Provide Care for a Differently Able Child's Pony

Although the government insists that our economy is getting back on track and there are more jobs available and unemployment is easing, we have an inside look around the country into the lives of many of our volunteers who have been very much impacted by the poor state of the economy.  What we have seen over the past few months is more and more families that were holding on for the past few years, reach the end of their rope and are more and more in need of assistance.  

Our program is 100 percent volunteer run which means whatever we do is done by volunteers, no big national office or any large bank accounts.  When we have volunteers in need of help and support, we all pitch in anyway we can to help or find new caretakers for our ponies.  Our program is very well rooted in the idea of caring ...caring for each other, our ponies and the children we serve.  

Because we are an aware and savvy group of people, we have been making efforts the past few years to make sure we did less breeding and that our program did not expand at a rate that we could not support.   As a result, we have only had a few foals born this year and our breeding program has been on hold.   We have also found ways to do more fundraising (including this wonderful opportunity through Global Giving) to help with things like buying hay, paying travel costs, vet costs, and other costs associated with making sure our ponies are where they need to be and available to the children that need them.

In the past month or two, several of our long time volunteers needed to move their ponies due to financial challenges.  Some have found temporary homes for them until they are back on their feet and can care for them again and others have found new volunteers to promote the program or new families that were excited to have ponies for their children.  Thanks to our Global Giving contributions we have been able to help as needed.

We appreciate all our your support and want you to know how helpful this has been during this time.

Attached is a wonderful article from one of our volunteers in California who thought she was going to have to give up her ponies.   Enjoy!!

http://www.ocregister.com/news/-301943--.html

Links:

• Article on our volunteer in California