About

ABOUT HORSES SPIRITS HEALING

OUR STAFF

Amanda Tusler

Program Director/Lead Instructor

Bachelors of Science in Therapeutic Riding Instruction and Psychology. She is certified through PATH Int’l and is CPR, First Aid, and AED certified.

Kella Murphy

Development Director

Kella is a Western Montana native with more than a decade of nonprofit experience in the healthcare field. She brings experience across multiple areas of fundraising, program development, implementation, and relationship building. Her passion has always been grounded in work that centers on people and the local community. Although she grew up around ranch life, horses are a newer part of her professional journey. The mission of Horse Spirits Healing aligns deeply with her belief in creating safe spaces and meeting people where they are in life. She is grateful for the opportunity to support veterans, emergency responders, and their loved ones on their path toward healing.

Nikki Hofmann

Instructor

Nikki is a born and raised Wyoming ranch girl who has spent a lifetime with horses. She has ridden on the ranch and trail, shown English and Western, roped a little, started colts, and currently trains and runs her own barrel horses. She comes to HSHI as a retired educator, having spent 30 years teaching and serving as an associate principal and principal.

Jess Allestad

Instructor

Jess discovered her love of horses at a young age and has been riding ever since. She participated in the Stillwater County 4-H horsemanship program, took riding lessons, and owned her first horse by age twelve. As a teenager, she taught riding lessons to neighborhood kids and spent time riding both her family’s horses and those of friends and neighbors. Jess has since worked multiple seasons as a wrangler and trail guide, further developing her horsemanship and love of sharing horses with others.

Jess learned about therapeutic riding at fourteen and knew immediately it was the path she wanted to follow, combining her passion for horses with meaningful, life-changing work. Outside the barn, she is also an artist and singer-songwriter who brings creativity, empathy, and heart to everything she does.