Whenever things are looking bleak, Jody Jaffe turns to horses. Whether she was using them as therapy to inspire recovery from her own head injury, or finding comfort by inhaling their smell while leaning into a warm, soft neck during a family emergency, horses have given her many gifts.

“I either ride them, draw them or write about them,” she said.

And when the 63-year-old equestrian murder mystery author and journalist was looking for some way, any way to help defeat a debilitating disease that was affecting her child, she turned to horses once again.