Today we’d like to introduce you to Eric Lindh.
Hi Eric, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
Born and raised in Dallas, I’ve always been drawn to helping professions. While my original plan was to pursue a career in medicine, I ultimately found my sense of call and purpose in nonprofit leadership. After college, I spent a year living in South London, working with children and youth from under-resourced communities, an experience that deeply shaped my professional direction.
I returned to Dallas to work as a middle-school teacher at the Shelton School, supporting students with learning differences, and later earned a master’s degree in business and nonprofit arts administration at the University of Wisconsin. That led me back to Dallas to serve as executive director of Project Transformation, a faith-based nonprofit focused on youth development and leadership formation. Over time, I helped grow the organization locally and then nationally, eventually serving as national CEO and scaling the program across the country.
After nearly a decade in that role, I felt called to a new chapter. Around that time, a friend encouraged me to explore the CEO opportunity at Equest. While I have always been an animal lover, the world of equine-assisted services was fairly new to me. However, after visiting the program in person and seeing the life-changing impact that horses can have on individuals with diverse needs, I was hooked. For the past year and a half, it’s been an honor and privilege to lead Equest alongside an extraordinary team of staff, volunteers, and partners.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
There’s a quote that has always stuck with me, which says, “Life’s an adventure, not a guided tour.” While the journey that brought me here has not always been easy, it has never been boring! Leading nonprofit organizations is an adventure, but it also means living with a constant pressure to secure sufficient funding to advance the mission. Doing this amidst economic uncertainty, a global pandemic, and rising costs has definitely been a challenge at times. That said, this work has always been worth it. At Equest, seeing the tangible, life-changing impact of the human-horse connection motivates me to push through whatever challenges arise.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I serve as the CEO of Equest, a therapeutic riding center in Dallas. Our mission is to enhance the quality of life for children and adults with diverse needs by partnering with horses to bring hope and healing. Equest was the first therapeutic riding center in Texas and remains one of the largest and most respected in the country. We partner with specially-trained horses to provide physical and occupational therapy, therapeutic horsemanship, mental health counseling, and a variety of other equine-assisted services to clients with over 100 different physical, cognitive, and developmental diagnoses. We also serve the veteran community free of charge.
Clients come to Equest looking for hope and healing. They face challenges most of us will never know, but the result of the human-horse interaction is life-changing. This is a place where a child who rolls through our doors in a wheelchair progresses to taking their first steps; where an individual on the autism spectrum learns to communicate more effectively and regulate their emotions; and where veterans, facing PTSD and re-entry challenges, find peace and a renewed sense of purpose. This all happens through the power of the horse and their ability to connect deeply to us as humans.
What sets Equest apart is both the breadth of innovative programs we offer and the deep sense of community that exists here. Creating a culture of belonging and inclusion for our clients, families, staff, volunteers, and supporters is part of our DNA.
We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you?
I have had my fair share of good and bad luck during my career, but I believe what matters most is how you respond and adapt. On the side of good fortune, it might be meeting the right people at the right time or having a donor unexpectedly step forward just when the need was greatest. When those moments happen, I am definitely grateful for them, but I also believe that good luck tends to follow hard work, humility, and continuous learning. A former board chair once reminded me that “hope is not a strategy,” and that lesson has stayed with me. I try to focus on what’s within my control, while staying ready to act when opportunity arises. At Equest, by staying mission-focused and investing in relationships, we’re better positioned to seize opportunities and to weather inevitable storms.
Ultimately, the greatest “good luck” of my career has been the people I’ve had the privilege to work alongside. The team at Equest is second to none, and I’m so lucky to have the opportunity to work with them.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.equest.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/equest/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Equest1981/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/equest-horsemanship/
Image Credits
courtesy of Equest
