May 2020 Issue

Page 22 May 2020 EAST COAST EQUESTRIAN Print subscribers get FREE classifieds! FREE Print subscribers get FREE non-commercial classified ads! Just email your non-commercial (events, horses/trailers/tack for sale, boarding/lessons/training etc.) classified, 35 words or less to steph@eastcoaste- questrian.net . Be sure to include your name and mailing address as it appears on your subscription label. (Not a print subscriber? Sign up online at eastcoastequestrian.net .) Classifieds can run in more than one issue but must be resubmitted each month. Deadline is the 12th of the month before publication. FARMS HORSES MISC. (Continued from page 11) Horse Lay Ups: 20 minute drive to New Bolton Center/ University Of Pennsylvania Vet School. (No self care avail- able). Owner owned and run. Over 30 years experience. Two references requested. Rates upon request. 610-721-5902 Foaling Stalls: Limited space available for mares that want to foal in Pennsylvania. 20 minute drive to New Bolton Center/University Of Penn- sylvania Vet School. Over 30 years experience. Reasonable rates. 610-721-5902. TRAINING: Westfield Farm LLC, Tailored for horse and owner. ALL Breeds and disciplines. We will make your trail horse safe or a winning show horse More info at Westfieldfarmllc.com or CALL 717-432-2828. Will Travel Great Care at Barn in Southern Chester County, PA. Indoor and Outdoor rings, round pen and trails. Stall board $450/ month, Field $325. Vet references available, 20+ years experience, nice people. Judy 610-368-3822 4 Year Old TB Gelding: Very reasonably priced. 16 and 1 hands. Dark bay. Very quiet. Sound. Trail rides. Paper chase. Green in the ring. Lovely ground manners. Ships/clips. Good home only. 610 721 5902. Large Chestnut Colt: Full brother to Devon/Upperville Winner. Unregistered TB. PA Bred. Will win on the line. Very athletic. Good mover. 610-721-5902. Omega Horse Rescue located in Airville, PA has a variety of horses and ponies ready for their forever homes! Please visit our website to see pictures, videos and how you can help! www.omegahorserescue.com Better than right off the track! The PTHA's Turning for Home, Inc. always has OTTBs that are properly re- habbed, retrained and ready for their new careers. Find your next horse at www.turningforhome.org or call 215-808-7562. Exiss 6 Horse slant aluminum gooseneck 2001. Stainless nose. Lighted, carpeted dressing room. Extra rear compartment. Many saddle/ bridle racks. Everything removable to enlarge stalls or fit carts. 7'6"ht. Extremely nice condition. $17,800. OBO 717-432-2828 CATS: Barn homes in Bucks, Chester, and Montgomery Counties, PA. are needed to give rescued strays a chance at life. Cats are neutered, microchipped, and vaccinated; delivered and acclimated. Fill out an application to adopt at StrayCatBlues.org or call 215-631-1851 Remember...tell our advertisers you found them in East Coast Equestrian! With a special feature on Pastures & Fencing Advertise in the June issue of East Coast Equestrian Related advertisers who buy a 1/4 page or larger ad will receive a FREE, 200-300 word article, written by our award-winning staff, about their busi- ness. All Pasture and Fencing ads will remain on our website, visited by more than 8,000 individuals each month , for a year. To advertise call (717) 509-9800 www.eastcoastequestrian.net The news East Coast horse owners need to know Deadline: May 12 Therapeutic Riding Programs Adjust to a New World of Social Distancing money for her program. They said they understand she has not been able to provide the services they’ve sponsored, but they want her to keep the money. The support is gratifying, but she’s worried about her clients, missing their therapy. And her volunteers, who are deeply committed to the clients and the horses. “I’ve gotten hurt before and had to take a couple of months off, but nothing like this. Who knows when this will be over.” Thinking Outside the Stall At Gateway HorseWorks in Berwyn, PA Kristen de Marco has taken a different path, albeit an unconventional one. Her organization provides equine assisted therapy for clients from social service programs, the juvenile justice system, the Sal- vation Army’s anti-trafficking initiative and programs aimed at helping abused and homeless women. Equine assisted ther- apy is one of the newest tools mental health professionals are using to help individuals find different ways to see the issues affecting their lives. Unlike the program Briggs’ organization provides, de Marco’s clients interact with horses on the ground, along with a licensed therapist and a certified equine specialist. “We suspended in person sessions on March 12,” de Marco explains. “We spent the next week and a half getting up and running with tele-men- tal health.” Yes. That is what it sounds like. Tele-health is all the rage these days when patients can’t get in to see their doctors face-to-face. Instead, they “visit” their doctors via webcam or facetime. “All of our sessions are online, so we’re able to use Zoom for Healthcare, and our barn man- ager is at the farm with the horses on live stream.” Zoom is the nascent web-based service that is becoming the go-to solution for businesses trying to hold remote staff meetings, isolated friends hosting virtual cocktail parties and, yes, doctors seeing non-ur- gent patients. “While this certainly won’t replace in-person sessions,” de Marco says, “we still think there’s a lot of connection and value we can offer.” She says that the number of clients has dropped significant- ly, because many of the people who had been using Gateway’s services don’t have access to computers, or good internet con- nections. “A lot of our clients are vulnerable folks in places where we can’t do video conferencing,” she says. Inspired by Acts of Kindness “We were so inspired watching so many people step up and help in any way they could. We have resources that can help people in the front lines,” de Marco says. That’s why she and her staff have decided to offer free tele-mental health services to people like grocery store work- ers, EMTs, police, health care professionals—people who are working tirelessly to keep the rest of us safe. “We wanted to make these resources free because so many people are struggling finan- cially, and we thought it would be just too much for some people to make one more payment. “The next pandemic,” she says, “will be the mental health issues from the collective trauma we’re already going through.” She and her team are committed to use whatever tools they have to help those on the front lines today. She says they’re offering the program before they’ve even secured funding for it. “This experience is humbling in a way where we feel so out of control and helpless. What we keep reminding ourselves as a team is to control what we can control. We can choose to do something, like giving back.” The Toll on Programs Hard to Measure Many of these special equestrian programs operate on thin margins. A crisis such as this one, with so many unan- swerable questions, could be the coup de grâce for some of the smaller, more vulnerable pro- grams. It’s apparent that several therapeutic equestrian programs in the region have simply stopped answering their phones, leaving the fates of the programs unknowable. Briggs, of Compassionate Friends, says that—even as she and her volunteers mourn the suspension of the therapeutic riding program—they understand that someday it will be “nor- mal” again. But it’s a different story for the horses. “I miss the students, and I just miss the buzz around the barn,” she says. “And my horses are showing it, too. They’re being little stinkers. They’re used to all the attention, being groomed, being loved on and getting all their treats. They’re supposed to be around people, and here they’re not. They miss the time with them.” “We’re seeing some of the best in humanity and in our way we want to be there to support people,” de Marco says. “We’re all going to struggle to maintain the normal expenses of farrier, hay, straw, feed and medical care for our animals.” Both Compassionate Friends and Gateway HorseWorks are non-profit organizations, as are the many other therapeutic eques- trian programs in the region. To find out more about what these organizations need, check their websites: Gatewayhorseworks.org or email kristen@gatewayhorse- works.org or Cftrc.org or email sbriggs@cftrc.org .