Can You Help Us on Giving Tuesday?

Getting ready to ride
 in Horse Power

Have you heard about Giving Tuesday, the nonprofit world's answer to Black Friday and Cyber Monday? Tuesday, November 27 is Giving Tuesday, a day on which supporters are encouraged to make donations to nonprofit organizations whose work they value.

You may know us best for Pony Farm summer camp or our riding lessons, and may not be aware that Touchstone Farm is a 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation. We have programs for both able-bodied individuals and those with physical, emotional, or cognitive challenges.

If you are in a giving mood on Giving Tuesday, your donation to Touchstone Farm will help fund programs such as:

• Horse Power, our therapeutic riding and driving program for individuals facing physical, cognitive, emotional, behavioral and learning challenges.
• Barnyard Buddies, our summer day camp for children in  grades K – 5 and for children and adults with specials needs.

Punch on parade
during Barnyard Buddies
summer day camp

Your donations help us keep these programs affordable for the participants. For example, we maintain a scholarship fund for Barnyard Buddies so that we can offer reduced or waived tuition to those who cannot afford the regular fee.

Your donations also defray the enormous costs of caring for the wonderful horses and farm animals who are essential to these programs. Horses such as Gretsky, Roxy, Annie, and Socks, whom you may know from Pony Farm or riding or carriage driving lessons, are also specialists in therapeutic riding. We owe it to these terrific animals to give them the best possible care, and that care is expensive.

Dunkin the donkey
and friend

We are grateful to you and all of our supporters for everything you contribute to Touchstone Farm -- time, money, and good wishes. We thank you for all that you do for us.

If you would like to donate today, or anytime, click here to be taken to our online donations form.

Again, we can't say it often enough: thank you. Together, we can do great work.

Packing a Little Punch

This week I’m giving you a break from my chatter about Roxy, my lesson horse at Touchstone Farm. Instead, I’m introducing you to another of my favorites at the farm, Punch, the smallest of the farm’s mini-horses.

Dare ya not to smile.

Punch’s height tops out around 30 inches (I’m being generous here). That makes him approximately the size of a modestly built sheep. I know this because he was standing next to one of the farm’s sheep in their paddock when I visited them on Sunday afternoon.

Boo guesses that Punch is about 21 years old, and he definitely has some years of seniority at the farm. Like most Touchstone Farm horses, he fills multiple roles.

Punch is your go-to guy if you are a quite small person who wants to ride. He’s also the horse to meet if you are small – or large – and are drawn to the magic of horses but are a little fearful of them, too. No one could be afraid of Punch.

I mean, just look at him. Are you not smiling at his round shaggy self?

I’ve seen a lot of Punch this summer because he is on the equine staff of Barnyard Buddies summer day camp. His camp responsibilities strike me as the job he was born for. He pulls Barnyard Buddies campers in a light carriage. He's available for meet-and-greets. He also makes an excellent live model for learning equine anatomy.

He's small but he's got all the essential parts.

Punch parties like it's 1999.

My point in talking about Punch is more than showing you cute pictures of a cute horse. I'm coming to understand the Touchstone Farm herd and realize it is much more than a collection of nice horses. These are working animals, and they have very specific abilities. The farm staff carefully selects and trains the right horses for roles only they can fill. That takes time and a lot of experience with horses.

Punch is aged and chubby and very small, but he is very valuable to the farm. He also has a fan club to rival Roxy's. After all, Roxy may be a wonderful lesson and therapeutic riding horse, but I can tell you right now that she wouldn't be caught dead in that tie.

See you around the farm.

Kathy McDonald
Rider and Volunteer at Touchstone Farm