combine their love of animals with giving back to the local community.
Growing up in Nebraska, Matt did some haying and other tasks to help out at a family friend’s Quarter Horse ranch. He says he always had an affinity and admiration for those who work hard and dedicate their lives to farming and ranching. Matt also had opportunities to ride horses, and even some bulls, in his youth, but says “the rodeo life was not for me and now I am far too old :).”
One horse caught the eye of the Fuller family soon after they started volunteering at MVHR. They adopted Luck almost immediately and continue to care for her and board her at MVHR. Matt says they were “always sweet on Roxy”, too, but Luck is their baby girl and they love her dearly. “Seeing the horses come in and grow and have a safe place to get their health back and have an opportunity to change their future with new forever families is incredibly rewarding for all of us.”
Matt has been working hard this summer to get our irrigation system overhauled and all repairs completed, so MVHR has a reliable system to maintain a sustainable food source for both our current horses and future generations. He says of any maintenance issues, “I do (or will learn) about anything asked of me…if it needs to get done I will most likely take it on.” With a seemingly endless list of projects and repairs, his can-do attitude and skill set have been invaluable to MVHR.
Thank you Matt, Ellen and Mattie, for your steadfast dedication to MVHR, the Rescue horses and Luck. We couldn’t do what we do without volunteers like you!
To close this edition of our “Volunteer Spotlight”, we’d like to leave you with these beautiful thoughts that Matt shared with us:
“I try and live day by day intentionally, striving to be present in the moment and MVHR is a great outlet for “just being”. It is incumbent upon each of us to honor the great gift our creator has bestowed upon us; listening more and trying to understand where others are is imperative in that effort as we don’t always know what someone is going through but, trying to empathize and be at their level to understand rather than judge is paramount. Honoring that gift also means always being open to learning and teaching others by imparting our wisdom because we are never too old to grow but when we stop learning we stop growing. In these trying times the saying has never been more true that a rising tide raises all ships. The team at MVHR understands this and lives into it every day...the team at MVHR is the driving force that creates presence and teaching all while saving countless horses and providing growth opportunities to people of all walks of life in our community. They are the backbone that makes this community truly unique and strong. Those tenets are what we fell in love with at MVHR, they are what keeps our family driving to grow it and engage further and leave a lasting legacy for our future generations.”