Murder mystery dinner fundraiser will help horse therapy program in Poway

Enjoy solving murder mysteries à la Agatha Christie? Then “One, Two, Three. Look It’s Me!” in Poway could be for you.

Eight performances of the interactive murder mystery dinner event will be held at 5:45 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays from Sept. 24 through Oct. 16.

The show are a fundraiser for the nonprofit Huufprints Riding Therapy & Rescue Stables, which has been in Poway since 2009. Many of the riding students in Huufprints’ therapy program have autism, disabilities such as cerebral palsy or emotional issues due to bullying and personal circumstances, including being in the foster care system, said owner Tammie Joyce.

“We’ve seen amazing breakthroughs with these kids, seen the benefit coming through,” Joyce said, explaining there is a connection between a horses’ calm movements and the rider that creates beneficial physical changes.

Fundraiser organizer Caroline Grondin — who wrote, directed and produced the improv show — said her goal is to raise $5,000 for Huufprints so it can complete some major repairs to the facility.

The shows, geared toward adults, are limited to 30 attendees per performance. Each show is about 2 1/2 hours, Grondin said. Attendees will park at Mount Olive Lutheran Church at 14280 Poway Road, then be shuttled to the nearby home where the outdoor event takes place.

Tickets are $88 per person, which includes the show and dinner. Menu options are chicken piccata, sea bass or Greek salad from Mainstream Bar & Grill in Poway. Buy tickets at OurBackyardPresents.com.

In “One, Two, Three. Look It’s Me!,” for the past 10 years the world’s most famous concert pianists have been murdered, and Imogene Prancer (played by Kimberly Justice) realizes she could be next. That spurs her to try identifying the killer during an intimate dinner among friends. Among the characters to be introduced are the groundskeeper and chief inspector (both played by Keith Duell), gypsy (also played by Justice), housekeeper (Laura Nguyen) and grave wanderer (Elijah Moore).

“It is comedic fun ... with slapstick improv,” Grondin said.

Huufprints Riding Therapy & Rescue Stables owner Tammie Joyce with one of her horses.

(Maria Grondin)

She said she got the idea for the fundraiser after she was introduced to Joyce through a mutual friend and learned more about Huufprints’ rescue and therapy programs.

Huufprints began in 2009 as a summer job for Joyce’s then 15-year-old daughter, Danielle, who started giving horseback riding lessons with the family’s three horses. The stables are a couple blocks from Garden Road, near the Poway Grade, and riders were taken onto Poway trails. The lessons proved so popular that the Joyce family decided to turn them into a family business that also included younger daughter Sydnie.

In addition to riding lessons, they provided educational programs for Girl Scout troops, homeschool programs and other groups, Joyce said.

A couple years later a child with cerebral palsy started taking lessons, which is when the therapy program began, Joyce said. By then, her daughter Danielle was completing a two-year certification program in dressage training and equine massage at Meredith Manor in West Virginia.

Joyce said the therapy program has gained new students through word of mouth from families who have seen positive changes in their children’s physical and emotional well-being. Huufprints has a Facebook page, but no website due to the cost.

One student who experienced seizures saw a decrease in them after the riding lessons, she said. Some children with autism who were non-verbal started talking and another who struggled with a stutter when speaking vastly improved, she said.

Huufprints, a state-registered 501c3 nonprofit, never turns away students if their families’ financial situation changes due to job loss or other circumstances, Joyce said. Students have helped out at the stables to “pay” for their lessons, and in other cases donors have provided scholarships to cover the 30-minute or hour-long weekly lessons.

“We never turn away a child,” she said.

During the pandemic, some of the program’s 27 students came more frequently than their traditional weekly lessons because horseback riding was one of the few activities they could do, Joyce said.

Huufprints, which started with the family’s three horses, now has five horses plus a mini horse, with the newcomers being rescues. Rescued horses in the program must come fully trained, Joyce said.

Students learn to work and care for the horses using “natural horsemanship heeding” techniques, she explained.

As for the fundraiser, Joyce said it will “make a huge dent” in Huufprints’ equipment and facility repair needs.

To buy event tickets go to OurBackyardPresents.com. For information on Huufprints’ riding programs, call 858-371-1652.