WE SURVIVED RAINY SEASON!!!!

Things are good with the horses, they spent almost 2 months in the rain eating grass in abandoned lots around the city and many are a bit fatter than before. One of the ponies got badly cut and we are having to have a vet come everyday to keep him healthy.  Jose Luis has organized a soccer championship and the youth are playing every Mon, Wed and Sat nights. Turbo and Alejandro do an awesome job of heading up the horse care staff and are very proud of how well the horses survived rainy season. We are all working hard now the rains have stopped to get the horses and ourselves! back in shape.

Magaly giving out school supplies.

A number of the kids were helped out by the project with school supplies as so many of them drop out of school due to lack of money to buy what they need to complete their homework.

The blue room is still standing after the torrential rains and we are ready to get back to work and get this barley fodder (click here to see a facsimile of what we are setting up, of course, without Home Depot materials :)) system up and running. We have built 2 shelves but need one more as well as the watering system and a couple other odds and ends. We have found volunteers to donate their time to build the last shelf and have a plumber coming at the end of March who will donate his time setting up the irrigation system!! We are in good shape and could be up and running in mid-April!

To date we have raised $970! Thank you all who have donated.

To finish we need to raise the following:

Growing trays  $310
Shelves $150
Watering system $400
Pump  $100
Timer for the watering system $36

Total $996

If you can help give a click on the Pay Pal button and please pass this on to anyone who might be interested!!!

RAINY DAYS IN THE BLUE ROOM

Team work!

It is rainy season here in Cochabamba which means the hills turn a emerald green and the horses spend their days grazing in the empty lots around the city.

We are trying desperately to get the "blue room" done and the seed sprouting underway.

Erin and Manuel volunteering

 TGFV (Thank God For Volunteers)....Erin has been with us for the month and has been amazing in her tenacity for this project. She hails from Washington state and works as a chemist but has discovered she has a talent for building shelves with not very straight knotty eucalyptus logs! She and I struggled together after Micha left (another TGFV!) to figure out how the heck you put these things together!!

This week we have been moving quickly thanks to Manuel who is visiting Erin from Peru and Pinki who is  always ready to lend a hand. 2 shelves are almost complete and ready to be put into production! I have included some fotos of them workin in the rain in the blue room to give you an idea of what we are up to.

The first shelf!!!

We have raised about $900 and still need another $1000 or so to finish shelves, set up a watering system and get the seeds. Thanks to all who have donated we really appreciate it and to those who haven't been able to yet even $10 or $20 goes a long way so if your inspired hit the button to the right of this post.

Cielo and her foal

Hi there this is Lee in Cochabamba. I wanted to give an update on how fundraising was going to date and share some updated costs.

First we have a new addition to the Vida y Esperanza family!!! Geronimo a beautiful pinto whose mother is Cielo and father is Pittu. He loves to canter around after his mom as she works in the afternoon.

To date we have raised $560 (thanks!!!) which has been spent to buy wood to make our own funky shelves (we have finally found a volunteer to finish this work since Micah left!). We have dug the foundation our for the room (but still need funds for the foundations and floor approx $200). We have put a roof on and put up blue plastic tarps for the sides (still need funds to put up adobe walls which will allow us to better control temperature and humidity $340).

The room for seed sprouting under the trees

 We have found a plastic container that will work to fashion the growing trays. The containers needs to be cut and drilled and a plastic drain put in making the cost of each container is $7. We have bought 30 containers but still need another 30 ($270 we still owe $60 on the ones we just bought!). We are still playing around with how to set up the watering system and are estimating that will cost approx. $500.

So folks we are still raising money if you can help us out! Click that button to the right!

New Fodder System

         Hello everyone! Abby here. It's been a while since I've posted, but I'm so glad to see that the other volunteers have kept up the blog and taken advantage of all it has to offer. Being that it is the holiday season I wanted to bring up a very important issue for Vida y Esperanza... food. As I'm sure you have seen in pictures that have been posted, many if not all of the horses in the project are barely able to keep weight on. Currently the program struggles to find donors to help pay for food, since there isn't enough money to cover it from lessons Jose Luis gives to his private students. With 10 horses eating 6 kilos of food per day (a combination of grains, cereals, and alfalfas) the annual cost of feed comes to $9,739. In order to pay for this on his own, Jose Luis would need to maintain 13 full-time students, which isn't reasonable considering he needs to make enough money on top of that to feed himself and his own family.

         Having watched several "green" documentaries lately, I got to thinking.... isn't there some way we can cut down on costs? A way to cut out the middle man and grow our own food efficiently? Lee and I began brainstorming, and she came across the idea of growing barley fodder. We found this great video which gives comprehensive instructions for growing this great alternative to conventional ways of feeding. Take a look...

         The action of sprouting amplifies the natural proteins, vitamins, minerals, enzymatic activity, omega 3’s, amino acids, natural hormones, and stimulates immune response. In addition, sprouting the grain increases the digestibility from 40 percent to 80 percent, so that the horses will not need to consume as much fodder compared to commercial feed since they will be obtaining more nutrition from a smaller volume of feed. A 5 pound batch of seed will yield a 25 pound fodder mat in only 7 days, exponentially increasing the efficiency of barley as a food source. By implementing a similar system to the one shown above, we would be able to produce 100 pounds of sprouted barley per day, plus feed them alfalfa at a cost of $5,322 per year! This would be a savings of 45 percent or $4,417 a year. This would translate into 7 full-time students, which is much more reasonable for Jose Luis.

         Excited about the possibility of this new system, Jose Luis and the boys put together a prototype with the help of a new volunteer named Micah. As you can see they used chicken wire and wood to construct shelves that are conducive to the flood-and-drain system that is the most effective in this kind of set-up. The entire process from seed to full sprouting takes only 7 days to complete. After some initial precautions are taken against mold (rinsing and soaking with a small amount of bleach or vinegar), all that is required is watering a few times a day, and voilà!

         This project is a great way to get the boys more involved with the program. Many of them have really taken to the idea, excited to learn about the growth process and becoming sustainable. Since the fodder will be harvested at Blajot, it will also provide much needed structure and a sense of responsibility among the members of Vida y Esperanza.

         Construction is set to begin next week at Blajot, starting with building a floor space and walls on an already existing lean-to structure. The bit that will be started next week Micah has very generously agreed to finance!! As for the rest of construction and material costs we predict that it will come to approximately $2,200. This figure may sound high, but with the fodder system in place we will still be saving over $2,000 the first year. We will need to buy:

34 Plastic 40L Gasoline Tanks (cut in half to make 64 24" x 15" trays) 
                $8.82 x 34 =  $300    

Materials to Build 2 Large Shelving Units 
                $350 x 2  =  $700

Drainage Supplies
                $200

Foundation and Walls for the Existing Lean-To
                $1,000

         If you wish to contribute to this project, please find the 'Donate' button on the right side of this blog. Any amount helps and is greatly appreciated. If you are unable to contribute monetarily, your input and ideas about how to further Vida y Esperanza's sustainability effort are welcomed, and you can do so by leaving a comment below each post! Sharing this page and spreading the word to friends and family is immensely helpful as well! Thanks again for all of the support!

INTRODUCING VALKIRIA

In order to share with you the boys in Jose Luis' program Vida y Esperanza have written biographies of their favorite horse. They did this to let you know about each horse.

So ta ta! We present Valkiria!

Valkiria:

Valkiria (Valkyrie) is 6 years old and has a brown coat.  He is from Santa Cruz and is one of the taller horses.  He doesn’t behave very well and is very crazy when someone rides him.  Valkiria has a lot of energy and is never calm.  He likes to trot and gallop and jumps beautifully.  He is a very strong horse and is able to jump very high obstacles.  He eats a lot and prefers to eat a very balanced diet.  Valkiria gets along with all of the horses very well.

Valkiria tiene 6 años y es un caballo con un pelaje café.  Él es de Santa Cruz.  Él es uno de los caballos más altos.  Él es mal comportado a veces y es muy loco cuando alguien le monta a él Valkiria tiene mucha energía y nunca es tranquilo.   A él le gusta a trotar y galopar mucho, y él salta muy bonito.  Él tiene mucha fuerza y por esa razón, puede saltar alturas muy altas!  Él come mucho y prefiere una dieta balanceada.  Valkiria se porta muy bien con todos los caballos.

As it is dry season here in Bolivia we are short of food for the horses if anyone cares to make a donation for the purchasing of food please use the DONATE button to the right. 

GRACIAS KARIN!!!!

Early this month we received some great donations from Karin Caves. She heard about the program from a student and quickly offered to donate some equipment. We managed to get some of it down here and are now waiting for another visitor to be able to bring us the saddles and boots she has. In the meantime we are happy to have the following: 

1 pair of stirrups with leathers
1 pair of spurs
1 used bridle
3 pairs of reins
2 halters
A set of galloping boots
4 used bits
3 sets of reins
1 pair of riding gloves

THANK YOU SO MUCH!

Jose Luis and the boys send Karin a big thank you!

MIRO AND MISHA

In July we were lucky to have Miro and Misha come to volunteer for the month through Volunteer Bolivia. The father and daughter team were a great addition to the program as they both ride in their hometown of Colorado Springs. Misha is 12 and an avid reader. She has a sister named Coco and lives with her father, Miro and her mom, Emily. Miro is a professor at Colorado College and spends much of his time studying tree lines high in the Colorado mountains. They both love nature and horses!!!

They brought with them a donation of equipment from the stable where they board their horse including some desperately needed galloping boots, saddle blankets, bits and brushes. The family also donated $274 to build and paint these jumps that the kids use for practice. They and the kids worked hard painting the jumps!

Wow!! They jump that high?

Even the pink paint worked out.

We would like to thank them for their donations and for the time they spent with us in Blajot hanging with the kids! 

They are missed but we are hoping to see the whole family in summer 2014!