From September 2010:

Dear HHF Members and Friends,

The Foundation School will be closed from September 17th through the 24th while Allen and Maryann take a well deserved vacation after an extremely busy summer.

All four classes for each student for the month will still be held, with the first two days on next Monday and Tuesday in August, and the remainder made up at the first of October.

Stable rats are still expected to report for their volunteer assignments that week as I will be staying at the farm and will need all the help I can get.  

When you visit the farm in September, there will be several new horses to meet, and more will be arriving during the month.  This is the beginning of an expansion program of our resident herd of rescued horses necessitated by the ongoing crisis in so many needing new homes due to the country's economy.

Although Allen has played matchmaker for dozens of horses needing rehoming and their new owners over the past two years, there are some that have been on our waiting list so long we must find ways to accommodate them now.

As you may recall, when we moved to Harmony Farm in 2005 and built our new stable, the rescue herd had never numbered more than 16 horses and we thought the new 20-stall barn would be adequate for the future.  The economy has changed this dramatically in the past few years, however, and at present there are 27 horses under the Foundation's permanent care and living out their lives in safety, comfort and dignity.

This has been made possible by good neighbors who provide space on their surrounding farms and also our network of qualified foster homes in which some of our rescued horses are kept year round.

The Board will meet in September to finalize our new business plan to insure that these new additions will receive the same loving care and keep that we have provided all our horses over the years.  Our goal is to establish the permanent rescue herd at 32 horses, allowing us to save the lives of five more immediately.  We will always be full, because when one of our older horses crosses the Rainbow Bridge, another from our waiting list immediately takes its place.

Our newest arrival is Rain, who comes to us from Second Chance Ranch in Elma, another nonprofit equine rescue specializing in Off the Track Thoroughbreds (OTTBs). Allen and Maryann's friend Katie Merwick, who has been saving these beautiful horses for over 20 years, has an overcrowding problem at her own sanctuary at the moment, and we are helping her to the best of our ability to alleviate this.

A second horse, another of Katie's OTTBs that has been in foster, will arrive soon.  In addition, two more horses will arrive in early September and another two towards the end of the month. 

Another item on the September Board agenda will be a complete review of the Foundation's policy toward participating in the various schooling shows as we have in the past year.

This activity has given our students an opportunity to showcase their skills, and to Allen's delight demonstrate to the equine community in the county that all too often horses that need rescue have plenty to offer once they have been rehabilitated and are receiving proper care. 

Quite simply, our students riding these horses no one wanted have kicked butt at these shows, as the double string of ribbons across the front of the stable so vividly demonstrate.  Maryann and Julie have done a wonderful job of both preparing our students and horses and facilitating participation in these shows.

However, it is now time to review our experience over the past year and establish policy that will allow us to continue this activity.  We want to make the opportunity available to all of our students who express a desire and are willing to make the commitment necessary to earn the right. 

This commitment, of course, is the willingness to help do the hard work of caring for the horses at the farm.  As Allen says over and over again, riding is what we do to the horses; their care and keep are what we do for them.  At Horse Harbor that will always be our priority.

More on this in my October message, but now let me wish all our young students a happy start of the school year next week.

Sincerely,

Emily Meyer

President of the Board of Directors