The Golden Carrot Newsletter's Archive
Volunteers - and Volunteer Opportunities!
The good news about 2009 was volunteers. Sierra Becker started working with TGC in August, and right up to last week, was a faithful, three times a week wonderful helper. She has excellent horse skills, so was able to exercise and even ride TGC horses, as well as help with miscellaneous chores. Sierra has, alas, finally found a job, but promises for 2010 to not only come on Saturdays, but will be taking the NARHA instructor course along with me so that we can provide riding instruction to the disabled.
Debra Sievers of Idllywild also came to visit. Please see two sketches she created for TGC at www.thegoldencarrot.org/ArtbyDebSievers.asp . Debra is obviously a very talented artist, but is also a softie for the horses, and has been instrumental in spreading the word about TGC. The result is a plethora of other volunteers with varying degrees of physical capability. As you can guess, a lot of what gets done here at TGC requires some physical strength, but those volunteers who can’t do much physically more than make up for it by pursuing grants for the horses, spreading the word and encouraging others to visit and donate. One wonderful volunteer also made the 2009 matching donation pledge - and we were able to raise $1,000 in donations in the last weeks of December, which she matched! As you can see, the horses are getting lots of attention and grooming with all these visitors.
Please come back here in a few days for a whole page of volunteers getting busy at TGC!
In addition, due to the publicity put about by Debra and other volunteers, the Idllywild View (a monthly newspaper) has featured TGC in it’s latest edition (due out Wednesday). As soon as I get my copy, I’ll post it on the website - check back! And if you are interested in either of the sketches Debra did, they are for sale! In addition Debra is willing to consider requests for sketches of other TGC residents.
Finally, I have signed up for and been approved for the "Give One Day, Get One Disney Day" program. Starting Tuesday, if you volunteer for a day with TGC, I can sign off on it, and you can get a free ticket to Disneyland! I can’t research the exact particulars of this until Tuesday, but do know that they don’t guarantee to have free tickets forever - so if you are thinking of volunteering, now is the time to do it! I was so pleased to register for this - a chance at last to give something back to my volunteers!
Featured Horse looking for Sponsorship: Fascinating news about Shine aka King Alain!
With the help of Neighsavers’ Karin Wagner, we have now identified "Shine" as King Alain. You may recall that King was boarding at a facility where Marsi Marsh (former supporter) saw the owner repeatedly feed horses on either side of his stall, leaving King hungry and agitated. She requested, and was given, King to be her own. Unfortunately, Marsi was just a beginner, and King was "too much" for her, or her trainer to handle. So she reached out to The Golden Carrot, and he came to live here several years ago. We found "Shine", as he was called then, had a sweet baby face and the manners to go with it, but a hip so damaged that he had uneven development of his muscles from one side to the other, and a dragging step. Yes, he is a little ‘hot’ as some OTTBs can be, a little timid and spooky but not at all mean, and with a kind nature. With his disability, and ‘hot’ nature, we expected we’d never be able to use him for any riding - and were glad to see him hook up with Victor and Sunny in the herd.
Reading his tattoo and looking at his markings which are quite distinctive, Karin determined that "King" is 22 years old, Kentucky Bred, with lifetime earnings of $77,147 in 17 of his 62 starts, 5-4-8. It doesn’t sound like a lot of money for that many races, until you realize he earned from 1989 to 1993 - more than 15 years ago - in today’s dollars, it might be four times that! I will be trying to reach his breeder and trainer to see if they can tell me more about him, and will update you if successful.
The list of jockeys who rode King is impressive - Solis, Valenzuela, Desormeaux, Pincay and others. Not just every colt gets jockeys like those. Knowing him as I do now, I wonder if all along he had the injuries to his hip which resulted in his ending up here. He rallied again and again, but had so many many unsuccessful starts where he "weakened", had "gradual fade" and "trailed throughout". He tried so hard ....
I am so glad that he ended up here. And that kind of effort shows every day when he does his best for me anytime I ask. That hip injury may never be something we can fix - efforts at massage and chiropractic have so far only had temporary results. It could be that all those tries caused damage that may never heal. I can only hope that King Alain will find his own sponsor, and live a few more golden years here in payment for his efforts.
New sponsors: Chacha and Brave now sponsored!
I’m thrilled to report that Chacha Indian Dancer finally has a sponsor! Thanks, Alyssa, for your support of this elderly grande dame of TGC - She truly deserves her own sponsor at last. And Kasey Marie Jorgensen has become our sweet blind Brave’s sponsor.
Hoping that support in 2010 will be better than in 2009, with these two sponsored, I’ll be more open to taking on other rescues, and getting more use out of our Quarantine area stalls.
Hoping that support in 2010 will be better than in 2009, with these two sponsored, I’ll be more open to taking on other rescues, and getting more use out of our Quarantine area stalls.
I’ve managed to come up with enough money to replace several roof panels and complete Savannah’s stall. But so many more roof panels need replacement. And I have about 1 ½ months worth of that huge wall of bermuda hay left. By purchasing in bulk, I was able to save a little over $2 per bale of hay, for a total savings of almost $1,000. If anyone is looking to donate, now would be a GREAT time to do so, as I can organize another large load.
I was so surprised to have a donor tell me that asking for $10 from everyone made people think the need wasn’t very urgent. I guess I can see that, now that it was pointed out! But my thinking was to get $10 from everyone - I have 140 people on this email list; and 388 members of TGC on Facebook, and if I got $10 from everyone, ... well, that would be plenty to order a large truck/trailer load of hay to last 6 months, and another 10 days worth of pelleted feed as well! My thinking was - spread the pain! Hum, that didn’t come out exactly the way I meant it to! :-)
Well, if you can donate more than $10, please please do so! But $10 MAKES A DIFFERENCE, particularly if you will all do it! Now that the shock of Christmas credit card bills has hit, a donation request for $10 has to look good, right?
I'd like to thank TDNAHA and Jennifer Bishop - today Jen came by with four more beautiful waterproof blankets, and some miscellaneous tack donated by TDNAHA's members. Thanks Guys, for all your support!
I’ve added many pictures to the website - new photos of Prophet, Duke, Beau, Queenie, Ronan, Shawnee, Song, Star, Topper, Victor and Brave. More to come, thanks to DeeAnn Bradley, who came up with that ginormous camera and her artist’s eye to capture new pics of the kids. She didn’t catch a few, as their faces were buried in their feed buckets and would NOT come up for air, so I’m hoping she can visit again soon. Please take a few moments to cruise the site ... www.thegoldencarrot.org.
Please don’t forget the horses here - they still need your support so much. And remember, for every horse that gets a sponsor, I can consider taking on another rescue - and there are SO many in need. We need your help. 