As smoke fills the air creating limited visibility, one thing is very clear: there is no off-season in agricultural communities; just less hectic times if you’re lucky. As the 2021 EPH riding season wrapped up until next year, our off-season turns to deeper grounds maintenance, tuning up of things to make even better suited therapy horses and doing all the necessary tasks to prepare the horses for the colder weather which always seems to find us.
Does that mean EPH has stopped looking for volunteers? Of course not. If you attended our successful open house in June perhaps you saw a horse that offered a connection possibility. While the riding season is scheduled for 10 weeks, there remains 42 weeks in the off-season allowing the opportunity to develop and/or strengthen a relationship with an EPH horse. Under full disclosure, please understand that EPH is not a facility where you call up, come out and simply ride horses. Through experience which has led to wisdom, EPH strongly believes that learning horsemanship from the ground first is a necessary building block to becoming a better rider. In order to get in the saddle, you and the horses deserve a chance to become better prepared. To this end, EPH has developed a program to achieve levels of success leading to higher levels of competence, horse-rider relationships and most importantly, safety. These levels are attained through education, training, repetition and testing. It does require a dedicated commitment but there are no time restrictions and people who have achieved fulfillment of the levels have done so at their individual pace. Here’s a free nugget of knowledge when dealing with horses: they don’t have watches and the only real time frame is the one that says you have to take the time it takes to accomplish your goals. Yet another example of how being around horses can be applied to our human lives making us better people.
Volunteers are also always welcome the year ‘round for maintenance of buildings, fences and other aspects supporting the horses and their well-being. Ask anyone who has had to work around horses while fixing fences, or some similar duty, and they will agree that you will find no better supervisor of your progress. To the point of annoyance, a horse’s curious nature almost hypnotizes them to stand and watch you work and offer advice on how they would perform the task. It is also recommended to keep track of your tools or your favorite sweatshirt that you removed because the sun finally broke through causing the sweat to roll down your back. More than once a horse has demonstrated their sense of humor by grabbing the discarded clothing and running to the far end of the pasture with a snort, kick and disobedient whinny. To paraphrase a radio DJ, they are guaranteed to entertain…themselves.
As fair season is underway, harvest is quickly approaching and school will be starting soon enough, remember that this very busy time of year will eventually calm, but there are still plenty of ways to be involved in the off-season. For further details, contact EPH at (308) 762-3848, eph@bbc.net or www.eastpointhorspice.com.