Shine on.

I have been finding myself growing increasingly frustrated with not being able to bring the ponies to events around the area. I do not have the use of a truck and trailer and as much as I'd like to, it's financially unrealistic right now. Of course, what I find very common with myself is once I start down the Path of Frustration I tend to find it very difficult to leave it behind. I signed on with Personal Ponies because I wanted to make a difference. Of course, I am a highly motivated, forward thinking, letsgetitdonerightnow type of person. This doesn't always work well with whatever it is I'm trying to accomplish. Patience is a virtue and I can be a patient person. Once or twice a year, anyway. :)

I love these ponies. I love that Doodle is my alarm clock, hollering for his breakfast. Who needs a rooster? I love Bette and her sweet patience. I love Maggie for her pseudo "tough girl" attitude when I know she's probably more like me than any of the other ponies. Who couldn't love Dandy? She is the ideal momma. Gentle, sweet and very forgiving. Brandy? Well, at 2 months old she's certainly a big hit with everyone here at the farm. Believe it or not, she's also the boss at feeding time.

And my kids? Haley and her high fives and big hugs, what's not to love? Noah, Anna and Matt? Anna at barely 2 loves to brush Bette, Noah is in awe of Doodle. Matt is going to be quite the horse person, he already has more horse sense than a lot of adults I know. Sweet Megan K. likes to talk about school and has the biggest, most beautiful eyes I've ever seen. Matt and Megan D. are fearless and two of the best brushers we have here at the farm. Katie and Bryan are enthusiastic, always ready to pitch in and help. Rachel is a wonderfully happy and horse crazy girl that we'd love to keep. Tom and Erin are new to the farm, but I can tell they fit in just fine. And of course there are Kaitlyn and Mackenzie. This farm just wouldn't be able to run without the both of them.

Ah. So these are my reasons for staying on track, to keep the faith and to be inspired.

Rally!

I sent this email out today:

Happy Summer!

I hope this email finds you & yours all in good health and spirits! I'm writing you because you are either a volunteer for Personal Ponies, have a child with a Personal Pony, or you have done something wonderful to support our organization.

Thank you for all you've done! It is because of your interest and support that we can provide children with their own pony to hug on, to love, to grow with. As you may know, Personal Ponies is 100% run and supported by the volunteers. If you've been to my farm (and I know most of you have) you've most likely met Kaitlyn Dearth, Mackenzie Zahara and Paula Weinberg. The four of us have worked with many of your children and while I can't speak for Kaitlyn, Mackenzie and Paula I know that we've been touched by the affections showered upon us (and our ponies) during the visits. It is because of those three ladies that I've been able to maintain some semblance of sanity not to mention keep a full time job!

We need your help!

In order to continue to provide this rare and cherished resource to our community we need to work on our publicity and to bring some much needed donations to our organization. If each of you helped to target one corporation, one local business, one horse supply store (etc.) and wrote a letter that is such priceless, beneficial attention toward Personal Ponies.

Any donation is completely tax deductible. Furthermore, cash donations can be delegated to a particular part of our organization. We can also take donations from local feed stores, tack stores for supplies like wormer or even hardware stores to help with supplies to mend fences. There are donation programs for the national level as well to help us set up our hard working retirement ponies, to import new stock, etc.

Every little bit helps. No cash? Did you know we can take donations via credit card? We take payments via Paypal. Just click the Visa/Mastercard logo to the right of this page! Simple! There is also a donation can available for checks or cash in our barn. A few more will hopefully find their way to local retail shops around our town next week.

Want to help more? We have a list of projects to make, bake or otherwise assemble to sell to the public. For each item that gets sold a donation goes back to the program. Got an idea that you think would make a good fundraiser or item for sale? Let's hear it! Do you or your business have goods or a service you'd like to offer for a raffle or a donation? Fantastic! Send them my way! Know a local event you think we should make an appearance at? Get me involved! Good with HTML and code? Our State site needs you!

You can make a difference! I have faith in this program, the people involved in it and of course, who could forget our dear Personal Ponies?

Here we go, watch us grow!

All the best,
-GMH

Two Weeks, Two Foals.

Today Dandy was bred to Doodle.

Assuming both Maggie and Dandy are in foal, we will have 2 foals next year born about 2-2.5 weeks apart. Perfect for foals, since it's so good for them to have playmates their own age! Poor Bette will be so jealous! She'll be the only mare without a young one. Though, she'll have Miss Brandy, being an Auntie is an important job. Bette is getting very gray. I hope that with the warmer weather this week all of the ponies will be done shedding out. Yeah. Right. :)

Kaitlyn and Mackenzie are doing a fantastic job working with Maggie on the lunge line. She's a beautifully gaited little filly. No doubt she likes the work, she responds so well! Doodle needs a reminder every now and again that he needs to listen to the person on the line and not do what he pleases. Such is the mind of a young stallion. He'll get better. I don't expect him to be an angel from the start, he's only 3 after all!