If you are an existing volunteer

Please take a minute see document at link below, and make any changes you need, or send us an e-mail at spiritoepvolunteers@gmail.com with your comments, ideas, suggestions. 

Ride For Spirit Volunteer Schedule (on line shared document)

Holiday Season :)

Dear volunteers and EAL students,

hope you had a great Thanksgiving with your families, friends, dear and loved ones.

Are you ready for all what is going to happen in a next month?

All special holidays to celebrate and events to be a part of?

Ride For Spirit, our presentation and fundraising even is close and I am excited for time together with all of you working together to present our students and program and help get some funding for Spirit's future 

Thank you in advance for your time and energy. Sometime next week will send you detailed schedule with time and riders/participants and our program activities. 

Monday-Friday, next week we shall practice and get our horses ready for this show. 

There is on line document with names and positions we have so far. 

Please take a minute and make any changes you need, or send me an e-mail with your comments, ideas, suggestions. 

Ride For Spirit Volunteer Schedule (on line shared document)

As you probably noticed, our Office is working hard to improve and organize our communication and assure that we have enough helping hands to provide all scheduled programs. 

As a result, we are back to our on line schedule where you can add your name or take it off, make comments. I feel that is the best way to keep us all at the same page. 

So here it is:

Spirit Program Volunteer Schedule (on line shared document)

Note that we shall have an active Friday next week, and let me know (put your name in the document)  if you want/can help about it. Dressage ring should be already set up, but we have to transfer a lot of things from the Farm to the indoor ring, and set up appropriate seasonal decoration.

Please, send all your comments or questions to Carrie, Spirit's Volunteer Coordinator at this address

spiritoepvolunteers@gmail.com 

Talking about the season - this is an invitation for all of you to bring suitable decoration for the space and horses as well and make our team shine at the Saturday show. 

Thank you again, for all what you do to keep Spirit strong and our service affordable to the community. You touch so many lives and create special moments for all with Spirit. 

Best wishes, and lot of love, 

Dada

Too much snow and rain together...not fun at all :(

It is messy out there.
No activities today, beside I will feed horses and put them in stalls tonight 
Take care and stay safe and dry.
See you Saturday, weather permits , for volunteer training and EAL activities
Happy Thanksgiving Day !

Thank you!

Dear Volunteers and EAL students, friends of Spirit

First of all, I wish you a very Happy Thanksgiving, and hope you are going to enjoy the day with your family and friends!

At this Thanksgiving season I want to be sure that you know how much I personally am thankful for your presence in Spirit Program.
Your time and energy is something which empowers this organization to follow it's Mission and change lives through all kind of horse related activities we do here. We all grow and change at the same time, just helping and serving with Spirit.
Thank you!

Schedule for this week and reminders for the nex one 

Tuesday (today) - see you at 5 PM
Wednesday if it is bad weather we shall cancel activities
Thursday - HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
Friday -Day off
Saturday - see you at 9 if weather permits 

Next week, we shall have regular activities - getting ready for the Saturday Event - Monday-Thursday 5-7.

FRIDAY, Dec/5, please, consider some help about last minute practicing, ring set up, and we need some adult with bigger car to help transfer bunch of (light) boxes from the Farm house to the Indoor office area.

Please visit our shared chart (in e mail, or contact me if you do not have it )and put your name if you can help
Bring friends and families at the event Dec/6th and help us promote what Spirit does!

Thank you!

Best wishes, and blessings to you and your families,
fondly,
Dada

Welcome Stitch!

New member of the Spirit family is here.
For now, he has Coco as official girlfriend.

Samson is upset...but too slow to reach Sticth, anyway. :)

Saturday

Saturday - EAL and Volunteers activities are ON at the Spirit Field 
Big QH show is going on at the Park, but so many things to be done, and maybe some clients at the round pen

Holidays and no activity days at Spirit

Important info about no activity days at Spirit for all EAL students and volunteers

Frying Pan will be closed and the gates will remain locked on Thanksgiving day. The Indoor Arena will be locked and set up for a weekend event. No horses will be allowed in the Indoor arena on Thanksgiving day, November 27.

Here are the other days we will be closed with the gated locked for the holidays.
December 24 and 25
December 31 and January 1

Rain all day long tomorrow

Tomorrow, Monday 11/17 all activities canceled.
Too much rain to do anything....all activities and make up lessons we can do Tuesday.
Take care and stay warm and dry.

Parktakes

Have you seen the FCPA Parktakes Winter magazine in your mailbox?.
Look for our classes there (page 61).
Registration begins online and by phone on 12/2. Register early, our classes usually fill up fast.
http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/parks/parktakes/

Parktakes Online - Fairfax County, Virginia

www.fairfaxcounty.gov

Contact Fairfax County: Phone, Email or Twitter | Main Address: 12000 Government Center Parkway, Fairfax, VA 22035Technical Questions: Web Administrator

We have a new feed room!

Thank you all!
Cold but busy day at Spirit this morning, and champions are boys who built a shed - feed room to have all grain safe and dry for this winter.
Thank you Mike, David, Chuck, Walt, Josh, Thomas, Jeff and Boris
Not all at photo, but shed is gorgeous!

SPIRIT Open Equestrian Program

Like There is one more to go. Can we do it again next Saturday? Please?

Movies from Friday event - Serving Seniors at Spirit

And some chatting after session...

See video HERE

Building project at Spirit - help needed!

Tomorrow, Saturday - big project is going on 10 AM- 1 PM (or until finishes :) )
Strong handy-man skill or any shape man with good will to help to set up modular shed for feed for horses storage.
Please, bring a friend, brother, husband....share the word :)
Thank you!

Emma's message to volunteers:

Happy November!

We've officially made it into the season of apple picking, apple cider, pumpkin spice lattes, pumpkin pie, pumpkin pancakes, and, well- pumpkin everything (but our herd's more into the apples)! As the days grow a little nippier and twilight falls earlier (phooey on you, daylight savings) our weekly lesson schedule has shortened a bit, and we're minimizing lessons when we do not have access to the indoor ring. We need our volunteers more than ever, we just don't want anyone freezing to death. So our new schedule, until January 13th is as follows:

Monday: 5-7PM
Tuesday: 5-7PM
Wednesday: 5-7PM
Thursday: 5-7PM
Friday: no lessons or volunteer activities
Saturday: 9AM-12PM, weather permitting. 

We'll have make-up lessons, therapeutic riding lessons, EAL student training, and volunteer training from now until then (not to mention blanketing horses, cleaning tack, and the general facility maintenance)! Now that that's out of the way, here are some other very important updates (I promise each bullet really is important, so please read all the way through!):

1. Our next 'Ride for Spirit' event is December 6th. Mark you calendars now for a day of volunteering, giggles and ponies! If you're wondering how much time to block out, our previous ride for Spirit lasted from around 9am - 2pm. (For a distracting, unrelated link that rewards you for reading this bullet, click here). As part of our next event, we'll have a fundraising bake sale! Let us know if you can contribute a batch or three of your favorite holiday cookies!

2. Tyson's Corner is putting on a Night of Giving and Spirit has been invited! For 25$ you can purchase a ticket to the event on November 23rd from 7:30PM - 10:00PM. For baseball fans, and especially UVa baseball fans, you can meet Ryan Zimmerman. For the shopaholics, there will be exclusive in-store deals. For everyone else there will be Redskinettes, radio personalities, musical performances, free food, a fashion show, and everything you could ever dream of! (Okay, well there could be a few more 4-legged-friends participating. This is another mostly unrelated, rewarding link). For details, see the flyers below for more info and reply to Dada & Carrie for purchasing details! IT'S GOING TO BE MALLVELOUS! 

3. Above I mentioned we'll have Saturday volunteer activities from 9am-12pm if the weather is nice. For those not-so-horsey, but very handy people out there, we also need volunteers on Saturdays, from 10am - 1pm to help with some field work and facility maintenance activities. This is a perfect opportunity for the dads, big siblings, or other tractor and big toy-loving folks that may be trying to kill time while a friend or family member is volunteering with the horses, or if you've just been looking for a great project to put your tractor-, home repair and construction skills to use! (And last, but not least, your final, actually somewhat related reward for reading).

And a happy belated veterans day! A sincere thank you to everyone who has served, and anyone who is currently serving, in our nation's military.

As always, let us know if you have any questions, scheduling changes, or comments. A few final reminders:
-Update the volunteer google spreadsheet (or email me) for week-by-week changes in scheduling. If you're looking to cancel or change days for an extended period of time, please email me!
-Fill out your hours in the red binder.
-Check for cancellations before coming (using Rainedout.com or the blog).
-Email me with any questions and comments, or to be taken off the listserve.

And I'm finished! Thank you!!

Emma

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  SPIRIT Open Equestrian Program Emma is the best!
  

  
  

  

Have fun at Tysons event and support Spirit!

We’re teaming up with Tysons Corner Center to bring you a Night of Giving featuring after hours shopping, exclusive deals, light fare, music and fashion - all benefiting your Spirit!

Tickets available!

BUY TICKETS ON OUR WEB SITE!

Winter schedule

Make up sessions, EAL training, volunteer training and all activities at Spirit - Mon-Thur finishes at 7 PM
New Class starts January /13th and then we are going to be back on schedule 5-8 PM
Saturdays we have limited activity based on weather conditions 99-12 for program activities and 10-1 for field work group
Thank you!

Night of giving to Spirit at Tysons November 23rd

We’re teaming up with Tysons Corner Center to bring you a Night of Giving featuring after hours shopping, exclusive deals, light fare, music and fashion­ – all benefiting your Spirit. Contact me for ticket information 

BUY TICKET NOW!

End of the riding season for outdoor classes

Dear all
I am so sorry to find out that forecast for tomorrow predicts temperature way below 40 as a lowest recommended for  therapeutic riding
I have to cancel lessons tonight and tomorrow morning.
Most likely it is the end of outdoor riding anyway, or at least for very young or students with mild to severe physical disability.
For those who have prepaid lessons, please, contact me and we shall be able to offer PM session at 6 instead, or, if evenings are not convenient, we shall refund your payments.
For independent riders who could keep their bodies warm enough there is an option to come and have a lesson tomorrow at 10 or 11 (Patrick, Melissa, Kate, Sean)
Also, we shall send you an invitation for December Show to make one more riding time for all our students. Hope to see you there.
On a good side, starting in Spring 2015 we shall be able to offer Thursday on top of Monday and Tuesday as therapeutic riding day for 10 more participants.
Hope it will help.
Thank you for understanding.
I wish you a pleasant winter, and invite you to sign in in Winter classes starting Jan/13th 2015
Warm regards,
Dada

Meet Stitch!

He is prospective new member of Spirit Family
Isn't he great?

About Equine Assisted Learning program at Spirit

Volunteering at Spirit does not mean riding lessons. It means helping to provide our program services to community. It includes all kind of work, from mucking stalls and field to grooming, tacking, leading horses or side-walking, to office work or facility maintenance. There are hundreds of people who help Spirit to function and grow by their time and energy and this is the basic concept of the non-profit format.
Even participation in Equine Assisted Learning does not mean riding lessons. It means possibility to learn about life skills formatted through horsemanship lessons  beside volunteer work I listed above.

We are thankful for all wonderful people at Spirit family and volunteers are our source of energy to provide service to community.

Also, there are so many young girls willing to spend a lot of time around just to be able to ride. If we should open that gate it would kill our horses and programs dedicated to therapy and education.

Conclusion - please, do not expect any riding time as exchange for volunteer work.

Contact Spirit to find out more about EAL possibilities if you are interesting in that program activity.

Thank you for understanding.
Dada

Coruteny

My friend Courtney passed away.

Spirit will always remember Courtney and Infinify.

She was an avid equestrian and, in addition to donating her beloved horse Infinity to the SPIRIT Open Equestrian Program, she also served on their board helping to provide therapy, learning and improvement of life skills to people with disabilities using equine-assisted activities.

Courtney was fun-loving and showed unfailing kindness to others. She was always optimistic, even while suffering the pain of juvenile rheumatoid arthritis throughout her life. We will always treasure this free-spirited master of wise humor, who always colored outside the lines.

Courtney shared with us a dream about Spirit and a farm to provide safe home for horses like Infinity and opportunity for them to heal and teach in community.

Taking care of field and building projects Saturday 10AM -1 PM

Winter season is closer. Spirit need some help Saturdays
Spirit needs a man power Saturdays 10 AM -1 PM . We can use any skilled man to help us around several important projects, from building storage, run in shed, to the field maintenance and hay/bedding/ manure management. Handyman welcome!
Corporate volunteer teams, scouts, contact me to schedule your project before winter at Spirit
Thank you!

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