Great lessons today!

Heat was not so bad...

Heat

It is heat advisory announced for today. Call/e-mail/or text me if you cancel lesson.
Spirit Team will be ready at 6 and all lessons will be held at the grass and in shadow of the Park field ...

Volunteers, we will give a bath to our herd today again.
See you!

Busy days for Memorial Day week end at the field

Working hard to make it better...see results...

More to be done later...but already better than ever :D

Monday is the holiday - but Spirit does not stop it's activity

No lessons Thursday and Friday until 06/25

Nice break for horses and chance to do some field work, grooming and taking care of tack....

Off to meet Glory

Prospective new member of Spirit herd :)

Make up lessons?

Please, contact me about make up lessons this week (beside Saturday)
Thank you :)!

?

Chances of T-storms, bad traffic today...anyone plan to come?...call or e-mail

Make up and continuing lessons between classes until 06/25

Next Summer Class will start at 06/25 (same week day evenings and Saturday mornings)

Until then, we will continue with make up lessons, and regular lessons which should be paid on site.

Register on line by phone 703-437-9101, or at the Park Visitor Center

2709 West Ox Road • Herndon, Virginia 20171

We will accept individual drop in riders if you schedule your lesson 24 hours ahead by e-mail, and if we have empty spot.

Great moments today!

Thank you all for this moments we created together!

Spring classes are over...

...but we have a lot of make up lessons to do.
Saturday,6/11 no lessons Saturday, but this one 05/21, then 05/28, 06/04,should be just right 3 lessons we missed.

It was great experience and lot of fun. Thank you all, families, riders, and volunteer team which made all moments with kiddos in therapeutic riding possible, and who helped so much about all other lessons.

If you liked SPIRIT program and want to continue riding at the same schedule, as in the Spring, it is possible to schedule lessons between now and Summer class which starts 06/25. Just send me an e-mail 48-24 hours ahead about it.

For volunteers, same schedule - week evenings 5.30-8.00 PM , and sat 9-12.30 (or longer )

If you want to sign in for use Parktakes Here!
There are a lot of equestrian programs. Check it!

Looking forward to seeing you!

Summer schedule

Voila! Here it is - Summer activities schedule for Spirit Team.
First Summer class starts 06/25. Saturdays between Spring and Summer class - Make up lessons.
Between classes and Camps, usual daily maintenance work at field and with horses, 5.30-8.00 PM
Please, let us know when you are available to help...
Thank you :)

Last week in 8 week session - who needs a make up lesson?

We are about to finish first 8 week session, and there are some make up lessons to be done.
Please contact me about schedule.

Hoping for good weather this Saturday (tomorrow)

You can call, if you want to check conditions here, or if you want to cancel your lesson. Other way, I am looking forward to seeing you :)
WHO'LL STOP THE RAIN?

Good news!

Great job well done girls. You oiled tack so well. We should put it on weekly schedule, if not before, then during the Summer.
Good news - vet says that Lucinda is doing so well that she can come back to our field. Colby and Infinity with lot of love and some NH tricks seem to like their job again, and we are all set...
But we still look for a field which we can call home for Spirit horses...

For Moms

To all wonderful moms of special Spirit Kids, wish the best MOTHER'S DAY!!!

No more rain, please!

Girls started fundraising project, and they did it great!

Special thanks to our young volunteers who surprised me and just started fundraising project for Spirit Program in their neighborhood! Great start of fundraising season...together, we can do it!

Thanks to Great Oak, Woodland and Iron Forge neighborhood who made their project successful!

Lucinda is gone, but only temporary ...

Hoof abscess made desision...Lucinda is back at her home farm, with Caroline at Planis, VA.
Can not wait to see her back, as all Spirit Team as well.

No lessons or any activity in Spirit Program this Saturday

Dear volunteers, FYI - we will take a brake this week end of any activities at the Park. I will take care of our horses, and wish you a great week end.

Saturday, May/07

There is a big show this Saturday at the Frying Pan Farm Park.
I have been told that there are no way to do lessons.
That will be third lesson for makeup, so this is so far:
05/28
06/04
06/11
We are doing our the best to find/create space for our lessons in situation like this, so I hope for better.
I am sorry for this change, and looking forward to seeing you Sat 05/14
Thank you!

Lucinda

Thank you girls for your help...to create moments like this one....

Stall management, and other useful info for volunteers :)

Dear friends, thank you all for good will to help us keep our horses and their living space clean and healthy. Recently , I had a feeling that it was too much confusion related to it :) , so here it is visual presentation how it should look like. Left picture is Tess/Lucinda/Spirit , and right Infinity/Colby stall

Procedure to achieve perfect stall management:
*put grain plate at the right spot (not behind or in the middle of the stall)
* collect clean, dry hay at the designated place
* divide poops and totally wet hay, and rest, dirty but dry bedding put at the designed place (rear end of the stall)
* take dirt out (in the wheelbarrow)
* sort bedding at the right place, and with rack collect whatever left creating space like at the picture above :)

Tips:
One person is enough for this job :)
Let it be stall management of your favorite horse first thing to do when you come.
Extra helping hands always can be used for picking up poops from the field.
Leave full wheelbarrow to adults to handle.

If you follow this suggestions our horses will be healthy and happy.


For tack you use (and your favorite horse :):

Cleaning Your Tack

Keeping tack clean prolongs longevity of the tack. Well conditioned, supple, clean tack is also safer than dried out dirty tack.

Recommended Supplies to Clean tack:

Soap or cleaner i.e. lexol
Glycerine Bar
Conditioner
Oil
Metal Polish (or toothpaste)
Sponges
Rags
Toothbrush
Paintbrush (to use for oiling)
Bucket or two for water and to hold your supplies (not full size buckets, but like dish detergent sized ones)
Follow this procedure if you have very dirty and very dry tack:

Wet a sponge and rub on the soap (or if you use Lexol Cleaner or something else) rub in small circles on tack until it lathers (do not get sponge too wet though). Continue rinsing sponge in clean water, and rubbing leather until clean. You may have to get clean water several times.
Take a clean sponge and water and wipe off all soap residue.(soap residue will dry out the tack) Continue rinsing the sponge until you have wiped the entire piece of tack down (remember to wring most of the water off of your sponge, you don't want it sopping wet)
Next you will oil your tack. Take a small amount of oil, and dip your brush in it. Oil the underside of your tack in thin layers. If the topside of your tack needs to be oiled, use an even smaller amount, or else you will end up with oil stains on your clothing.
If your tack is very dry and needs to be oiled several times, wait at least 3-4 hours between oilings, preferably overnight.
After you have finished oiling your tack, and have let it sit, wipe the excess oil off.
Then wet a sponge, and rub it on your glycerine bar, and then rub it on your saddle. Do NOT get your sponge wet enough to lather it, only enough so you can apply it to your tack. You can tell when you have put enough on, if it leaves a fingerprint when you touch it.
Then take a dry cloth and rub it, so your tack looks nice

Day to Day cleaning:

After you get done riding you should wipe your tack down with either just plain water, or a some glycerine. I wipe down with water first if my tack is particularly sweaty/salty. Then I wipe it down with a sponge with glycerine on it.
If your tack is somewhat dirty, use castile soap (or the like) to wipe it down. Remember you have to clean the soap off too. If the tack is dirty enough to warrant soap, it will need to be conditioned. To condition the leather, take a little bit of the oil on a rag and rub it in. Then I'll use glycerine after that.
Several notes, things to keep in mind:

When you get new tack, if it has a white skin or coating on it, rub that in. Do not clean it off.
After the initial oiling of your tack ( which may take several coatings), you should only be oiling it once every 5-6 months, if you are doing it more than that, you are either over oiling or not cleaning your tack frequently enough.
When conditioning your tack, you should at tops being doing it 2x per month, probably less if your tack was oiled well initially and has been take care of regularly after that.
What ever you do, do not over oil!! You should only oil if the leather feels dry to the touch. If you over oil, it will make the leather greasy, too soft, subject to ripping and rot the stitching out.
When doing several steps of cleaning, try not to use glycerine as the initial soap/cleaner. Glycerine is meant to seal leather pores after conditioning, if you use that first, your leather will not absorb as well, nor get as clean.
To get elastic clean, either use Shout, or toothpaste, Shout works better, but toothpaste works if you have nothing else.
Toothpaste also cleans metal well.
If you want to get your tack very clean, you must take it apart to clean it (but also keep in mind you must know how it goes back together)

Let's do it next Saturday after lessons!

Saturday Spirit Team in acrtion

Thank you all, Whitney, Sandy, Linda, Jeff, Mark, Naomi, Mira. Ilana, Hala, Hadel, Jamelah...