The Movie! Another God Thing!

Steps of Faith

So in late February, I was going into one of the local radio stations to do a PSA. We were trying to raise the last bit needed for the last half of the down-payment of the property. While there, Enola Gay introduced me to a nice man named Eric King who was a director for movies - Hollywood type stuff. Very cool, really nice man. We exchanged pleasantries, shared what we both do and went about our merry ways. 

A couple weeks later I get a phone call from Eric. He tells me that a writer/director friend of his had come up with a faith-based story with Hippotherapy as a subplot. Can he bring him out to meet with us? Sure!!

Next thing you know, Eric is introducing us to M Legend Brown (Mike) and his team. We show them around, introduce them to the horses and tell them some of what we do. We head back up to the porch and grab some sweet tea. Mike starts telling us about the vision he has for the movie, how our place would be perfect for the ranch part of it and asked if we would consider joining his team. I told him sure, but with a few conditions: 1)Would have to clear it with the Board of Directors to be certain, but didn't think they would have a problem with it. 2) Would have to schedule it around classes. 3) Since we would have to bring in our people to work extra, they would have to cover their pay.

Conditions get met and things started happening. Gail comes and spends the weekend with us and becomes a sponge to learn all about the ranch, what we do and specifically what my job is. Then Malik comes and spends some time with us, then Chrystee. Then on a cold wet Sunday in April and a whole host of folks pull up. It's like controlled chaos with everyone knowing exactly what they are doing ... except us. Pam is in the house like a Mother Hen trying to make sure everyone has whatever they need. Jim, Kyle and I are out with the horses. We add one more condition...that before any camera or piece of equipment is used around a horse, they must give me 5 minutes with them and the horse. It's a safety thing to make sure the horse doesn't get spooked and no one gets hurt. They are in total agreement. The picture above is one of those times.

We say a group prayer and the shooting starts. They really do say: "Quiet on the set!"I think they got 1 or 2 scenes shot and then it started raining. Oops! Had to call it a day. 

Early the next morning, that same army of folks show up. We bring in the horses and the chaos begins again. Let me tell you: these folks are really hard workers. They shoot scene after scene in no particular order...that we understand!

Ms. Jan is in the house trying to stay warm until her scene. She's to be in the background having a class. They say it's time and she comes on up. However, in the cold, we can tell that she is really stiff. She won't admit it, but she's hurting a bit. So I tell Candice (Mike's asst) that once Ms Jan is on board, they have 30 minutes ...period. They run through one scene in about 15 minutes. They are setting up to run it again, when I wave Candice over. We're standing right next to the arena where Ms. Jan is on Cowboy when I ask Ms Jan how she's doing. Ms Jan is being a real trooper and says "fine". Having worked with Ms Jan for over 3 years now and catching Jim's eye, I knew better and said loud enough for Candice to hear: "She's lying"! Ms Jan just smiled that sweet smile of hers, but didn't disagree. Jim shook his head agreeing with me. I started counting down time at that point. No matter what, Ms Jan was not going to get hurt up there from riding too long in cold weather. Candice completely understood. They ran the scene again and were done with Ms Jan in about 10 minutes. That was professionalism mixed with compassion!

They shoot until it gets dark and show up the next morning and do it all over again. Just before dark, there's a shout out...it's a wrap! They start packing up all their goodies and they go over the whole place inside and out cleaning and making sure there is no trash anywhere and nothing out of place. Heck, the house was cleaner when they left than when they got there. They took all the trash and after asking if we wanted any, they took the leftovers from all the food they brought, and trust me these folks can eat! They even brought in a big package of toilet paper to replace what they used.

Even through all the chaos, the degree of professionalism, compassion and caring was breathtaking. 

Before they left, we asked Mike how long it would take to put everything together. We had heard that it could take over a year. Our mouths dropped open when he said he wanted the first premiere to be in Dallas this August...4 months down the road. Wow! 

True to his word, in mid-August the first Red Carpet premiere was in Dallas, followed by one in Ft. Worth, Terrell and then one in Sulphur Springs. 

We've seen Steps of Faith twice now and have taken something different away each time. In my humble opinion, it is an amazing movie.

Good job, Mike and crew! And thank you for getting the word out about therapeutic riding to the many people that have never heard of the industry, much less what we do. And thank you too for the help you have given and will give in the future to Shadow Ranch.

Love you!

M

Wow, what a year so far!

It has been a very busy and absolutely amazing year so far. I have been remiss in keeping our blog up-to-date and for that I apologize and promise to try to do better!

Let's see if I can catch you up!

• Winter, Spring and Summer classes went off without a hitch slowly gaining more clients as we go. As always, we saw first steps, heard first words and shared tears of joy with the help of our four-legged friends!

While classes were going on, this was also happening!

• Ms. Jan agreed to join our Board of Directors and has become a huge advocate making a real difference. (Thank you, Ms Jan, we love you!)
• In March we officially finished raising the 2nd half of our down-payment and became property owners!!!
• As posted earlier, Empress went back to her owner, but with help from some neighbors and our Vet, we got 2 new Haflingers - Tex & Doc. 
  
• In April, a movie was shot out here.  Ashley from the newspaper did a great write up about it for the local paper. Talk about exciting! More about that coming in the next post.
• In May we hosted an EAGALA Ethics clinic with counselors from all over our service area.
• We lost Kyle (he found a better paying job) and Tiffany came on board to take his place. She has some really big shoes to fill!
• We had to shut down classes for a week because of a really bad storm. Didn't do any real property damage, but all 9 horses got hit by hail and they needed time to heal.
• Our fiscal year ended in July with a very successful SHOT Show and Competition.
• Then came August with: a) Hay being cut, baled and put up for the winter (673 bales, wow!), b) the first movie premiere (OMG it is awesome!), and Southwest Wrestling Entertainment partnering with us to raise funds. All the while working on summer projects like: constant horse training and getting the new boys ready for classes, keeping up with the mowing and upgrading the driveway. Please remember that with the exception of help from an occasional community service personnel and a couple of volunteers, we do it all ourselves. Volunteers? Anyone over 14 years old? Please?
• Pam and I took a 4 day vacation. First one in 6 years and it was fabulous. Thank you Jessica and Becky for the trip to Lake Hamilton!
• August ended with the movie premiering here in Sulphur Springs. Thank you to Shannon Oaks Church for hosting it and all the folks that came out to see it!

There, I think we're pretty much caught up on a high level. I'll post some more pics in the picture tab within the next few days.

Whew!!!

M

Bye Empress

Before anyone gets the wrong idea, Empress is fine. She is happy and healthy, but she is leaving us.

When Shadow Ranch was founded, we knew we were taking a huge chance. We were moving to a rural town where we knew very few people and starting a new organization in an industry that very few people knew about much less believed in. We really didn't know if we would make it or not. Because of that, we decided that our founding herd would be contracted from their owners. That way if we didn't make it as an organization, the horses would have a place to return to. That was 4 years ago and her owner has decided not to renew her contract and take her home.

Empress was one of our founding herd. She was irreplaceable when we first started up. I don't know what we would have done without her. With the help of this beautiful creature, kids and adults have made miraculous progress. She has even been given credit for saving the life of one. She has been herd boss and a great one at that...not too pushy, but as protective over them as I am. If it wasn't for her, I would never have known that our friend the cougar swings through and hangs out for awhile every Spring.

Even though I know in my head that she will be cared for, it is with a heavy heart (and a few tears) that my staff, volunteers, students and I say farewell. 

Tiffany, thank you for allowing us the pleasure of working with this wonderful mare.

Empress, you shall be missed.

M

Research!!! Lookie here!

Researchers Find Working With Horses Increases Emotional Intelligence in Humans

Source: University of Kentucky

“When nurses and doctors benefit from collaborating with horses then ultimately their patients also benefit.”

Researchers in the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture recently completed one of the first studies to explore how working with horses can develop emotional intelligence in humans. UK Center for Leadership Development researchers, Patricia Dyk and Lissa Pohl, collaborated with UK HealthCare nurse researchers, Carol Noriega, Janine Lindgreen and Robyn Cheung on the two-year study, titled “The Effectiveness of Equine Guided Leadership Education to Develop Emotional Intelligence in Expert Nurses.”

“With Lexington being known as the Horse Capital of the World, it is only fitting that the University of Kentucky is conducting pioneering research in the emerging field of equine assisted learning,” said Patricia Dyk, director of the Center for Leadership Development.

The project included a control group of 10 nurses from the Neuroscience Surgery Service Line and an intervention group consisting of 11 nurses from the Trauma and Acute Care Surgical Service Line at UK Chandler Hospital. At the start of the study and again six months later, both groups took the online assessment appraising emotional intelligence. Nurses in the intervention group participated in a one-day workshop that involved experiential learning with horses.

“Each exercise in the workshop was designed to develop the four emotional intelligence competency areas of self-awareness, self-management, social awareness and relationship management,” said Lissa Pohl, research project manager and workshop facilitator.

Nurses from the intervention group filled out qualitative surveys immediately after their experience with the horses and again three months after the workshop.

The before and after survey results showed there was an increase in the scores of the intervention group in all four competency areas when compared to the control group. The researchers admitted, though, that the small number of participants in the study makes it difficult to conclude that working with the horses was the cause of the intervention group’s increase.

Marie-Claude Stockl was the co-facilitator for the workshop with the nurses. She owns the Horse Institute, and as such, facilitates equine-assisted learning workshops for corporate groups in central New York state.

“We are thrilled to get this research completed, because it builds the credibility of all organizations offering this type of learning experience,” she said.

According to Pohl, the initial results are encouraging and they lay the groundwork for subsequent studies of larger and more diverse populations of nurses.

“If horses can increase our ability to understand ourselves and others better, then the healthcare industry is a perfect place for studies like these,” she said. “When nurses and doctors benefit from collaborating with horses then ultimately their patients also benefit.”

Horse Health - Wintertime... Brrr

So. It's not even Thanksgiving and already here in East Texas we've had a little ice, a few hard freezes as well as the earliest freeze in 15 years. Plus the old-timers and the Farmer's Almanac are saying the winter this year is going to be a doozy.

In East Texas, we do not have the FEET of snow that they have further north. (We live below the snow belt for a reason!) However when it gets cold, it gets cold and wet and miserable for humans and animals alike! 

What kind of things do we do to help insure that our horses stay healthy in the cold? Remember there are a lot of right ways to do things. These are just some of the things that work for us:

1) We change their feed up a little.  Except for the rye we planted in the fall, the grass has all gone dormant and is brown and dry. So it's time to start putting out hay. We also start adding alfalfa pellets to their feed. Alfalfa is a hot feed so it starts warming them up from the inside out. We still watch their weight, especially Cowboy's, but generally horses use more calories staying warm in the winter, so that offsets the extra caloric intake from the alfalfa.

2)When they are out in the pastures, we make sure that there is enough hay for them to munch on all night. That helps keep them warm too. Just make sure that whatever hay you use is clean, fresh and mold free.  They usually won't eat moldy, dirty hay unless they get desperate, but if they do it can make them sick...real sick.

3) Feet. It is even more important to keep their feet as clean and dry as possible. Imagine having to walk on dirty ice and having that build up in the crevices of your feet...not good. Plus we have to watch out for thrush. Thrush is a predominately bacterial infection of the frog of a horse's hoof. If not caught in a timely manner, it can become not only horribly stinky. but incredibly painful as well. It tends to show up when their feet stay wet for prolonged periods of time...like Winter and Spring. It sounds kinda yucky, but cleaning those hooves and paying attention to the way they smell is really important this time of year.

4) Water, water, water. Just because it's not a gazillion degrees outside, doesn't mean we don't have to pay attention to how much water they are drinking. Warm it up if you have to...We do!
Oh and when fishing that ice out of their water troughs, I really like using one of those pooper scooper things you can get for cat boxes. Can get the smaller chunks that break off and still keep your hands dry.

5) Shelter. We make sure they have something to break the wind and keep ice off their backs. When they are out in the pastures and the temp is below freezing or close to it, 2 of our horses get blanketed, because their coats are not thick enough yet this year: Flame because of skin allergies and Scooter because she's not quite there yet.

6) Did I mention water?

Most of the horses' coats have come in as thick as I have ever seen them. Maybe the old-timers and the Farmers' Almanac are right.  Brrrrr.

M