The Golden Carrot Newsletter's Archive
October 2, 2007
Well, despite a recent newsletter, I’ve got a lot to report. I’ve made changes to the website, and hope you can visit www.thegoldencarrot.org soon to see what’s been going on.
WORKDAY - September 30, 2007 First of all, with the impetus of Debra Duncan of the Tierra del Norte Arabian Horse Association, a work day was scheduled for Sunday, September 30. At first, we seemed to have a pretty large crew of people expressing an interest in attending and helping. As it turned out, however, we had 8 adults, one teenaged girl and two youngsters, ages 7 and 4 for our work crews. We were able to make major repairs to four stalls whose back walls and roof supports were in imminent danger of collapsing; hauled in tons of dirt to fill in holes, and place and interlock what felt like lead stall mats, and make a bunch of miscellaneous repairs to stalls, all of which made the horses more comfortable, and squared away the stalls for the oncoming winter. Please visit the website, and click on the link (half way down the page), to see everyone working and read a little about our work day. A lot of work was accomplished, a lot of materials were donated by our work crews and Kathryn McDonald (sponsor of Mitey and Sunny), but there is more to do. We have the materials now, so if anyone is inspired to help, please let me know and we’ll schedule another day soon to try to bring the roofs and fencelines into better order. Let me acknowledge right now Debra Duncan and Ronn Montoya, Sarah Bancroft and her friends Scott and Susan, and Susan’s daughter Sarah, Laurie Henkel and her kids Eric and Sara, and my neighbor Mike, for making this a productive and enjoyable day. Despite small numbers, in 6 hours these folks really made a big difference! SPONSOR FOR BRUHAD! I’m also happy to report that TDNAHA also, in conjunction with Debra Duncan and Ronn Montoya individually, have been kind enough to sponsor Bruhad, a Polish-bred Arabian gelding who has never had a sponsor before. And in addition to the lumber donated by Debra and Ronn, two more winter blankets and some miscellaneous buckets and feeders were donated as well. This is a wonderful organization, and both I and the horses of the Golden Carrot are grateful for their support, which has been expressed in so many ways. JEEPER’S SPONSOR VISITS Sharla Sanders, who stepped up to provide Jeepers with support here at TGC, was finally able to visit and meet her sponsored horse. He greatly embarrassed me with his outrageous behavior begging for more, and yet MORE, carrots! We had some trouble catching Queenie so she could accompany him out of the main paddock to meet Sharla and spend a little quality time, but he plodded through the field with me until we caught her and then the begging began! Sharla also met Buck, who had been the horse that caught her eye initially, and for some reason, Buck followed her everywhere. I had told him someone was interested in sponsoring him, before the Jeepers thing came up, and I think he knew there was something there - he couldn’t have courted her more assiduously. Sharla left torn - both Jeeps and Buck are personality plus geldings and she, horse lover that she is, couldn’t choose between them. She left us reluctantly, but had to make a visit to CERF - in Winchester, where she is also a sponsor for one of the TBs who reside there. It was great to meet this big-hearted lady and we hope to see her again soon! HALEY DUTCH, a new Angel for TGC I want also to direct you again to the website, either click on the Resources tab, or the link halfway down the page which refers to Haley Shanahan Dutch, a young lady in Tennessee, who generously this year insisted that all of her classmates, friends and family make a donation to TGC in her name, in lieu of birthday presents! Haley earned $315 for TGC - and in honor of her horse Tuxedo, who sort of resembles Happy, I’m going to use that money to support Happy for the rest of this year. This is a wonderful idea - and adults, please consider this. Often people don’t know what to give us for our birthdays - and we end up with a dozen Starbucks cards - how about asking for a donation to TGC instead? Set up an account on the "Please help" link, let people know what the password is, and they can make that donation in an account for you - or just ask them to send money whichever way they can. I can guarantee your birthday money will be put to good use! The Golden Carrot says THANK YOU to Haley and her horse Tuxedo for their terrific idea to help other horses! Finally, I’d like to report that the GoogleGrant ad has really been generating some interest in TGC. Since I set up the tracking system with Neon a year ago, which helps me send out these newsletters and accepts donations, the number of patrons has doubled! And new patrons (welcome each and every one of you!) are all over the country! The hits on the website are at least doubled, and perhaps tripled, and hopefully, this will translate into some additional donations as well. So far, other than our new patrons who have signed up for the newsletters, I’m mostly getting requests for horses (which I can’t meet as I won’t ever again place a horse in a facility I cannot inspect), and many many more requests to take horses. Keep The Golden Carrot horses in your hearts and minds please - the winter is coming. As Sarah B. pointed out, that means feed becomes more crucial, as it’s the first line of defense against the cold. They keep eating .... every day..... and feed continues to be our biggest and neverending need. Your financial support means everything - and feel free to call our feed supplier, Outlaws of Hay & Grain, at 951-763-1805 if you’d like to donate money there for the benefit of TGC horses. Just let me know you’ve done it, and how much, so I know its there to spend!