Olympic equestrian Kathy Kusner will join NFL quarterback Drew Bledsoe and Track and Field legend Louis Zamperini for the 2005 Class of Inductees into the World Sports Humanitarian Hall of Fame. These three world-class athletes will be enshrined into this unique Hall of Fame for utilizing their platform of sports to make positive changes in the world.

Watts in South Central Los Angeles, is a low-income community where there is a strong presence of drug activity and gang violence. Unfortunately, violence is an everyday occurrence for a lot of children. Many have witnessed violent acts and some have lost parents, relatives and friends, and at times many have feared for their own lives.

Kusner's “Horses in the Hood” program is located in the Watts district in Los Angeles and is teaching responsibility and discipline to troubled youth utilizing horses as her tool. Kusner won the European Show Jumping title in 1967, rode in two Pan American Games and three Olympic games, medalling three times. After retiring from active equestrian competition, she became qualified to fly Lear Jets, became an accomplished scuba diver and took up running marathons. In May 2005, she will compete in Prague, Czechoslovakia at one of Europe’s most competitive marathons.

A genuinely compassionate person, Kusner is well known in the horse community for the help and comfort she has brought to those afflicted, addicted and terminally ill. Horses in the Hood is Kusner's creation. Her knowledge of horses has formed a philosophy that says that when dehumanizing conditions destroy a person’s trust in human relations, relating to an animal is one way to restore hope and a sense of purpose. Gently caring for horses can significantly ease some of the most vicious consequences of poverty.

Horses in the Hood encompasses an enclosed barn, arenas for riding, pony ring for beginners, a park area where neighbors can picnic and watch lessons, and a community room that serves as a center for local educational instruction. But Kusner says that Horses in the Hood is also about healing wounds and taking anxieties away for a time while riding and caring for a horse. She has taken the program into the most blighted area of Los Angeles and is giving scores of young people an opportunity to not only acquire horse-related skills, but to enhance their image and self esteem.

Though most people away from the world of horses will not know Kusner, after she is inducted into the World Sports Humanitarian Hall of Fame, awareness of her extraordinary humanitarian efforts will multiply and her deeds of helping others will magnify and become a role model of a person who is making the world a better place to live.

For more information on Horses in the Hood, click here. for more information on kusner, click here.

the mission of the world sports humanitarian hall of fame is to showcase athletes who have creative humanitarian stories. often their efforts go unnoticed. but at the award’s dinner, their efforts will be front and center. the 2005 enshrinees are making a huge, positive impact in their world and doing what they can to return dignity to sport and restore our faith in humanity.

the gala award’s dinner is scheduled for june 2 at 7 p.m. at boise’s centre on the grove and will be hosted by local radio and television personality, tom scott. tickets are available at the world sports humanitarian hall of fame office at (208) 343-7224 or by e-mail at [email protected].
~~~ href="">here. for more information on kusner, click here.

the mission of the world sports humanitarian hall of fame is to showcase athletes who have creative humanitarian stories. often their efforts go unnoticed. but at the award’s dinner, their efforts will be front and center. the 2005 enshrinees are making a huge, positive impact in their world and doing what they can to return dignity to sport and restore our faith in humanity.

the gala award’s dinner is scheduled for june 2 at 7 p.m. at boise’s centre on the grove and will be hosted by local radio and television personality, tom scott. tickets are available at the world sports humanitarian hall of fame office at (208) 343-7224 or by e-mail at [email protected].
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