Greetings!
I am trying to think
of how to start my letter to you this week. The words "four
year old sound Standardbred geldings" come to my mind as
I look at my lower arena. Also, "I am sorry - we are full"
when it comes to the droves of horses being referred to our
program recently.
SRF in New Jersey and I had a great talk a couple of weeks ago.
It was good to catch up on old times and old horses that I had
assisted in placing in the early 90's... and reassuring to note
that they, too, are experiencing such heavy numbers of horses
that they cannot accept any horses presently into their adoption
program. The beauty and the disadvantage for SRF is that they
do not have an adoption farm for horses to go to. They rely
heavily on patience of owners placing horses, combined with
their foster farms. I envy the fact, in some respect, that they
do not have a farm at their residence - for obvious reasons
which include people are unable to just drop horses off on a
whim when they are unwanted.... but through it all we know that
there are just too many horses needing homes right now - good,
sound, beautiful, young and old, horses-that-deserve-to-be-loved
horses!
I would like to ask that if anyone is able to step forward to
ship horses, let us know. We are unable to travel all the directions
needed at this point - from Ohio to southern Illinois to Michigan.
If you are able to adventure out and be reimbursed for gas,
let us know!
Our raffle is busy and we realize we only have a little over
one month to get tickets sold. Marisa and I and a handful of
volunteers originally scheduled to be at the Illinois State
Fair and Walker sale have readjusted our ticket-selling quest
and are headed for Wild West Days in Viroqua and the County
Fair. Local exposure is great and it is welcomed by the local
community so we'll go for it! If you plan on attending any county
fairs in Wisconsin, especially where there is harness racing
happening, ask for some tickets to sell there. Great prizes!
Great painting! WE need extra hands so don't be shy!
We would like to offer a hearty "thank you" to Viroqua
Tractor Supply Company for their dedication to our organization
this past week. They invited us to be present with horses for
three days, and they also donated 10% of feed sales to us and
invited us back for Labor Day weekend for their Grand Opening.
After 11 years in this area, a company such as this seemingly
dropped out of the sky and called us, set round pens up, an
offered donations to us because of our mission to help the horses.
This is more than any other retail business in our area, including
our own feed company which gets a huge per centage of our expenditure
budget, has ever done and we owe them much gratitude! Kathy
and Tammy at TSC - "We love ya!"....
Also thanks to Absorbine Products and Lynn Cochrane for their
recent donation of two boxes of fly masks. I think each box
contained at least 50 fly masks, so we thank you for these!
If you make a donation to ASAP this month of $25 or more, we
will personally mail you a fly mask for your contribution.
We are on the lookout for a cart for lessons for the kids that
come. This past week there were five more new faces that came
out to ASAP, and one student will be starting their CHAMP program
through the Standardbred Equestrian Program shortly. This is
possible from a donation from Barb and Scott Edwards of Michigan,
and we also want to personally thank them for caring for the
children that come. On Wednesday we will host three adolescents
currently in foster care for horsemanship instruction, and this
weekend we will have another student out to the farm. This is
what it's all about! IN the meantime, I am attempting to write
some grants, and meet tomorrow with the bank to finalize our
plans for our indoor riding arena which will be in before winter.
WE are presently looking for someone with a trencher who would
be willing to donate time and equipment to dig water lines for
some Nelson Waterers. I cannot imagine ONE MORE WINTER DRAGGING
AROUND THAT BIG HOSE!!!!
Cherie (17) is in Cheerleading and Jordan (15) is now beginning
football. Zachary is still catching big fish on the mighty Mississippi,
and Rachel loves her five week old kittens. They were along
three days last week at Tractor Supply Company to help show
horses, and some cute pictures will show Rachel on Scout! Brookview
Snag got to tag along for a day and Janimal and Randy too, along
with the minis Scout and April who are always a big hit wherever
they go! We have been doing respite care and some pre-placement
visits for my new career as Treatment Foster Care provider -
no placements yet, so I am getting a bit "antsy"............but
know kids that need us will be sent when the time is right!
In the meantime, the housework and laundry never seem to be
done, and evenings still find me more outside playing until
sundown and Craig more inside fixing supper - a trend I had
hoped to reverse when I quit teaching. Sigh... I am a work in
progress!!!
Mayatuk is much more quiet and non-vocal than Wolfie ever was,
but his resemblance to Wolfie is growing more with each passing
day. Before long it will be a year since Wolfie died, but I
am comforted in knowing that all of our most beloved creatures
live on through us. Mayatuk is a happy, well-adjusted wolf hybrid
who is happy to greet all who come to ASAP - Cookie and Tina
and Magnum and Blue are as spoiled as ever, and Raffi is recovering
from his pelvic fracture well, and is walking again! We have
much to be thankful for each and every day!
Duck Egg, Black Hills, Wildcat - riding has been plentiful this
summer and we still look forward to riding Yellow River in Iowa
and the Kickapoo Valley Reserve before the frost hits... hoping
you can join us at Yellow River in September for our second
benefit trail ride - start collecting those pledges now!!! Prizes
for most pledge money collected.
I want to thank Adrienne and Kathleen DeMaster, and Koryn Everson
for taking time out of their week to travel from Trempealeau
to Viroqua two days for the Tractor Supply Company event. Kathleen
drove her adopted Standarbred, Broderick, around the TSC parking
lot! Thank you to Mary Edwards, Marisa, Barb and Scott Edwards,
Kim Larson, Shawn and Kristi, Kim C., Linda B., Terry and Katie,
the Goodwins, Susan L., and all others who are currently fostering
horses for ASAP...........without you it would be impossible
to accommodate all in need!
Until Next Time,
Susan
