Robbie & Alina

Former Volunteers

Robbie and Alina both joined Little Bit in long-term volunteer roles beginning in 2017, but they had encountered Little Bit first during their youth. Discussing what Little Bit means to them, they shared a few of their favorite memories, of spending time with the riders, seeing them progress from week to week through years of significant growth, and of spending time with similarly spirited horses. “She rode Princess for a while,” Alina recalled of one rider, “and Princess decided she didn’t particularly like to be in her class anymore. And so, for a while we would get off halfway through class and the rider would just hand-walk her through the stuff we were doing. The rider would always end with something like, ‘It’s ok, Princess. Sometimes I don’t want to do stuff either.’ Very understanding.”

Alina’s first memories at Little Bit are of helping with tasks like painting fences with her father during his company’s volunteer workgroup sessions. She still has a tiny Little Bit Volunteer shirt as a memento. “When I came back to Washington from college in San Diego, I knew I wanted to get involved again and in more of a volunteer role and with horses. And I missed horses and it was just kind of a good way to meet people again, because I didn't know very many people in Washington after going to college. . .”

Robbie was procrastinating on a volunteer project as a fifteen-year-old freshman when he begrudgingly agreed to volunteer at Little Bit after being signed up by his mother. “My first shift, I was working a Wednesday night with Jodi. She's barn staff. She was a [horse] leader at that time in that class, so I’ve known her for years. And I just ended up loving it. It was just a different thing. I think I was one of two people in my whole school that was volunteering at Little Bit at the time. I was in Lake Washington School District. I kept doing it after the project was over because I loved it so much.”

When he turned eighteen and graduated, Robbie’s first stint as a volunteer at Little Bit came to an end, but in his early twenties, he signed up again. “It gave me a place to go, instead of doing some other things that I could be doing.” Before long, Robbie found himself getting home and asking, “Where's my next shift at Little Bit? I see there's a shift open on Saturday. I'll take a Saturday shift. I don't work Saturdays. Or hey, once I get off work, there's a shift at 3:00 I can take. I'll take that too. . . It kind of shaped my home life because when I would go home, I wouldn't necessarily be the happiest person. And after Little Bit, I would come home and I would be in a much better mood, albeit tired a lot of the times. It would put me in a good mood for the rest of the week.”

It was in 2017 that both Alina and Robbie returned to Little Bit to volunteer. Robbie started sidewalking in the Adaptive program on Fridays. “And I ended up loving it and started to figure out, you know, hey, how can I commit more? So, I started talking to people and staff members and, well, you could get paddock trained, you could get leader trained. So, I went through with that whole process.” After a few months in these new roles, Robbie took on a second role as a staff class assistant. “It was fantastic getting to interact with volunteers and riders. It shaped my professional life, my family life, my friendships that I held outside work and inside at Little Bit.”

Alina became a volunteer captain within a year, before joining the volunteer training team. “I've always loved teaching and coaching and so being able to be part of the Program Volunteer Training and training new volunteers and then ultimately being able to take on the training of those members, how to train other volunteers, was huge for me . . . And being able to not only just put it on a resume that got me the job I'm in now, but also, I've gotten promoted and I'm in charge of the department and hiring people and so I really thank Little Bit, and [staff member] Dolly specifically, tremendously, for those skills.”

Asked about what he enjoyed most about his involvement at Little Bit, Robbie says, “It's a great place to be. It's super positive. It can be life-changing, even for volunteers, you know, just the life skills and the work skills you can gain. I'm just a warehouse manager but being able to walk into work and knowing I can handle anything that comes my way, pretty much, every day is, you know, just the confidence of being able to deal with people. And Little Bit’s so cool because it's so diverse. And especially as a class assistant, when there’s new volunteers on the schedule, you never know what walk of life this person’s going to be from, and you end up meeting people that are geologists and all sorts of strange stuff that you wouldn't expect to meet at a tack barn at Little Bit. And you get people that are young, people that are older. And you get to work with anybody and everybody and being able to work with all different types of age groups, I think, has really helped me build a successful career and, you know, even the life that I want.”

Robbie and Alina met at Little Bit, were married in 2025, and now live in Idaho.

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