09/25/2026
After 8 years of faithful service to our clients, our beloved Adara passed away yesterday evening. While her passing was unexpected and sudden, we are thankful she did not suffer and went peacefully in her pasture.
Adara had a varied career in her younger years, working in parades and even being part of the display of breeds at Kentucky Horse Park. After settling in at NCTRC, she found her calling with our clients who needed the most patient and steady of horses. She could be entrusted with clients who had mobility issues, unpredictable behavior, were afraid of horses, and any other challenge we asked of her. She was responsible for many first rides and for many of our clients over the years was the only horse they could safely ride. And while Adara was our slowest calmest horse in the arena, she always did things on her own terms and made her opinions known, subtly or more obviously if she wasn’t being heard.
When not working with clients, she had a whole different persona and would speed walk or trot to the pasture on occasion, and she lost yard pony privileges for knocking over flower pots and breaking the water cooler. She loved being groomed or bathed and would happily stand for hours in the washrack soaking up attention. She eventually destroyed any tree in her vicinity by using it as a scratching post (cedar trees being her favorite).
We are so grateful that her final days included a grooming session with a longtime client and a spa day receiving chiropractic and laser treatments. Adara was truly a once in a lifetime therapy horse who meant so much to so many and will be remembered always.
