TEMPS LOWER AND SEEDS SLOWER!

BLUE ROOM UPDATE...

Since we last posted a couple of weeks ago the temperature has taken a dive in Cochabamba to lows of 2C at night. This has slowed the sprouting process and sent Lee, Abby and Erin to the drawing board for ideas on how to insulate and raise temps in the blue room. We have seen some amazing things done with plastic bottles that could help. We are also facing attacks from birds and small rodents as they too look for food as we move into the dry, cold season.

We are not discouraged but just set back a bit and still needing some financial donations(approx. $500 in total) to finish up the room (more plastic to insulate, finish shelves and buy 40 more growing trays) and buy the pump we need to improve the seed watering set up.

If you can please click the Pay Pal icon and give.

To those of you who have already given thanks sooooo much.

IN OTHER NEWS..

We had another competition this past Sunday which went really well. Both horses and youth left with big smiles on their faces. Well okay maybe not the horses exactly, but the kids definitely.. Check out Rodrigo!

Jose Luis and his sister have been busy distributing material to schools and clinic about our Equine therapy Program and the riding classes. Here is the poster we got printed which was designed by Mia. Beautiful job, thanks so much Mia!

BACK TO SHOWING

Last Sunday while the sky was still black the boys head  to Blajot to ride Suerte, Pittu, Black Beauty, Valkirie, Distiguido and Payso the 10 kilometers to the country club for our first competition of the year. It was a great day filled with nervousness and laughter, as we scrambled around sharing clothes, helmets and even riding boots. Thanks to Richard, rifling through the stock he has at his riding school, we all looked handsome or in Mariana and Kathy's cases pretty, as we each took a chance at jumping.

In mini-jumping 0,70 cm Daniel and Miguel came in first and second!!!

José Luis giving them their ribbons.

Evey one else did just as well and below is a selection of some of our finest moments through out the day.

Sitting their basking in the Cochabamba sun, watching the kids puff up with pride as the completed the courses against horses twice as big and 20x as expensive, I could see why José Luis is so adamant that they compete and how much it means to everyone of them to get a glimpse of this world so far from their barrios.

THEY LOVE IT!!!

Jose Luis feeding our first harvest!

As you can see the horses love the barley fodder. This happy photo was taken by Dominik a volunteer from Switzerland who has been helping us over the past few weeks.

Justin and Mia Rock!

Hey everyone, we have been so lucky for the past 2 weeks to have two great Australian volunteers with us, Justin and Mia!! They have used their skills as a plumber and a graphic designer to help us move the seed room along and create some great promotional material.

You can see from this series of photos that Justin is getting the irrigation set up. We are having some issues with light and with water pressure but we are finally sprouting 8 trays to see how it goes!!!! Justin has been a life saver and so busy I don't even have a pic of him to post!

Irrigation tubes running into the trays

Funnels used to drain trays

Drain running out of growing shed

Our new hose and soaking buckets!

As you know from reading old post we have lost the $450 funding we had to pay the rent and buy a bit of food for the horses so the pressure is on! Fortunately we have a great team of support both in Bolivia and the US and we have been exploring a number of money making ventures.

1. Expand the Equine Assisted Therapy (EAT) program to paying client/private client. We have begun to offer the EAT privately with a beautiful poster that Mia is in the process of designing.We have 2 new children participating and their parents have been overwhelmed by the effectiveness of the therapy. Once we put a few more touches on the promotional materials we will be visiting doctors who work with children with disabilities to let them know about EAT and its effectiveness. In order to make this a success we need to print posters, business cards and leaflets.

Handmade bridles with donated bits.

2. Make halters and bridles to sell to other equestrian schools in the area. Jose Luis has done this in the past and it has been very successful. In order to get this moving forward we need a bit of capital to buy the webbing we make the halters from and bits for the bridles. This photo shows you an example of our work.

3. Use the horses on the weekends for trail riding. There are a number of beautiful spots around Cochabamba for trail riding and in the past the kids have made money to feed the horses by taking folks on weekend trail rides. In order to do this we need to be able to shoe the horses and get a poster (YES Mia is designing more than one) printed advertising the rides.

4. Finish up the seed room. This will lower food costs by 45%, from $9739 a year to $5322 a difference of $4417. With the latest financial problems it is even more crucial that we get this up and running. Since we last wrote another $150 has come in so we are $700 short of our goal.

So as you can read we are busy and we are trying to become more self sufficient and generate our own funding sources. We do still need donations to help with this so please, if you can hit the donate button DO.

If you want it earmarked for any particular thing just let us know and we will be sure to use the money as you would like. Please pass this on to friends and family if you can it helps us to expand our circle of donors.

Thanks Justin and Mia and all of you for your help and support!

HEADING UP!

The seed growing room at blajot!

Thanks Abby and Ann for the donations yesterday!!

Now we only need $849.20 to completely finish the blue seed room and $253.20 more to get Justin to set up the watering system while he is here!!

UP WE GO, DOWN WE GO...

Just a quick note to see if anyone can help out with the curent DOWN WE GO. The only stable funding source for the equine assisted therapy program has been terminated. Although it was only $450 a month it allowed us to pay the rent on the field the horses are in $150 and pay Jose Luis' a small salary $300.

We have come up with a 3 solid ways to raise the money:
1. Look for private clients for the equine assisted therapy program.
2. Use the ponies for birthday parties.
3. Start trail riding on the weekends for tourists.
4. Submit a grant to the Global Children´s Fund.
So we are working on these although numbers 1 to 3 call for a bit of capital in the way of money for advertising and shoes for the horses.

The current crisis makes finishing up the barley sprouting project even more crucial as it will reduce the costs of feeding the horses by 44%.  To date we have raised $970! Thank you all who have donated.

To finish we need to raise $996 more but most crucial is the $400 for the watering system so the volunteers coming at the end of March can set that up. 


If you can give anything $5 or $10 or $20 it would be put to good use!!!

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!!!