New equine nonprofit will foster healing horsepower

For Jordon Marshelle Barrett, 26, the last year has been a transformative one, so it seems apt that her next big steps — building a cohort for her budding equestrian nonprofit organization — is in the Year of the Horse.

As a young child, Barrett recalls seeing horses and equestrian sports, saying that it had left her astounded. However, when she went into the foster care system, she said she never crossed paths with horses again.

“Foster kids don’t know nothing about this kind of life, the bond with a horse,” said Barrett.

Since aging out of the foster system, horses have since crossed her path, inspiring Barrett to start the M.A.R.S.H.E.L.L.E. Project.

An athletic kid, Barrett ran track and was always playing basketball, but a torn ACL and meniscus in high school left her feeling adrift.

“I had to think of a new plan of life and I had lost my competitive side a little bit. I was in survival mode,” Barrett said, though she was no stranger to being a survivor.

Born in Chicago, Illinois, to a drug-addicted mother, Barrett (whose legal surname is Frelix) was quickly put into the system and adopted to a family as a toddler. The family eventually moved to the Pacific Northwest and, due to a troubled home life, Barrett was placed back into the foster care system as a young teen.

“I was shell-shocked and that was hard for me,” said Barrett, describing Spruce Street Inn in Seattle as the worst foster care group home she had ever been in and “literally like jail.”

Barrett does not shy away from the harsh details of her life, saying that living in the system had made it difficult to keep up with school.

“Everything is locked up and that is why people who are aged out of the system have problems, become strippers or are on drugs. We don’t know what to do,” she said.

At one point, Barrett was taking two or three buses from a foster location just to get to class at Renton High School, which she briefly attended. At 16, she was taken in by her final foster parents Kyle and Everlyn (whom she honors by taking on their last name Barrett), and with the help of the local nonprofit Treehouse, she graduated from Kentridge High School in Kent and was set to attend University of Washington Tacoma at age 19.

However, Barrett had to put college on hold and she found herself still in survival mode, leading to a Borderline Personality Disorder diagnosis.

“This last year I was diagnosed with BPD and that was really hard for me to wrap my head around […] I’ve had a very, very hard life so I’ve deep-dived into therapy,” she said. “I like to be happy, I’m very outgoing, I’m very nice, I like to take care of people, but my emotions become too much for me to deal with so last year, my goal was to figure out what I love.”

Little did she know that a trip to Legends Ranch in Roy, Washington, with her partner Elijah was just the entry fee to her heart’s desire.

“He helped me find this passion for horses,” said Barrett. “We did a retreat for a couple of nights and what made it even better was the last day, when we got to go on a five-mile trail ride through the woods, through nature.”

From that trip, Barrett was inspired, not only to become a horse rider herself. She was inspired to take what she learned about horses and help other foster kids.

“This is one of my dreams and it’s what made me open [the M.A.R.S.H.E.L.L.E. Project]. Horse riding provides therapy and discipline, which kids in the system need,” she said. “Once I do have children in my program, I would feel so successful and pleased with my life because it would help these kids develop healing with a horse and give them something to chase [and] get these kids a good outlet.”

The M.A.R.S.H.E.L.L.E. Project is still in its fundraising stage, but the mission is clear: provide foster children with an after-school space where they are allowed to connect with horses and animals, learn to ride, eat a free meal, have time set aside for homework sessions and counselor sessions, and transportation to the location.

Barrett said that once she has been able to raise enough money, she will partner with the Buffalo Soldiers of Seattle, a nonprofit community outreach organization that teaches history, horsemanship and outdoor skills, who are primarily based at Legends Ranch.

For the M.A.R.S.H.E.L.L.E. Project, Barrett said that they will use the Red Barn Ranch near Auburn, a 40-acre piece of land owned by the City of Seattle.

In partnership with Buffalo Soldiers, EarthCorps, Parents for Student Success, King County Boys and Girls Club, Seattle Public Schools, and other nonprofit partners, the ranch has been dormant, but is currently undergoing major changes, including demolition of old buildings and re-establishment of power and water. Originally owned by NBA star Elgin Baylor, the property was developed with the Seattle Supersonics to create a youth sports camp over 50 years ago.

According to Buffalo Soldiers President Geordan Newbill, once the property is up and going, his organization will work to enhance programming so that more kids can get involved in equestrian activities.

“It’s a greater avenue for that,” he said. “Things like this are usually accessible for rural kids and are private, but not for kids of color or inner-city kids.”

Once the ranch is re-established and funds are raised, Barrett said that she plans to make the organization accessible to foster kids from “Tacoma to Seattle and all the towns throughout there.”

“My hope is that the cohort can start within a year,” she said. “We need to have more unique options for kids in the foster system.”

For more information, visit cascadianow.org/marshelle-project and buffalosoldiersofseattle.com.