Serena Kirby, Denmark Bulletin

This year’s senior citizen of the year, Louise Swan, has put her love of horses to good use since retiring and moving to Denmark nearly a decade ago.

Louise said horses had been her passion since she was five years old and when she discovered there was a local HorsePower centre, she wasted no time in volunteering to help.

HorsePower provides equineassisted therapies for people with physical, intellectual and social challenges to help empower them to discover new abilities.

Running the program requires extensive coordination of volunteers, training, fundraising, committee meetings, coaches and horses as well as riders of all abilities.

Louise had previously held a high-pressure job working as executive assistant for the president of Australia’s largest mining company and had a wealth of experience in administration.

She’s now HorsePower’s secretary and coordinator of volunteers and spends dozens of hours every week ensuring that the vital service runs smoothly.

“My husband would say I spend 40 hours a week at Horsepower but I’d say it’s a bit less than that,” Louise says.

“When I first started helping at HorsePower all the administration was in paper format and I’ve digitised most of it now so it can be easily passed on to someone else if and when needed.”

Coordination of the nearly 30 volunteers and 12 participants is a big task and, as the only centre in Great Southern offering this kind of service, demand constantly outstrips availability.

There are more than a dozen people on the waiting list.

Albany’s HorsePower closed many years ago and the Plantagenet centre has also closed recently due to a lack of volunteers which Louise says highlights the importance of volunteering.

The centre’s horses also need constant attention so Louise is regularly out in the paddocks feeding, grooming and providing general care of the animals.

The Denmark Historical Society is another organisation that’s benefited from Louise’s skills and Louise says history has also been a long-term interest of hers.

She assists with various administrative tasks but says it’s the transcribing of oral histories that she finds the most rewarding.

“There’s hundreds of audio recordings and to literally hear people’s life stories in their own voices is just so beautiful,” Louise says.

Louise said she got enormous satisfaction out of volunteering and encouraged everyone to give it a try and see where it took them.  

This article appeared in the  Denmark Bulletin, 13 June 2024.