Judgement

Thank you Mae Hawkins for becoming our sweet boy Judge's Guardian Angel!  Through Hope Grows Guardian Angel program we are able to raise funds to help support our program horses with special needs.

Judge is a very special horse who requires very special care.  We don't know much about Judge's past.  Last summer, he was rescued by H.E.R.O. from a kill broker (a person who purchases horses for meat) in Pennsylvania.  Judge is an ex-Amish workhorse who is very well broke to both ride and drive.  He was most likely used as a cart horse, riding horse, but possibly a plow horse as well.  Judge is the grandpa of the barn...his big sweet face, fuzzy ears and floppy lower lip resemble more that of a giant teddy bear than a horse.  His swollen legs, cataracts, and bumpy spine tell the story of his hard-lived life.

To know Judge is to love him.  He is the go-to horse in our program for kids who need a quiet, gentle horse to learn from.  His calm and quiet demeanor is contagious and he has a way of making others feel more confident and safe when they are around him, even though he is the biggest horse in the barn.  At Judge's elderly age, he still has so many gifts to give the children who come out to the farm to work with our horses.

Despite the irony in his name (which he came with), the greatest gift he has to give is his unconditional love - never judging anyone for the way they look, what clothes they wear, how much money they have, how they do in school.  It is this lesson which has become the center of our entire program.  Every child coming to Hope Grows is made to feel special and loved, despite what baggage they arrive with.  Like our horses, each child has their own story, their own experiences and insecurities that all add up to who they are.  Through love and understanding, sometimes we are able to break down walls and be let "in" to a special place in the heart - the place where hope can grow.

Where love is spread, hope will grow.

Tracy

Wear Your Breeches with Pride

Today was a special day.  The barn door burst open right at 12 noon  and in ran the boys, my helpers, with their release notes waving like flags in their outstretched hands, permission for them to finally ride.  As promised and highly anticipated by all, we brushed our sweet mare, Dakota, with her own bucket full of brand new grooming supplies (also a surprisingly exciting event, as comments were made by the boys like “Wow, cool hoof pick!”) and led her into the indoor round pen. 

Two times around the arena and Dakota began looking in at her trusted companion, the one boy who had been working with her for the past few weeks and she has begun to love.  She began licking her lips and giving the signs that she was ready to join up.  The boy’s body language changed immediately as he picked up on her cues.  He dropped his eye contact, took a step backward and turned his shoulder to the mare, seemingly disinterested.  The mare immediately stopped running and turned in to meet the boy who in the center of the arena.  The boy stroked her head quietly praising her before turning and walking away.  Like a magnet, the mare followed the boy, a loyal companion.  And all of this in silent communication between a horse and a boy. 

“Is it time to ride now?”  he asked as I approached him in the round pen.  “Just about” I said, to which he asked if he could take a moment to go change into his riding clothes.  I looked at what he was wearing…jeans, rubber boots…everything that was quite appropriate for riding in a western saddle and just walking.  I wondered silently what he meant by “riding clothes”.  When he came back to the arena with a proud look on his face I noticed that he had somehow gotten his hands on an old pair of english breeches…the tight stretchy ones with the suede knee patches.  With his camoflauge hunting jacket, breeches, rubber boots, and helmet, he was now officially ready to ride.  My heart warmed.

After a successful first ride for both boys, we were finishing up chores in the barn.  It was almost time for pick-up and I noticed my helper was still wearing not only his helmet, but his breeches as well.  “I’ll take care of this,” I said, “why don’t you go change back into your school clothes before your ride gets here.”  He hesitated, “Umm, I think that I’ll just wear these back to school,” he said looking down at his baggy breeches, “I want everyone to know that I went riding today.” 

Looking out the window in the stall as the boys climbed into the truck to head back to school, I couldn’t help thinking to myself, “Wear those breeches with pride, my friend.” (And silently praying that he could pull it off back at middle school.) 

Where love is spread, hope will grow.

Tracy

Runaway Train

You know when something is right when it takes off like a freight train.  This is something that I heard at a friend's wedding this past weekend, and reflecting back to everything in my life that has been good and healthy and "right", this has held true.  My mother has always said not to try to fit a square peg in a round hole.  How many times in our lives do we think we know what is right and try so hard to force it, when in the end it turns out to have been wrong all along?

Hope Grows Community Farm Program has taken off this week with the force of a runaway freight train.  I'm going to take this as the first sign that we are creating something "right".  It fits.  There is a place for this dream within our community and the excitement over it has been contagious.

I had my first meeting this week at a high school to discuss our program.  I left with more ideas than I came with as well as with the urgency to start something as soon as possible.  While we aren't quite prepared to run a full program in the dead of winter, I am finding it difficult to say 'no' to anyone.  There are children out there starving for an opportunity that we have the ability to provide them with.  After my meeting at the school, a counselor with two of her middle-level students accompanied me out to the farm for a tour.  They pulled in right along side of me and I looked over right in time to see these two boys high-five each other in the back of the car.  While they only had time for a quick tour, they got to tour the property, meet all of the rescue horses, and observe a round-penning session with one of the two-year-olds and Erika.  In the bitter freezing cold, those two boys (without hats or gloves on) could have stayed there all day long watching that horse run around the round pen.  Now they are hooked.  I received a call from their counselor asking if there was any work for the boys to do during their half-day off of school tomorrow as they can't stop talking about the farm.

With the phone ringing off the hook this week with inquiries for private therapy sessions, work programs, after-school programs, internships and mentoring, my head is spinning and I now realize that we can't possibly hold off until spring.  We will create a program to run through the winter to meet as many of these needs as we possibly can, given our limited resources.  

On a separate note, Erika and I (plus all 3 of our kids, and one very little puppy) took the trailer down to pick-up two beautiful mares today for our program.  These two mares were donated by a woman who rescued them from the New Holland auction last spring and nursed them back to health.  Thank you Kima for your profound generosity!  We are so thrilled to welcome Dakota and Cheyenne to the farm.    Pictures to follow!

Where love is spread, hope will grow

Tracy

The Girls - Cheyenne and Dakota

Growing a Dream

Growing up I always dreamed of being a cowgirl.  I drew pictures of my ranch (out in Montana, where I had never been) and imagined snowmobiling through a blizzard to a warm-lit barn where the newest foal was being born.  I dreamed of riding in the rugged mountains, passing bugling elk and their calves while bald eagles circled the sky above.

This dream was such a part of me that after college I left everything I knew - the east, my family, my friends - and with my pick-up truck and faithful Labrador, Kota, at my side drove west.  I ended up in Wyoming and it is there that I stayed for 8 years before a series of events led me back east to where I am today.

While living on a beautiful ranch outside of Jackson, Wyoming, I was able to fully realize my dream.  Wrangling horses, crossing paths with grizzlies, fly-fishing the Snake river as eagles watched from above, snowmobiling through blizzards to feed the horses, crossing paths with mountain lion stalkers in the hay barn, and teaching children the love of horses.  The day before returning east my new rescue racehorse, Henry, and I took our very first ride together on a gray October morning through a meadow full of bugling bull elk and cows and calves who were gathering south from Yellowstone towards the Refuge before a long winter.

Four years later, I am living a new dream as a mother of two beautiful children, Max and Grace, and wife to the kindest, most wonderful man in the world, Jesse.  While we keep two horses here at our home in Stowe, Vermont, I had thought that my cowgirl days were over - a wonderful chapter in my life closed.  Now the book has been reopened and it is there that a new dream grows.  A dream that involves rescuing horses, mentoring children and healing a community.  A farm that grows hope, love, trust, friendship.  A refuge that allows children to dream and to never be afraid of letting those dreams come true.

Where love is spread, hope will grow.

Tracy

Introductions...

Meet Heartsong Equine Rescue Organization's current herd!  These are very special horses looking for their forever home.  If you are interested in adoption, please visit H.E.R.O.'s website and fill out the adoption application.  If you are wanting to help one of these beautiful creatures, please inquire about our "Guardian Angel" program.

 

"Tucker"-  yearling Thoroughbred colt

 

"Harley" - yearling Hafflinger cross colt

 

"Autumn" - 2 year old Buckskin/Paint filly

 

"Romeo" - 2-year-old Quarter horse colt

 

"Calypso" - 6-year-old Pony mare

 

"Reba" - 12-year-old Quarterhorse/Arab mare

 

"Stetson" - 2-year-old Unknown breed colt

 

"Forrest" - 2-year-old Thoroughbred colt

 

"Judge" - 20-year-old Belgian cross gelding

Greener Pastures

Moving Day!  Four H.E.R.O. horses were relocated to the farm today, the yearlings to come towards the end of the week and hopefully the "ladies" in quarantine can heal up and join the herd soon!  

Today was really my first day getting to know these horses a bit and I kept asking Erika, owner of Heartsong Equine Rescue Organization, what the story was behind each horse.  The answer was "who knows?"  I was sadly mistaken to think that a meat buyer would give a rescuer a detailed write-up on each horse, like the kind you would find on dreamhorse.com, but if they did I can imagine it might look something like this...

"Judge" a 20-year-old chestnut gelding, 16 hands.  A used up Amish work-horse owner no longer has a need for.   Despite visible scarring on body and face, previous starvation, a couple blown-up legs, this sweet old boy will willingly do whatever is asked of him.  Price:  he is worth his weight for meat.  

There are no descriptions of the horses that arrive at H.E.R.O., many times no known histories.  What steps off of the trailer is exactly what you get, and the work starts there.  Because it is a horse's past experiences that make them who they are - scars and all - it is resilience of overcoming the past in order to begin moving toward greener pastures that make them a hero. 

Where love is spread, hope will grow.

Tracy 

 

Judge - need I say more? 

 

Judge and Forrest wait for the others

 

Romeo and Stetson join the crew

 

Happy tails!

Everyday Heroes

Hero (n.)

a man of distinguished courage or ability, admired for his brave deeds and noble  qualities.

What if a hero is not necessarily a man, but a woman, or even a horse?  What if a hero is not looking for admiration, but instead prefers anonymity?  Everyday heroes walk among us, not seeking recognition for their deeds, but simply looking to help those who others have turned their backs on.  

Raymond and Carolyn Chauvin, whose vision and commitment to starting a community farm where kids can experience the therapeutic miracle which comes with creating a bond with a horse.   

Erika Gutel, founder of Heartsong Equine Rescue Organization (H.E.R.O.), has committed to saving rejected horses who were sadly destined for slaughter, and who cares for these horses as they slowly regain their dignity and trust and are ready to find their forever homes.  

And the eleven H.E.R.O. rescue horses, the welcome new residents at the Farm.  For what is more noble than a horse, and who is more brave than one who has experienced fear and trauma and has started the journey again toward trust.  

These are the heroes, and so our journey together begins...

Where love is spread, hope will grow,

Tracy