FROM THE 'S MOUTH Spirit Open Equestrian Program Newsletter November/December 2015

Calendar of Events

 Ride4SPIRIT - 11/14 10a.m.  Abilities Expo – 12/4-6 Season’s Greetings & Happy Holidays from SPIRIT  Silent Auction & Social at Kalypso in Reston – 12/12 Dear Friends, 5p.m. – 9p.m. As we enter the holiday season and reflect on the moments that made this year so  Winter Series – special, we are so grateful for your friendship. This was a year of wonderful 1/23/16, 2/27/16, accomplishments. You made these moments possible and brought joy to so many! 3/12/16, 4/30/16 We wish you joy and peace and look forward to a very Happy New Year!  Winter Sessions – ~ Dada & the SPIRIT Team 1/18/16 – 2/8/16, 2/22/16-3/7/16  Summer Camps – 6/20/16 – 6/24/16, 6/27/16 – 7/1/16, 8/15/16 – 8/19/16, The Year in Review 8/22/16 – 8/26/16 Thank you to everyone for making 2015 one of our best years! It may be tough to remember back to those cold and snowy days in January but SPIRIT has grown and shone throughout the year! Our achievements in 2015 will carry SPIRIT into 2016 with hope, courage and strength! SPIRIT Board Our SPIRIT family increased in our number of clients and service hours! We renewed our existing contract with the Fairfax County Park Authority (FCPA) for the next 7 years! We Welcomes 1 More! received a new contract with the Community Service Act (CSA). We continued to develop and strengthen our EAA programs and relationships with the McLean Bible Church, McLean New Director Aaron Fleet! Community Center and Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS). We put on 2 fantastic Ride4SPIRIT events showcasing the talents of our riders and also the skill SPIRIT Introduces and dedication of our volunteers, EAL students and instructors and we are not done yet! We have one more Ride4SPIRIT coming up on November 14 to showcase the skills of New Instructors- our EAL riders! in-Training New Instructors-in-Training Aaron Fleet, Katie Holloway, Joanne Morgan, Laura Welsh, & Lauren Wong

SPIRIT Riders & Team at the September Ride4SPIRIT

SPIRIT Open Equestrian Program Inc. 2705 West Ox Rd, Herndon, VA 20171 | Phone: 703-600-9667 | Email: [email protected] pg. 1

Horsing Around Program News & Upcoming Events We grew our skills as riders, volunteers and horsey people. Members of our team took training and became certified on providing equine assisted learning and psychotherapy It’s the Season of activities for families and grew our network of Giving! connections to other equine assisted learning and therapy programs and professionals. Want to help SPIRIT this We welcomed new friends and family, new holiday season? Here are riders and participants to our program, new three easy ways to support volunteers, new directors to our board and new SPIRIT this season! supporters to our mission. We welcomed two Sally greets SPIRIT Riders new , Sally and Max! Combined Federal Campaign We bid a heartfelt farewells and until-we-meet-agains to Lucinda and Stitch, Board of Are you looking for a great Directors Vice President Tawny Hammond, Instructor Sarah Morehouse, several of our organization to contribute to volunteers who are away at school and participants and riders who have moved away. as part of the CFC? How Finally, we ran several successful fundraising about SPIRIT? CFC # 21744! campaigns and events that have helped to spread the word about SPIRIT and garner Amazon Smile support from our friends and supporters! You can help SPIRIT while We are looking forward to a fantastic 2016 shopping this holiday and all of making new memories and achieving new year round! Go to heights with all of you! smile.amazon.com. Sign in Lucinda bids SPIRIT farewell with her owners and select SPIRIT Open Ride4SPIRIT Rides Again! Caroline & Carina Elgin, Dada, mentor Ilana Equestrian Program and Dust off your helmets and polish your riding boots! The Ride4SPIRIT Horsemanship Event is Amazon will make a coming on November 14th! This event will feature our EAL riders, volunteers and members of donation to SPIRIT for all the community as they present their equitation and horsemanship skills and also compete in a eligible purchases! variety of fun games! Want to volunteer? Contact the SPIRIT office at [email protected]

Bravelets: Be Brave and 2015 is Going Out With a (Silent) Bang! Support SPIRIT Join SPIRIT on December 12th at Kalypso Sports Tavern in Reston from 5-9p.m. for a Bravelets jewelry makes a celebration of 2015’s achievements and to support our silent auction fundraiser! Come wonderful holiday gift to celebrate and socialize with other members of the SPIRIT family, riders, volunteers, staff and remind someone you love instructors and bid on some wonderful and unique items…all to help SPIRIT! We will also be how brave they are and can voting for several categories of Riders of the Year and Volunteers of the Year and will announce the winners at the event! Tickets are $20 and include appetizers such as wings, gyro be! Shop at sliders, flatbread pizzas, and various dips! Contact the SPIRIT office for information on https://www.bravelets.com/bra purchasing tickets! vepage/spirit-open-equestrian- program and they will make a Introducing the SPIRIT Winter Dressage Series! donation to SPIRIT for each purchase! SPIRIT is proud to announce our first ever Winter Dressage Schooling Show Series! SPIRIT riders are invited to register with dates in January, February, March and April. Classes will include USEF intro through FEI & USEA tests. Points will include show series and CDCTA year end points! For more information and the registration form, visit the SPIRIT blog and click the “Events” tab (http://spiritopenequestrian.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html)

SPIRIT Open Equestrian Program Inc. 2705 West Ox Rd, Herndon, VA 20171 | Phone: 703-600-9667 | Email: [email protected] pg. 2

Horsing Around Program News & Upcoming Events

SPIRIT Will Be Wrapped with Love this Winter! Thank you Emme Warren for thinking of SPIRIT for your Loudoun Debutant service project! The More the Emme brought a group from the Loudoun Debutant Program to clean, mend, and organize all Merrier: Board of of our horses’ blankets! They took the horses' measurements so this winter each one will be Directors Hosts an wrapped in love and a well-fitting blanket! Emme says “I decided to do my project with SPIRIT Open House! because it’s a really important program for me in The SPIRIT Board of Directors my life!” Participant Skylar Failor said she came to hosted an open house on help “because the horses are amazing and cute.” We are grateful to Emme for thinking of SPIRIT October 11th to introduce and bringing new friends to learn about our work! SPIRIT to new members of our Fitting the herd for blankets community. Guests met the SPIRIT at the Abilities Expo! board and herd and learned It's official! SPIRIT will have a booth at the upcoming Metro DC Abilities Expo to be held at the more about our mission and Dulles Expo Center from December 4-6 (http://www.abilities.com/dcmetro/). The show our programs. We are grateful features ability-enhancing devices, ability-improving therapies and programs, all sorts of for all the new connections adaptive sports, and -edge products and services. Workshops tailored for special needs and friendships made through or challenged children, adults, seniors, veterans, health care professionals, and caregivers will this event and are excited offer take-home solutions to common problems. Everything under one roof! about the new energy and Featured speaker, Rupert Isaacson, wrote “The Horse Boy: A Father's Quest to Heal His Son,” a ideas that our new friends deeply moving story of a family willing to go to the ends of the earth for their autistic son” and brought with them! is the founder of the Horse Boy Method (https://www.horseboyworld.com/). Continuing the 30-year tradition, this Expo is the “go-to source for the community of people with disabilities,” Update on the Big registration is free and open to all. Want to help? Contact Diane Pires at 703-391-9604. Heart, Big Hooves, SPIRIT Soared at our September Ride4SPIRIT Event! Big...Hurt Congratulations to all of our riders from our Ride4SPIRIT event that was held on September 26th and a TREMENDOUS Thank You to all of our EAL students, volunteers, assistants, mentors Fundraiser for and volunteers who made the event a huge success! Our riders gave an amazing presentation Samson! and our team in the ring was truly exceptional. Our guests had a great time playing games, The online Indiegogo winning prizes, learning about horses in our horsemanship workshop and enjoying delicious refreshments that you all put together. It was one of our best events yet! campaign to raise money for Samson’s vet bills and custom SPIRIT is O.K. and We’re Helping Others Be O.K. Too! hoof boots ended in October SPIRIT hosted Greg Kersten and his O.K. Corral Series for with great success! Thanks to a 3-day seminar on developing EAL and EAP activities for everyone who gave and families. Greg founded EAP and shared his wisdom and everyone who helped to knowledge from 20+ years experience observing horses spread the word far and wide! and herd behavior and working with at risk families and Thanks to you we raised over troubled youths. It's too much wisdom to include in this $1,600! Most importantly, newsletter but we will share it through our sessions and activities! Want to get the O.K. experience? Stay tuned! Samson is feeling and doing Greg Kersten leads an exercise SPIRIT hope to host another seminar in the spring! MUCH better! with Spirit the horse's help

SPIRIT Open Equestrian Program Inc. 2705 West Ox Rd, Herndon, VA 20171 | Phone: 703-600-9667 | Email: [email protected] pg. 3 Herd Highlights News from the Farm! A Fond Farewell to Lucinda In September, Lucinda, retired from SPIRT after 6 years of faithful, hard work and returned to her owner Ms. Caroline Elgin. She touched the lives of so many students in so many ways. Ilana Gruber, her mentor, gave this beautiful, fitting tribute to a truly magnificent mare. “If you have ever worked with or ridden Lucinda, then you know that she is one of the most sassy, stubborn, and strong-willed horses out there. Yet she is also one of the most good- natured, trustworthy, honest, and hardworking horses at Spirit. Lucinda was always the one we could count on if a rider needed a calm, reliable mount, or if a rider needed a little more of a Lucinda & her mentor, Ilana Gruber challenge. She was the perfect choice. Her versatility is what makes her so special and perfect for Spirit. She can carry adults and kids, beginners and advanced riders, and she can be driven, ridden bareback, and even do tricks. From her times at Spirit, Lucinda has gone from being a scruffy little pony to getting first-place ribbons in horse shows. Lucinda has taught us that appearances don’t matter when you have a strong work ethic, determination, and a little bit of sass. We are all going to miss her, but it is now her time to enjoy a happy, peaceful retirement.” Samson’s New Shoes Thank you to everyone who sent good wishes that Samson would feel better soon. Sam’s new hoof boots from Hoofwings arrived in October. With hooves measuring 8.5”x8.5” and 8”x8.5” we had to special order the boots to be custom made just for him. His hooves have Seeing Lucinda off back home improved and he has been back in lessons and in the field with the rest of the herd! Who in the Herd? Update on Stitch! Think you know the SPIRIT Stitch is doing well in his recovery, but is not back to 100% just yet. When it was time to herd? See if you can tell come back into work he was lame. He had an evaluation that showed he had nevicular which horse this is by one of disease and some tendon injury on his deep flexor tendon. For treatment he has been given some special shoes and is on stall rest while he gets injections in his feet to help their markings! reduce the inflammation. He's on stall rest until early December, then he'll go back for a Find the answer in the margin on the last page of this newsletter! reevaluation. With any luck he'll be able to begin his rehab early in the New Year. He's in great spirits and seems to feel pretty darn good. Thank you to Deb Bowers for providing this update! Deb reports that Stitch is always up for a visit and grooming. If you would like to visit Stitch, please contact Deb at [email protected] Nickers & Whinnies Volunteer Achievements, Appreciation & Good Works!

 Huge thanks to Zoe Griffiths, Ilana Gruber, Mira Gruber, Naomi Gruber, Caroline Warren, Emme Warren and Becky Maximovic for planning and organizing the upcoming Ride4SPIRIT Horsemanship event….we are all very excited for it!  A big thank you to Becky Maximovic, Zoe Griffiths, Joanne Morgan and Katie Holloway who have been helping to train and guide our new Instructors in Training!

SPIRIT Open Equestrian Program Inc. 2705 West Ox Rd, Herndon, VA 20171 | Phone: 703-600-9667 | Email: [email protected] pg. 4

Horse Whispers Wisdom, Tips & Guidance from the Volunteer Handbook Got a Question? Rules of the Ring! H aving fun is one of the best things about working and riding with SPIRIT, but safety is Ask a Red Shirt! very important too! When in the ring, and especially when riders are present, everyone Have a question or need must remain focused to make sure that we all have fun and stay safe! Always listen to some assistance in a lesson? the instructor and avoid talking with others or using your phone so that you don't miss Look for a red shirt! All SPIRIT important instructions! Never leave a rider unattended and make sure they stay safe instructors, instructors-in- around the horses, don't let them walk behind the horses or under the horses' heads. training and assistants will be wearing red SPIRIT shirts Follow the Leader! during lessons and activities Horse leaders have a very important job. It is up to you to guide the horse and make so you can spot them easily! sure that we are going where the instructor tells us. It is also the leaders' job to pay

attention to the horse and reassure the horse so that it stays calm. If your horse seems agitated or upset, call over the instructor. In the event of an emergency, your job is to Inclement handle the horse. The side walker will look after the rider! Weather? Side Walkers, Not Just Along for the Ride! Always be safe in bad Side walkers are also important team members. It is your job to focus on your rider! weather and remember, if Reassure your rider and help them with the activities. Repeat the instructors directions Fairfax County cancels its and encourage your riders. Support them in the saddle by holding them if the instructor activities, SPIRIT's activities asks you to. In the event of an emergency, your job is to take care of your rider! The will be cancelled too! leader will look after the horse! Sign up to receive "Rain Out" notifications from SPIRIT through RainedOut.com http://www.rainedout.com/ and also check the Fairfax County Website at: SSPPIIRRIITT SSppoottlliigghhtt!! http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/alerts/

Tony Kurtz is our spotlight volunteer! Tony raced harness horses professionally on the Maryland /Delaware circuit from 1981-1987.

"I never thought my harness racing skills would be of use again. Incredible as it may seem, when I first walked in the door at SPIRIT, Dada said she had been praying for someone with harness racing experience to help create a group of her horses to be trained to pull a cart her husband had designed which seated a rider in a wheelchair and a driver beside him. SPIRIT offered me a chance to work with horses again, the way it was when I first discovered horses as a child. I look at these volunteers, who are mostly young kids who love and care for these horses as if they were family members, and I think to myself, "God, remember when I was like that, it seems so long, where did that kid go!" ...SPIRIT allowed me to rediscover the best part of myself. And for that I am truly Tony on the racing circuit! thankful."

SPIRIT Open Equestrian Program Inc. 2705 West Ox Rd, Herndon, VA 20171 | Phone: 703-600-9667 | Email: [email protected] pg. 5