Originally published on Daily Record – November 16th, 2023
Marigold whinnied, stepping out from under her shelter as Kristen Jentges walked toward her. The pony’s coat was wet, and traced on her forehead and barrel were red illustrations that ran in streaks in the steady drizzle.
Jentges laughed. It was just another day in the life of a therapy horse on Jentges’s mini-farm in Cle Elum.
“I feel so blessed to be in this environment,” she said, pouring coffee in her kitchen after shedding her outerwear.
Pressed close to the base of the mountains, the well-kept home where Jentges thought up her 1-year-old nonprofit, Quiet Cadence, was peaceful on Tuesday morning. A few sheep grazed; the family’s two dogs, Bubbles and Zane, bounded through the yard, playing. Upstairs, sisters Claire, 13, and Anna, 10, could be heard in conversation. Since the pandemic, Jentges said, the girls have thrived through the Omak School District’s Washington Virtual Academy program.
“We moved back to our mini-farm in Cle Elum to get some peace,” Jentges said, wrapping her hands around a mug of coffee.
She and her husband Dan purchased the property as a foreclosure in 2015; it had been vacant for a few months — and there was a bat living in the house, she said, laughing. They added paddocks, fencing, an arena, outbuildings. Then they leased it out and spent a few years in Wenatchee to focus on Dan’s career before heading back to Upper County a few years ago.
The couple met in nursing school; Jentges’s husband works in Vantage as an occupational therapist for an orchard, while she works as the Student Health nurse practitioner for Central Washington University.
“I’ve been in nursing for 16 years,” she said.
“I love taking care of patients. It’s a gift,” she added.
But the pandemic tested Jentges.
She ended up getting her Marigold for her daughters to ride, and then Henry, an older Haflinger, so she could ride, too.
But Henry brought more to the table than a gentle nature and a sturdy back: Jentges soon found herself crying to a listening ear. (“He’s my favorite,” she confessed, although her love for all of the horses was clear.)
“Horses for me helped me kind of center,” she said.
As she saw patients rotate through a clinic setting, she realized just how individually stress impacted folks, and how often caregivers carried that with them. At the first-ever Washington State Board of Nursing Wellness Conference a few weeks ago, Jentges recalled a paramedic chaplain’s address to the audience: “Everyone’s worst day is like a Tuesday for you.”
“It made me think about how blessed I was to work with my horses and my family and nature,” she said.
Last year, when she reviewed the Surgeon General’s 2022 report stating that healthcare workers were becoming a public health concern, with high rates of depression, anxiety and suicide, Jentges wanted to do something. Encouraged by her neighbor and now board member, Peter Butler, Jentges followed her concern for her peer’s health, and formed a nonprofit focused solely on giving back to healthcare workers.
“Kittitas County is where we live, and where wanted to make an impact,” she said.
While there is limited grant funding for such a specific niche, Quiet Cadence was awarded a state health department grant that funded special training for equine therapy.
Jentges has been proactive in connecting with complementary organizations, and described the nonprofit as the “conduit to make these dreams a reality.” She holds equine workshops with Jayne Beebe, connect folks with trauma sensitive yoga for healthcare workers with Ellensburg’s Kimberly Finger, and helps raise awareness about a twice-weekly yoga class at the Clymer Museum, among other partnerships.
While fire or law enforcement and other emergency medical providers often have debriefing sessions at the end of a call or shift, “We never had that,” Jentges said of her and her fellow nurses. “It’s all about creating a community of wellness within those healthcare workers.”
Jentges recharges by going to counseling. “It’s important that we all do that I think,” she said.
Pouring from an empty cup really isn’t the way to care best, she’s learned over time: You have to be full first, she said, a concept that is often difficult in a field where emphasis is put on selflessness.
All of Quiet Cadence’s classes and workshops are free to healthcare workers, and that includes school counselors, individual mental health practitioners, and massage therapists.
“I think that sometimes those people fall through the cracks,” Jentges said.
“If you’re a healthcare worker, you can come to one of our classes,” she said.
Signups are available at quietcadence.org.
“We’re recruiting a couple of board members,” she added, mentioning several times during the visit a desire to expand and collaborate with like-minded organizations.
“We had envisioned a wellness ranch for healthcare workers from the get-go,” Jentges said of she and her husband’s vision for the property.
But the land needs to be rezoned in order for that to happen, and that’s an expensive procedure, she admitted.
“I’d love to host here; I think it’s a peaceful environment,” she mused.
Until then, Jentges said, “start small, and impact one person at a time.”
To learn more about Washington Virtual Academy, visit https://wava.k12.com/.
