Triskele Rivers: Cultivating compassion

HOOD RIVER — “Change” the horse was rescued from Terrebonne, Oregon, by an 80-year-old woman who saw him on a truck headed to Mexico. She decided to adopt him before finding Triskele Rivers, a private 33-acre farm in Hood River. Now, it’s where Change calls home.

After acquiring the farm on Highway 35, Carrie Fuentes and co-founder Ann Hansen wanted to create a therapeutic experience for others. The purpose of Triskele Rivers is to help visitors respond to the world around them in a more relaxed way. Offerings include farm visits for parents, children, families, and individuals to learn to tune into the environment, animals, and each other.

It’s one reason Fuentes and Hansen used to have a mentoring program with kids.

“We were seeing kids with depression and anxiety,”  said Fuentes. “They were coming for more mental health support. And we would work with the family. All our values have stayed the same, but we both semi-retired from working with kids individually.”

Though Triskele Rivers no longer offers children’s services as of 2020, Fuentes continues to run the farm as a healing space year round. Visits consist of navigating different energies with animals, therapeutic games, art, talking and slowing down, according to their website.

There are also studio rentals available for a maximum of 12-14 people and can include workshops, retreats, or small gatherings.

“Triskele Rivers is a sacred space to have a different perspective,” said Fuentes. “We really want [the studio rentals] to be a fit for the farm. People who have rented it and do workshops do intuitive [workshops], animal communication, and board retreats to walk around the farm … You can see Mount Hood and Mount Adams, and people can roam the property when they rent it. People do bridal showers and people have had their baby showers.”

Fuentes has a master’s degree in counseling psychology from Lewis and Clark College with an emphasis on children and adolescence. This is where her mental health career began. She went on to work with troubled youth, supporting struggling parents, developing an educational program that gave students more freedom, and running grief groups at Providence Hospice. Hansen is a child development specialist and also has her master’s degree in education (early childhood special education). The two both homeschooled their children, which is how they met.

“We always both had just very alternative ways of thinking about being in the world, and especially with child development with how important play is and slowing down,” said Fuentes. “We recently wanted the message to be in the world to value childhood and value connection.”

She chose a career in mental health and helping children because she believes childhood is a significant stage. “For both Anne and I, I would say we both were just passionate about protecting childhood,” she said. “It was just something that was very important, and I wanted to try and make a difference in helping kids be able to have a holistic and calm childhood that wasn’t so rushed and honoring everyone’s differences.”

Almost all of the animals are given to Triskele Rivers as rescues. There are seven goats, four rabbits, two llamas, three horses, and four cats on the farm. There are also sheep that graze in the summer. The cats were all born at the farm from a feral cat. The llamas are there to watch and guard the sheep in the summer. While Change was rescued, two of the other horses are from a hoarder in Washington. 

“One is interesting, he is a twin — only 1% chance that a twin horse will live,” she said. “His name is Trouble. Took us 5 years to get him neuro. He taught us all a lot,” said Fuentes.

The triskele in Triskele Rivers is a celtic symbol that represents harmony, balance, and movement. The triskel represents the core values of the farm.

“We’re always growing so there’s three spirals that are going that are represented by harmony, balance, and movement, and we’re always expanding ourselves, our psyche or consciousness,” said Fuentes. “It’s just a never-ending journey until we die. Always just driving to grow and understand ourselves and others in a deeper way.”

For more information about Triskele Rivers, visit www.triskelerivers.com.

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Nila Soleimani is a student at the University of Oregon and is interning for Columbia Gorge News remotely from Eugene.