March 2022

HwH is the Premier Accredited Center in Northern Arizona

Harnessing the proven benefits of therapeutic horsemanship, Horses with Heart (HwH) helps transform the lives of disabled children and adults—including U.S. military veterans—as they gain confidence, dignity and independence by riding our trained horses under the direction of highly-credentialed staff.

Horse of the Month ~ A New Addition to Our Herd

Shelby is a 21-year young Mustang mare about 14 hands tall and is a bay tobiano pinto. She was rescued from a Texas kill pen by a kind-hearted woman in Gilbert. After Shelby was healthy, she has been in training to prepare her for a new life. She occupies a stall in our barn and is often out seeking attention of any passerby. Over the next few weeks, she will be introduced to life at Horses with Heart.

“Will You Be My Sponsor?”

HwH is blessed with sponsors for several of our horses. This is an enormous blessing with today’s horse care costs. However, the HwH staff has noticed the horses with sponsors are teasing the horses without sponsors which makes them very sad. Please consider sponsoring one of the remaining horses or ponies and brightening their day. Horse sponsors are $500 per session. Ponies are $250 per session.

Those needing sponsors:

Horses:
Big Ben (for sessions 3 & 4), Brownie (all 4 sessions), Chili (all 4 sessions), Diva (sessions 3 & 4), Jewel (all 4 sessions), Remedy (all 4 sessions), Son (sessions 2, 3, 4), Sunshine (sessions 3 & 4)

Ponies:
Jazz (all 4 sessions), Lil Blackie (sessions 2, 3, 4), Sam (all 4 sessions)

Please contact Angelique LeVell if you would like to sponsor one or more of these wonderful ponies and horses. Contact info: hwhexecdir@gmail.com or 928-533-9178.

Extensive Improvements Around the Ranch!

Wow, so much has happened since our last newsletter! Our horses now have partially enclosed shelters for protection from the wind and weather. Grading of our parking lot is complete and gravel added, slope changes made in the horse pens and back turnout to direct water into a ditch taking it to the retention pond. A French drain has been installed in front of the horse pens to minimize the mud, and we have electricity in the barn. In case that’s not enough, the new box on the manure trailer is complete, and life just got easier for our muckers - no more heaving of buckets over the side of the trailer; we’ve installed a ramp into the trailer.

Welcome New and Returning Volunteers!!!

Horses with Heart hosted two Volunteer Orientations and Trainings the last two Saturdays in February. We are excited to announce that we had over 125 new and returning volunteers attend. These orientations and trainings provide our volunteers with not only information about Horses with Heart and its programs, but they prepare our volunteers for safety at the ranch, training for working with our participants and horses, and a chance to get to know many wonderful people who want to serve.
We thank everyone who attended and look forward to seeing you step into your volunteer roles at the ranch. Staff and mentor volunteers are available to help guide those who are new. If you will be volunteering in our therapeutic riding classes and have questions, please contact Jan Grise at hwhprograms@gmail.com or 928-308-1353. If you would like to help with mucking and feeding, please contact Deborah Thomas at dtswwalkabout@yahoo.com or 306-720-3467. All other volunteering questions can be directed to Carol Gora at hwhvolcoord@gmail.com or 928-533-9178. See you soon!!!

2022 Riding Season Begins This Month

Our volunteers do so much to get ready for the start of classes each year. Every horse has to be fitted or re-fitted with saddles (both western and English), tack needs to be cleaned, horses need to be exercised and schooled to get ready for classes. It is a busy place every day leading up to the first day of classes.

Horses with Heart offers Therapeutic Riding lessons, Veterans and First Responders classes, Competition Team practices, and Silver Saddle classes from March to mid-November. Although we have closed registration for Session 1 classes, we have 3 remaining Sessions this year. Please contact Assistant Riding Director, Sherry Hoover, for more information or to enroll for Sessions 2, 3 or 4. Sherry can be reached at sherryhwh@gmail.com or 928-533-9178.

Volunteer of the Month ~ Chris Kavanaugh

Chris is a rider in the HwH Competition Team and also in Therapeutic Riding. This is not all! He is an active volunteer at HwH. He is so faithful in his service to our organization. He helps at the Happy Hearts Rodeo each year. He mucks stalls and fills water tanks. He is an expert at shredding old documents, vacuuming the office, stocking the refrigerator with water, and chasing down those nasty tumbleweeds and disposing of them in our dumpster. Chris is now in charge of keeping the Rose Shed (formerly the Volunteer Shed) clean and in order. He has cleaned and polished all of the boots and tidied up the shed’s interior in preparation for this new riding season. Be sure to thank him this month for his wonderful contributions to HwH!

Q & A

1. How long have you been with Horses with Heart? Since August of 2019
   

2. Why do you volunteer at Horses with Heart? I like working with people. Horses with Heart is a good place to meet good people! I like to help out with jobs it makes me feel that I have accomplished my goal.
   

3. What is your favorite memory or moment at Horses with Heart? I have a lot of good memories: Hanging out with Maureen, Funbucks auctions, Bowl-a-Thons, all the get togethers, the Barn project, meeting new people, making friends, and getting to ride and take care of horses.
   

4. If you could share one thing with new volunteers, what would that be? It’s an Awesome place to volunteer! So, sign up and come help out!

Welcome to HwH Staff

We are pleased to announce that Dustin Corder, who likes to be called Dusty, has taken the position of Stable Hand. He is responsible for am and pm feedings/mucking/checking water buckets, five days a week.

ADDITIONAL HELP WANTED

Although we have a 5-day per week staff person, we will still need people who are interested in volunteering for a single shift or to be on an emergency fill-in/on-call list. If you or someone you know are interested in helping with this much needed duty, please contact Deborah Thomas 306-720-3467 or dtswwalkabout@yahoo.com.

Arizona Charitable Tax Credit Program

Do you owe Arizona state tax? Did you know that you can direct your Arizona tax dollars to Horses with Heart? HwH is a qualifying charitable organization. Under AZ Charitable Tax Credit Law, ARS 43-1088, state taxpayers can earn up to $800 (married couples) or $400 (singles) in dollar-for-dollar tax credit for donations made to HwH. (QCO code 20347)

We encourage you to make your donations on or before the deadline of April 18, 2022. Stop by Horses with Heart with your donation, or mail your donation to Horses with Heart, PO Box 2427, Chino Valley, AZ 86323. Questions? Call our office at 928-533-9178.

We thank the many who use the tax credit program to benefit Horses with Heart. These funds are used immediately in our programs serving those with special needs – children and adults, Veterans and First Responders, and seniors.

19th Annual Bowl-A-Thon Was a Success!

We had 63 bowlers and 25 raffle items. The Dooney and Bourke handbag and the Whiskey Pete bag of goodies including a Charlie 1 Horse hat were the most sought-after raffle items this year.

Thanks to all those who went out and got pledges and to those who graciously donated items to the raffle. A huge shout out to Janice Shanks for all her hard work gathering the raffle items and organizing them for display.

Congratulations to our pledge winners! For the category under 18 yrs. of age, Sutton and Landry King were the winners. They raised $5543.00. The adult winners were Chris Kavanaugh, who raised $2,173.00, and Baylee Owens, who brought in $980, beating her brother Jeremy, by $20. Over $12,000.00 was raised in pledges this year. Thank you pledge gatherers!!!

Thank you to all who participated by raising pledges, buying raffle tickets, and for all those coming to bowl at the event.

Volunteer Time Cards

Keeping track of your volunteer hours is vital for Horses with Heart, our non-profit organization. HwH has the opportunity to receive grants that are based on how many hours our volunteers give each year. This is why each volunteer needs to track his/her hours each time they volunteer at HwH. (There are other benefits, too!)

We are using Wranglr, a volunteer software program, to clock in and clock out each time a person volunteers. Wranglr also is set up to have volunteers “sign up” for horse and barn-related duties such as lunch feeding, mucking, and watering. If you haven’t logged onto Wranglr yet or need to learn how to use the program, we are organizing volunteers to help you with inputting your hours into Wranglr. Keep an eye out for the days and times mentoring will be available for everyone!

Horsey Hours!

Here at Horse with Heart we appreciate our volunteers! One of the ways we like to show our appreciation is a fun event called Horsey Hours. Twice a year we have a luncheon where volunteers can bid on wonderful items that have been donated or purchased for HwH. The amount of “money” or Horsey Hours you have to spend will be determined by how many volunteer hours you have entered into Wranglr. The more you volunteer, the more you have to spend!

National Snaffle Bit Association (NSBA) Heroes on Horses – March 9th

On March 8th, Jackie Boyd and Kris Vollrath, two of our Veterans who ride and volunteer with Horses with Heart, are going to Westworld to be a part of the Arizona Sun Circuit and NSBA’s Heroes on Horses. They will have the opportunity to attend the Heroes on Horses Bootcamp where they will be receiving riding tips from the pros. Afterwards, they will attend a special welcome dinner in their honor.

On March 9th, many special events are being held. At 11:00 am, an outdoor luncheon will be held ringside at the Equine Chronicle Arena hosted by NSBA’s Chris Lagerblade and her company LHM Financial. At 11:30 am, the Parade of Heroes will be held in the Equine Chronicle Arena. Several of our Veteran volunteers will be participating; carrying flags in honor of our nation’s heroes. The Heroes on Horses Western Pleasure competition classes will then follow.

We invite our HwH volunteers, friends and family to come to cheer on our Veterans at the NSBA event on March 9th.

Presented as a special project of the NSBA Foundation, the three-day workshop included instruction in the classroom and on-site at Ryan Cottingim Show Horses, in Shelbyville, TN. Twenty-eight participants from 10 states attended the three-day event.

The Coaches Summit is designed as a professional development workshop for equine industry professionals, therapeutic riding center coaches, and staff to explore opportunities for engagement and expansion of current or new riding programs.

Instruction revolved around the inclusion competition for Equestrians with Disabilities or Veterans using horses as a form of therapeutic riding, but also included was grant writing, fundraising, strategies for building industry networks and open discussion panels for each. Certified Professionals received continuing education credits for attending the Coaches Summit as outlined in their certification requirements.

The workshop was funded in part by Curt and Beth Hartman and the Dan & Stephanie Janis Family.

NSBA’s Equestrians with Disabilities and Heroes on Horses provides a competitive platform for independent and supported riders to participate in and compliment the work of PATH Intl. The programs are open to any age rider in Western and English disciplines. The Heroes on Horses and Equestrians with Disabilities are two of five programs administered by the National Snaffle Bit Foundation, which also include the Animal Welfare Fund, the Trainer Crisis Fund, and the Education Fund.

Operating under a separate board of directors, the NSBA Foundation serves as the charitable arm of the National Snaffle Bit Association and provides funding to support the efforts of the Association through programming specific to the equine industry and the NSBA membership. The NSBA Foundation is a registered 501(c)(3) organization.
For more information, please visit www.nsba.com

In addition to the Coaches’ Summit, Sherry and two others were invited to Middle Tennessee State University’s Equine Science facility, were given a tour, and were able to be guest speakers in the Universities’ Equine Assisted Therapy class.

Our 30-year anniversary is in 2023

Horses with Heart will be marking its 30-year anniversary in 2023! We are forming a planning committee to design a super-duper, totally inspired celebration worthy of this wonderful organization, and we need YOU and your insight and exciting ideas that will make this an event to remember!

If you’re interested in getting in on the ground floor of this committee, please call the office (928-533-9178) or stop in the next time you’re out our way, and let us know you would like to be included in the 30-year Anniversary Planning Committee.

Calendar of Events

• March 5 ~ Competition Team Season begins

• March 7 -11 ~ First week of Session 1 Lessons

• March 9 ~ National Snaffle Bit Association Heroes on Horses Celebration, Westworld, Scottsdale

• March 26, April 23, May 21 ~ CVEP All Breed Horse Shows, Chino Valley Equestrian Park

• April 11-16 ~ Volunteer Appreciation Week

• April 20 ~ Orientation & SST Training

• June 22 ~ Horsey Hours Event (Using Wranglr logged in volunteer hrs.)

• Summer Clinics

  • July 13 ~ Driving Clinic

  • TBD ~ Trailer Driving Clinic

  • TBD ~ Showing Horses Clinic

  • TBD ~ Disability Education Clinic

• July 16 or 23 ~ Orientation & SST Training

• June 30 ~ Happy Hearts Rodeo (Note: Thursday)

• July 2 ~ Frontier Days Parade

• September 14 ~ Orientation & SST Training

• September 24 ~ Have a Heart Barrel Race

• November 12 ~ Sequins and Saddles

• December 6 ~ Horsey Hours Event & Christmas Luncheon

HELP US MAKE A DIFFERENCE FOR OTHERS

From donations to sponsorships to SHOPPING for holidays, birthdays or weddings you can make a difference for others and Horses with Heart.