Our Board of Directors,
Medical Advisors, & Managers

Bonnie Rhynard-Buhl TCTC Founder & Executive Director

A lifelong equestrian, coach and empathic, Bonnie’s been on, or working with, horses since she was four, primarily during summers on the family ranch wedged into the Castle Mountains, Montana. Nature molded her activities and excavated unforgettable experiences. While roaming thousands of acres in National Forest on cattle drives she became resourceful, slept under stars, head on saddle with an old horsehair saddle blanket padding the rocky ground. Water, waving grasses and tree branches dancing on the wind; screeching owls and wildcats, howling wind and wolves, pounding hail, coyotes and crickets, sang her sweet lullabies. Her father was an Air Force commander surviving three wars. Her family moved every three years when stateside, spending summers at the tiny, isolated ranch where Bonnie gentled, desensitized and trained horses for her dad, siblings, cousins and visiting family friends over many summers, well over 40 years. During a 4-year move to Norway while her dad served NATO, Bonnie found Norwegian Fjord horses to love. The family roamed many countries before his final command, at Adair Air Force Station, Oregon. Her family enjoyed art, music, dance, live theater, and each other. Her mom, dad and oldest sister, Kathy, channeled Bonnie’s energy toward constructive tasks like taking apart all the saddles and bridles; cleaning, oiling and reassembling them; sorting all the chaotic junk in the kitchen drawers into structured order; building dams or making tea sets from the clay in the stream; or compassionately hand feeding orphaned baby animals; how to sing and play guitar. The final horse they shared was Kathy’s, when she was too sick to care for Katie, who outlived her to reach 46.5 years old at TCTC! Bonnie’s mother a passional, lifelong artist. She colored Bonnie’s creativity with arts and crafts while roaming meadows and creeks surrounding the ranch together; drawing and painting; wildflower arrangements, refinishing furniture; sewing, knitting, reading; turning junk into something useable; saving baby animals. There was no phone or television. Electricity (only an hour or two in the evening) from a “light plant” (generator). Inspired by nature and “doing”, Bonnie double majored in Technical Photojournalism and Fisheries and Wildlife at Oregon State University. Upon graduation she moved to Washington for her first job, editor of Western Farmer Magazine; married, and 5 years later started her own company in writing, photography, design, production and publishing that would span 40 years, with a one-year break off grid through national parks from Oregon to Mexico, across Mexico to the Yucatan, to write and scuba dive offshore for underwater photography at Cozumel; then up to Bend, Oregon, to resume working and publishing. She raised two daughters, Meghann and Shannah, and continued her business and saving horses, returning to the Willamette Valley in 1993. After she married Walt and moved to Wilsonville, Bonnie coached the LaSalle Varsity Equestrian Team and served as Visual Arts Coordinator for two Wilsonville Festivals of the Arts, and supported her mother’s continuing art endeavors as an 80+ year old published artist of the Oregon Watercolor Assn. Bonnie feels TCTC’s therapeutic horses, caring for them, unique property, and healing energy, relieve life’s transitional challenges and fear, and that relationships forged at TCTC provide uplifting, holistic, bridges. She, and those who have helped her, have saved over 200 corrupt, deformed, abused, abandoned, neglected, aged, even tortured, horses destined for death, slaughter or euthanizing. Despite their past, the horses at TCTC will live their lives here in sanctuary, providing richly rewarding relationships. “Never let the odds keep you from doing what you know in your heart you were meant to do…” says H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

Dr. Walter R. Buhl TCTC Co-Founder Board President

Dr. Buhl has held OB privileges in three Portland metropolitan hospitals as a family practice physician for over 45 years, and has delivered nearly 12 tons of babies, including our first TCTCer! He holds degrees from Yale University in Art History and Music History, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City, completed his residency at Virginia Mason Hospital, Seattle, WA., and is an accomplished vocalist, guitarist and concert pianist, as well as a musical theatre actor. Son of a pastor, Dr. Buhl was encouraged by his mother at an early age to share his musical and theatrical gifts with his family, their congregation, and his community. He has also enjoyed travel, running marathons, ski patrol, and rescuing, riding and driving horses, including fulfilling a lifelong dream: training and driving a special horse named “Kitty” to pull a sleigh when it snowed enough one winter. He enjoys land conservation and maintaining the facilities at TCTC with our staff and volunteers. In 1997 Walter saved a patient’s orphaned foal named “Mariposa Lily”. He bottle-fed the filly every two hours for weeks. Walter has since helped condition and train six TCTC driving horses and feels that horses have a special therapeutic role to play in human health. Only semi-retired, he has focused his post-retirement medical practice, Walter R. Buhl, M.D., on monthly locum tenens relief coverage for rural doctors in a remote southeast Oregon hospital.

Therese Vogel, TCTC Board Member

Employment History:
Retired Faculty from Portland Community Nursing Program. Full- time Faculty at PCC Nursing from Sept. 1983- Jun. 2012. Part time as Faculty for PCC Nursing from Sept. 2012- Jun. 2017.

Resource RN at Doernbecher Children’s Hospital (mainly in summer months), from Jun. 1985- Nov. 2008.

Experiences with Horses:
Previously, I volunteered at Sycamore Lane Therapeutic Riding Program (OR City) from June 2012- May 2017. I served as a Board member for Sycamore Lane for 1 year. Reason for leaving- Program closed due to lack of sufficient funding.

I began volunteering at TCTC in Sept. 2017, & have continued through present time.

What brought me to TCTC- I have had a love of horses since early childhood. I grew up in a small town in Virginia, in the middle of horse farms & fox hunting country. I took riding lessons & rode regularly from age 10- early 20’s. I participated in Pony Club, did chores at stables where I took lessons, & participated in local horse shows, trail rides & fox hunts. When adult life led me to college, career & marriage/ children, my involvement with horses dropped steeply. But I had a hope that one day I would return to some degree of work with horses. After retiring in 2012, I began volunteering at Sycamore Lane Therapeutic Riding Program, where I fed & groomed horses, did tacking & untacking, & leading horses during client lessons.

After the therapeutic riding program closed in 2017, I heard about TCTC through a friend. I have been volunteering regularly at TCTC for the past 4 ½ years. My duties at TCTC include feeding, re- setting feeds, filling grain containers, supplying apples & carrots donated a local grocery store, turnout of horses, groundwork & conditioning of 1 horse (Pony). I have gained a lot in knowledge & experience on handling horses while at TCTC, & have helped to orient a few new volunteers. In addition to my own involvement at TCTC, I have been able to introduce my 3 granddaughters to the world of horses there. I anticipate that TCTC will continue to be a nurturing, learning environment where my granddaughters can have positive experiences, make friends, & learn life lessons while caring for horses.

Beth Brod, TCTC Board Secretary

Beth is a Special Education Teacher who has been teaching in Portland's inner city, low income, schools for 27 years. She teaches in a learning center where kids come to her for extra help in reading, writing, math and social emotional supports. Beth has a Master of Sciences in Special Education from Portland State University. Originally from Vermont, she moved to Oregon in 1992. She has three adult daughters, two of them are at Oregon State University, the eldest is employed as a Forester in Washington state. All three of Beth's children grew up coming to TCTC, where learning horsemanship was part of their foundational development.

Sally Clayton, PHD, TCTC Board Member & Coach

Sally works in a general practice with individuals, youth and families. She worked in school-based mental health, at OHSU’s Child Development Center, and with the federal disability system as a medical expert, so has dedicated much of her time to advocating for youth and families in different contexts. Sally owned, rode, learned and then taught horse care and riding lessons through the US Pony Clubs during her youth, then volunteered also while her stepdaughter rode with the Oregon Trail Pony Club. Sally came to TCTC when she needed a placement for her beloved gelding who had a severely injured hip. While they did not end up needing a place for him, she “loved the mission and goals of TCTC so much” that she started volunteering in 2019. She was attracted to how well- run TCTC was, how safe for kids and the emphasis on the caring for horses as well as riding. “I appreciate the friendships formed here and watching lives change—both the horses and human lives—for the better,” she says.

Meghann Rhynard Geil-Giralt, TCTC Board Member & Trainer

Meghann has been exposed to international travel, music and horses since birth and has been an avid equestrian her entire life, training her own horses while participating in 4-H at 9 years old followed by Pony Club, Young Riders, Oregon High School Equestrian Team (OHSET), OSU’s varsity Intercollegiate Horse Show Association (IHSA) team; and United States Eventing Assn. events with Olympics team clinicians, training all her own horses, and many of TCTC’s, throughout her high school and college years, while also dedicating thousands of hours as a TCTC coach. She’s an adventure photographer and has studied German, Spanish, Arabic and French languages for her travel and career. Meghann was a member of Portland’s Pacific Youth Choir through high school when it placed second nationally at Chicago Gold Choir Festival. She still sings for fun. As a Cross-Cultural Solutions volunteer she worked at a Moroccan orphanage for two months. A year later she returned to Morocco for four months of language school; then on to Ireland, Switzerland, Austria, Hungary Slovenia, Spain, France and Italy. She earned a scholarship to pursue her Master’s in Public Policy from Oregon State University focusing on International Diplomacy for Non-Governmental Agencies while teaching English as a Second Language. Her professional career started as a project manager for Mercy Corps at the corporate headquarters in Portland, OR, as well as the front lines of many countries with conflict and disasters, as, eventually, Humanitarian Director. She moved on to became Humanitarian and Ethics Director for Internews Network, a non-profit agency working in more than 70 countries to train over 80,000 people in media skills; and is now serving as an Ethics and Risk Assessment Manager for the Bill Gates Foundation in Seattle. She attends many TCTC programs, offering hours and resources as a clinician supporting TCTC’s horsemanship program every opportunity she can.

David Schwartz, TCTC Board Member & Grounds Project Manager

David was born and lived in Hawaii for 24 years. He started riding commercial trail horses at 6 years old, mostly during vacations, but by 12 his family owned a horse and after three years he started competing in dressage, Hunter/Jumper and Eventing. He saved a horse from an abuser in his late teens and after a few years they had a great relationship. At 18 David augmented his work in the carpentry/construction trades to work with a farrier and earned his certification from the Oklahoma Farrier College and started a farrier business and trail riding horses at a dude ranch. He’s had a passion for working with horses ever since and believes the best way to learn is to practice! After moving to Oregon David brought his two sons, both experienced trail riders, to volunteer at TCTC so they could work together on construction (including big equipment), forestry and maintenance projects together. It’s been their “2nd home” ever since and they make a dynamic team, especially when clearing TCTC’s trails after winter’s big storms!
David is TCTC’s certified Technical Large Animal Emergency Rescue manager.

Karyn Kell, TCTC Board Member & Pony Camp Director

Karyn’s professional background includes working as a Child and Adolescent Treatment Specialist for eight years at the Parry Center for Children, Portland, in the residential facility and in the outreach program at schools with at-risk youth and families. She has a master’s degree in education and has taught elementary school. She helped develop TCTC’s Arts, Crafts and Music Programs which are combined with horse experiences. Shortly after she and her daughter became TCTC volunteers and horse sponsors, Karyn learned more about horsemanship and became a 3+ day-a-week feeder and barn manager. Though she rode on a family ranch from time to time, she expanded her firsthand knowledge while working at TCTC to gain more practical experience and has led TCTC’s 4-H activities and participated in numerous off-property trail rides with her daughter. your image here.

Shannah Rhynard-Geil, TCTC Advisor, Arts, Nature, & Photography

Shannah’s primary school science teacher told her she had a future in the sciences. At that time she believed “the sciences” meant jobs like engineering and medicine, “generally reserved for people who were brilliant.” She enjoyed art, music and history more, so never perceived herself as being scientific. However, on her pathway to becoming an object conservator, she learned how art and science are integral to each other. “Both require creativity and governance by universal law for interpretation and expression,” she says. A Summa Cum Laude graduate of Oregon State University with a BA in Anthropology with focus in Archaeology, Shannah also studied abroad at the National University of Ireland, UK; Bamburgh Castle Research and Field School, Northumberland, England; Ness of Brodgar Excavation and Field School on the Orkney Islands, Scotland, where she excavated the largest flint knife in Europe which was featured in National Geographic; and received an international scholarship to the University of Victoria, B.C., going on to receive a merit bursary award for her Master of Conservation of Archaeological and Museum Objects from Durham University, England. After working with the National Museum of Wales and St. Fagans National History Museum in Cardiff, she returned to Engand as a conservator for 5 years with the National Trust and the Conservation and Museum Advisory Service, Wiltshire Co. Council. In 2019 Shannah moved to New Zealand to work as a conservator for Otago Museum in Dunedin. She was offered a position with the Antarctica Heritage Trust conserving artifacts from the first explorer’s expedition bases, over winter, which she considers a “Once in a lifetime experience” and after returning, finished up her tenure with Otaga Museum to work for 2 years to supervise and return with teams of scientists to Antarctica to continue working “on the ice” there. Shannah loves art, crafts, photography, music, nature, hiking in wilderness areas, running marathons and trail riding horses. In high school she sang with Portland’s Pacific Youth Choir for the Portland Symphony Orchestra’s Lord of the Rings in Concert production. She was the first artist to use TCTC’s Lambing Barn Art and Pottery studio, which showcases some of her and her grandmother’s work in watercolors, acrylics, sketching, jewelry, miniature furniture, silk painting, sewing, pottery and mosaic. During her free time Shannah is a mountaineer and personally training as a Women Athletes Health and Nutrition counselor. The beloved horses she trained and donated to TCTC’s horsemanship program, Pony and Bobbie, both play active roles as TCTC equine therapists.

Victor Alexander, DVM & TCTC Equine Medical Advisor

Dr. Alexander has been a lifelong horseman and equine practitioner. He came to Oregon in 1997 to start a practice after working in Texas at a three-doctor equine hospital where they provided surgery, critical care and ambulatory care for a varied horses and disciplines. His practice provided high quality, cost-effective care for horses and peace of mind for owners.
He regularly volunteers his time for public speaking and horse owner education. He believes that horses are just THE most exceptional animal. “They are massive athletes that are smart, can pack a person up and down a hill on their back in addition to showing affection and respect to their people like a companion animal,” he says. Dr. Vic has dedicated his career to helping horses achieve optimum wellness with preventive measures and taking care of the sick and injured. He began his horse adventures as a kid where the whole family participated to keep busy while his dad was stationed in Vietnam. He and his brothers regularly did “play days”, now referred to as “gaming”. While in high school and college he worked with his older cousin, an experienced horse trainer, providing full care, and breaking and training reining, roping and cutting horses. Dr. Alexander attended Texas A&M University where he graduated Summa Cum Laude with a B.S. in Biochemistry Lab and attended vet school. He graduated Magna Cum Laude in 1981 and has been focused on equine care ever since. Recently retired after a 40+-year career with his own mobile practice and surgery in veterinary medicine, Alexander Equine, he now enjoys trail riding with the Skyline Trail Riders, working on his property, and family activities he never had time for while running his practice. He continues to support TCTC by contributing his insight as needed for especially challenging cases and Pony Care clinics, with best ongoing practices in equine care.

Melissa Shaver, DVM, CVA-IVAS & TCTC Medical Advisor

Dr. Melissa Shaver is an experienced Doctor of Veterinary Medicine with a balanced background in both small and equine animals, and a strong interest in problem solving, pain modification and alternative therapies. Dr. Melissa received her degree from Oregon State University, Washington State University and graduated Magna Cum Laude in Major Animal Science. She is the owner of Equine Performance Solutions which specializes in chiropractic and acupuncture treatments, specifically for lameness and rehabilitation and is also a nutritional consultant including herbal and essential oils. She followed her mentor, Dr. Mark DePaolo, to TCTC when he moved to Texas. Dr. Melissa believes in educating her clients to promote the wellness and health of their small and large family members. A lifelong horse enthusiast and Arabian horse breeder, Dr. Melissa is a member of AVMA, IVAS/AAVA, Northwest Equine Practitioners Assn., Arabian Horse Assn., Arabian Horse Breeders Assn. of Oregon, American Quarter Horse Assn., and the National Reining Horse Assn. She enjoys trail riding and horse showing, as well as gardening, working outside and reading, and loves raising and training horses.

Mark DePaolo DVM, Pacific Northwest Equine Inc. & TCTC Medical Advisor

Dr. Mark DePaolo grew up in Sherwood, Oregon. He fell in love with horses during a summer camp near Mt. Hood. He was inspired to become a veterinarian after rescuing his first horse from a neglectful neighbor. He wanted to educate owners to help other horses. Dr. Mark earned his undergraduate from Oregon State University in 1991 and his veterinary degrees from Oregon State University and Washington State University in 1994. He worked in mixed practice clinics until he decided to specialize in equine chiropractic and acupuncture, graduating from Colorado State University’s Acupuncture program in 2000. He established his first practice, Pacific Northwest Equine, Inc., and in 2005 focused on inventing new products in holistic care with a new venture, DePaolo Equine Concepts, Inc., a web-based business for owner education in holistic equine wellbeing through nutritional herbal supplements. He lectured at Certified Horsemanship Association Regional Conventions, the Oregon State University student chapter of the American Association of Equine Practitioners, the Oregon State University Horse Program, and Mission Farrier School in Snohomish, WA. He did pro bono chiropractic and acupuncture at TCTC, Forward Stride and RideAble therapeutic riding programs in Oregon then moved to Texas. In 2008 Dr. Mark created Horse Hair Analysis, a revolutionary diagnostic tool for preventative medicine. He now operates his veterinary practice, All Star Equine, out of Pilot Point, offering equine chiropractic, acupuncture, and nutrition evaluation. He has remained a TCTC advisor since 2002, helping resolve unending questions and challenges arising from our diverse herd of aging equines. “The horses we treat keep teaching me and pushing me to learn more all the time,” he says. “Our long- term customer relationships help owners understand their horses’ specific concerns and offer common sense approaches to equine health.”

Our Board of Directors, Medical Advisors, & Managers

Our Board of Directors,
Medical Advisors, & Managers