September 2017 - Issue #19

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Many of you know him as Patty’s husband, which

he responds to really well, but I would like to take a moment to introduce our new Executive Director. John D’Andrea has been my biggest supporter for the past 34+ years of my life and was the encouragement I needed to start Healing with Horses Ranch.

John has over 30 years’ experience in product development, marketing, operations, and supply chain across the high tech, heavy equipment, and aerospace industries. He retired from Dell about 16 months ago and has been acting as the Ranch Operations Manager since then. John loves horsepower, but he is more into the 300 horsepower cars and gets to share his passion as a high performance driving instructor with The Drivers Edge.

This means that I will become the Program Director which is where my passion and experience lies. I am so excited about this transition and know that John is just as excited!

From the Desk of Patty

L e t ’s R I D E !

S u m m e r H o r s e S h o w !

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Hurricane Harvey

Our thoughts and prayers go out to everyone affected by Hurricane Harvey. The devastation is

unreal. We so appreciate everyone’s thoughts and prayers for the ranch and our horses. We fortunately were spared. Our horses were very comfortable under our new covered arena!

We do have a flood emergency plan that we actively enact. The Ranch is located in the Gilleland Creek Floodplain.

We have 3 stages of flooding.Stage 1: Several times a year the creek will fill to the tops of it’s banks and cover the low water crossing. Stage 2: A few times a year the creek will exceed its banks and cover the lower fieldsStage 3: Once in the last 7+ years the creek has exceed the lower fields banks and covered portions of the upper fields and into the barn. We planned for this level, but it never got this high.

Senior staff monitor weather alerts and monitor the creek. If there is a flood alert the horses and volunteers, students and staff will relocate to the East Campus (where the barn is).

If the water level exceeds the lower field bank, the senior staff will:

1. Direct all non-essential staff/volunteers/visitors to evacuate the property.2. Cancel all remaining lessons (if they are not cancelled)3. Close the house FM 973 gates and located all animals to the Big Field or the House Field.4. Any remaining personnel will relocate to the house as it is the highest level location.

After the water recedes from any one of the three flood event levels listed above, the senior staff will do a physical assessment of previously flooded area prior to allowing access with the top priority being human and animal safety and perimeter fencing.

Any issues found will be addressed prior to allowing human or animal access.

Healing with Horses Ranch wants to help in the Hurricane Harvey recoveryWe are receiving items for Cameron Carey with Operation BBQ Relief to bring into areas most needed. Please drop any items that you wish to donate Tuesday through Sunday between 9am and 7pm.

Items needed are:• Trashbags• Cleaning supplies• Dog food• Cat food• Leashes• Horse feed• Hay• Betadine scrub• Vet wrap• Antibiotic ointment• Storage containers containing:

• New Washcloth• New towel• Underwear• Socks• Gloves• Soap• Tissues• Toothbrush• Toothpaste• Deodorant• Band aides• Antibiotic ointment• Shampoo• Brush• New Blanket

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Intern Spotlight

The entire staff at Healing with Horses Ranch would like to extend a fond farewell to our Intern, Olivia Haley, who will be leaving

us mid-September. We have truly enjoyed getting to know you and appreciate all of your hard work and effort throughout the past many months.

Olivia came to the ranch through the Goodwill Program after she attained her GED. She has a true passion for animals and searched the list of opportunities that would allow her to learn and also enjoy doing what she loves most. The program allotted her 400 hours to work at the ranch as a paid intern. Over the course of this time, she learned a lot about horse care and enjoyed working with the riders, in particular, Jacob and Antwan! She also really enjoyed working with the staff.

Her future dream job would be to work for Emancipet in Austin. Emancipet is a non-profit on a mission to make high-quality spay/neuter and veterinary care affordable and accessible to all pet owners. She says “I love their mission” and “they helped me so much when I couldn’t afford to pay for care for my cat”.

Olivia plans to attend Austin Community College in Elgin in January 2018 to pursue a Vet Tech degree.

OLIVIA HALEY

We wish you the best Olivia and although we are sad to see you go, we know you are going to do great things in your life!

BIRTHDAYSMarsha W 9/1Emily S 9/4Matt N 9/7Shelby H 9/9Kate M 9/10Hadley H 9/13Tiffany D 9/13Carly J 9/14Alexa B 9/15Kelly E 9/16K ristin D 9/16Ana S 9/18Kim T 9/18Marianna B 9/21Cheyenne W 9/22Joe R 9/24Julia R 9/26Rebekah E 9/28

Hey, check out the new article on HHR in the Texas Heritage Living Magazine!!!

Walk on at Healing With Horses Ranch -- Texas Heritage for LivingAt Healing With Horses Ranch, riders learn to keep going - despite whatever physical, mental, or emotional struggles they face.www.TEXASHERITAGEFORLIVING.com

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Healing with Horses Ranch, 10014 FM 973, Manor, TX 78653512-964-0360 healingwithhorsesranch@gmail.com

www.HealingwithHorsesRanch.org

Our Barn Bash was a huge success bringing in over $23,000. This is helping us not just raise the barn roof, but increase

our capacity so that we can help build self esteem, confidence, strength and communication skills. There are so many people to thank that helped make this dream a reality!

This is the first year that we held the barn bash off site. The Palm Door was perfect as it still had that rustic feel, but it was air conditioned and there were no flies! The food was delicious thanks to Good Luck Grill from here in Manor. The dessert was fantastic thanks to Marissa Roberts owner of V’s Sweet Treats. Beer and wine in quantities of too much to consume by 150 people was donated by Lagunitas Brewing Company, Real Ale Brewing Co., Brown Distributing, Lewis Wines, and Buddha’s Brew. The beautiful floral centerpieces were donated by the Merkel family. Samantha Lee and Miles MacDonald from Samantha Lee and the Family Tree were the house band and boy can they sing and play the guitar!

Chris Murray of Merlot Enterprises was the Barn Bash sponsor both this year and last as well as the builder of the arena! Thank you so much for making Healing with Horses Ranch a priority! Additionally, we had over $16000 in-kind donations that made our raffle and live auction a huge success. The live auction started out slowly, but it perked up when bidding began on Artwork by our own Elyse Greenberg. Photos of Dawn and Bo on metal canvases began a bidding war. Naming the “big” field got everyone excited. The Merkel’s and the Murray’s kept the bidding going and ended up deciding to name the “big” pasture together to double our winnings!

We still have a long way to go to pay off the loan for the covered arena and then we need real stalls and lights and fans in the covered arena, but this was huge and ever so appreciated.

Thank you to the barn bash committee. Elyse Greenberg, Jenny West, Cari Weiss, and Jamie Southard for putting in all of the time that you did to make this happen! I don’t know what we would do without you! Thank you to all of the staff that put in extra hours to help prepare, set up, beautify Angel, put everything away!

B a r n B a s h R e p o r t