Late Spring News

9/13/2022

It’s already mid-May, and spring is FLYING by as our program season ramps up. We’ve been really happy to welcome our COWPOKES ISD kids back for the fiest time since 2019. Their program was canceled due to covid in 2020 and 2021, so we have a lot of new faces out this year, among students, peers, AND volunteers. So far, despite the cold start (we had to push our start date back a week to avoid freezing everyone) all is going very well. Yesterday we were thrilled to welcome out a class of ISD preschoolers on their very first field trip, anywhere! As you can see by the smiles, it was a rousing success - our small visitors played with bubbles, met ponies, horses, Jake the dog, and a few slightly dubious (but good-natured) cats, and generally had a very good time. Our volunteers, young and older, are a lot of what makes this possible. We are blessed with a great group of helpers of all ages, and those numbers - and all those sharp eyes - are what enable us to keep everyone safe while they enjoy themselves.

We continue to search for the RIGHT therapy horse. This year we have a couple of new entrants to our Hoofprints program, and we still need to replace our Shadow, who passed away this winter. If you know of a calm, gentle, healthy horse under 16 years, 15.3 hands or less, preferably within 100 miles of us, who needs a quiet ”retirement job,” please get in touch, either via an email to us at npecmi@gmail.com or a phone call to Mary Van Dorp, our Executive Director, at 231-233-1552. The selected horse will have a friendly herd, lovely pastures, vet and farrier care, and a home for life. Extra points for a slender build, as some of our clients have difficulty gripping round-barreled breeds, but if you’re not sure, get in touch. We promise, no weight- or age-shaming!

This spring also saw our first fundraiser of the year, as four local businesses and several area residents joined us in our first annual Run For The Roses! Designed to coincide with the Kentucky Derby, the Run, lasting only two weeks, culminated on May 7th and earned us $11,500! A HUGE thanks to Authentic 231, Dr. Shrink, MacBeth & Company, Northern Property Maintenance, and the Van Dorp Family for their champion entries, and a further thanks to Construction Design, Inc., MS Creative Services, Inc, and everyone else who supported us through this fundraiser! We could never do what we do without the support of our community.

Our gardens are coming up, and soon our GALLOP, BRONCO and Hoofprints programs will begin. We’re looking forward to a very busy summer, and we wish you all the best - warm weather, sunshine, enough rain to keep everything growing, and lots of happiness!
It’s already mid-May, and spring is FLYING by as our program season ramps up. We’ve been really happy to welcome our COWPOKES ISD kids back for the fiest time since 2019. Their program was canceled due to covid in 2020 and 2021, so we have a lot of new faces out this year, among students, peers, AND volunteers. So far, despite the cold start (we had to push our start date back a week to avoid freezing everyone) all is going very well. Yesterday we were thrilled to welcome out a class of ISD preschoolers on their very first field trip, anywhere! As you can see by the smiles, it was a rousing success - our small visitors played with bubbles, met ponies, horses, Jake the dog, and a few slightly dubious (but good-natured) cats, and generally had a very good time. Our volunteers, young and older, are a lot of what makes this possible. We are blessed with a great group of helpers of all ages, and those numbers - and all those sharp eyes - are what enable us to keep everyone safe while they enjoy themselves.

We continue to search for the RIGHT therapy horse. This year we have a couple of new entrants to our Hoofprints program, and we still need to replace our Shadow, who passed away this winter. If you know of a calm, gentle, healthy horse under 16 years, 15.3 hands or less, preferably within 100 miles of us, who needs a quiet ”retirement job,” please get in touch, either via an email to us at npecmi@gmail.com or a phone call to Mary Van Dorp, our Executive Director, at 231-233-1552. The selected horse will have a friendly herd, lovely pastures, vet and farrier care, and a home for life. Extra points for a slender build, as some of our clients have difficulty gripping round-barreled breeds, but if you’re not sure, get in touch. We promise, no weight- or age-shaming!

This spring also saw our first fundraiser of the year, as four local businesses and several area residents joined us in our first annual Run For The Roses! Designed to coincide with the Kentucky Derby, the Run, lasting only two weeks, culminated on May 7th and earned us $11,500! A HUGE thanks to Authentic 231, Dr. Shrink, MacBeth & Company, Northern Property Maintenance, and the Van Dorp Family for their champion entries, and a further thanks to Construction Design, Inc., MS Creative Services, Inc, and everyone else who supported us through this fundraiser! We could never do what we do without the support of our community.

Our gardens are coming up, and soon our GALLOP, BRONCO and Hoofprints programs will begin. We’re looking forward to a very busy summer, and we wish you all the best - warm weather, sunshine, enough rain to keep everything growing, and lots of happiness!