Hope's Anchor Farm

Our first Art on the Farm group today!!

Come join us for Art on the Farm Friday mornings through August and September!!

Had some fun looking at the anatomy of the horse the other day!

Haven't updated the gram in a little while but Happy 4th y'all!! 🇺🇸🎇🎆💥🎉Enjoy Abby's photogenic self😁😜

A little update on Faith: I haven't posted too much about Faith lately, she's been off work for 5 months now due to a bone cyst in her stifle. We've been working on raising the funds to take her to a bone specialist in Maryland the past couple months and we finally raised the amount needed for the start of her treatment! She has an appointment tomorrow and we will find out more of what's going on hopefully by the end of the day tomorrow🙏🏻 Also her beautiful Appaloosa markings are coming into her summer coat and I am loving it!!😍😍

Here's a better comparison of Captain's journey then and now🥹 oh how far he's come! Even just the expression on his face😌 He's a big boy these days🤭 And look at that mane😍

Look at that transformation!!😍😍 Captain in December 22' and April 23'
We love to see this kind of improvement🤩🥳

We said goodbye to Ember this morning😌 lots of tears shed but partially happy tears knowing that she's finally able to rest in peace. She went very peacefully and quickly. Our vet was so kind and comforting during the whole process❤️ Rest easy Ember😇

Happy Sunday!!🌻🌞

Rescuing can be very rewarding at times but it can also be very challenging and physically and emotionally draining. These past few months Ember has gone through a lot of change, moving and multiple changes of herd. She has always been a more "high-stress" horse from day one, creating dangerous situations for herself and the people around her. Her behavior and aggressiveness has not been improving despite having outside trainers help and trying different things with our vet. This week she tried to run through the electric fence while I was leading her, resulting in a freak out moment that could've ended badly for everyone around. These are the challenging and discouraging moments within the rescue world. Because Ember is well into her 20s, our vet agreed that there are not many more options for her at this point which is why we are choosing to humanly euthanize her within the next few weeks. This has been a long process with a lot of thoughts and prayers about the decision. We will be sad but this is part of rescue, we gave Ember a safe landing where we were able to care for her and love her to the best of our ability. ❤️

Faith was diagnosed with a rare bone cyst back in January and has been off of work since then. She will need to go to a specialist to have further x-rays and an ultrasound done. She also may need PRP injections to encourage bone growth because in her rare circumstances the cyst is wide but not deep enough to have the common bone cyst surgery done. We are currently raising the funds for treatment ($1,600) and we are half way there!! ($800). Stay tuned for upcoming fundraisers and if you would like to donate towards her treatment fund please reach out!!!

Camps are now open for registration!! Grab a spot before they fill up!!🌞

What a beautiful day on the farm🌻🌈

Not my words but had to share🙌🏻 Definitely a good read.

Things your riding instructor wants you to know:
1. This sport is hard. You don't get to bypass the hard…..every good rider has gone through it. You make progress, then you don't, and then you make progress again. Your riding instructor can coach you through it, but they cannot make it easy.
2. You're going to ride horses you don't want to ride. If you're teachable, you will learn from every horse you ride. Each horse in the barn can teach you if you let them. IF YOU LET THEM. Which leads me to…
3. You MUST be teachable to succeed in this sport. You must be teachable to succeed at anything, but that is another conversation. Being teachable often means going back to basics time and time and time again. If you find basics boring, then your not looking at them as an opportunity to learn. Which brings me to…..
4. This sport is a COMMITMENT. Read that, then read it again. Every sport is a commitment, but in this sport your teammate weighs 1200 lbs and speaks a different language. Good riders don't get good by riding every once in awhile….they improve because they make riding a priority and give themsevles opportunity to practice.
5. EVERY RIDE IS AN OPPORTUNITY. Even the walk ones. Even the hard ones. Every. Single. Ride. Remember when you just wished someone would lead you around on a horse? Find the happiness in just being able to RIDE. If you make every ride about what your AREN'T doing, you take the fun out of the experience for yourself, your horse, and your instructor. Just enjoy the process.
6. You'll learn more about horses from the ground than you ever will while riding. That's why ground lessons are important, too. If you're skipping ground lessons (or the part of your lesson that takes place on the ground), you're missing out on the most important parts of the lesson. You spend far more time on the ground with horses than in the saddle.

It's also this girlies birthday!! Happy 3rd birthday Faith!!💛💛🌻

Prepping for some upcoming events!!

Join us at the farm on Friday March 17th between 10am-2pm for our "Day at the Farm" event!

❤️❤️

“How much weight can a horse carry?

In my experience, a horse can carry an infinite amount.

They can carry the weight of broken hearts, broken homes, and broken bodies. Countless tears sometimes comb their tangled manes. Moments when parents and friends cannot be there to help and hold a person, horses embrace and empower. They carry physical, mental, and emotional handicaps. They carry hopes and dreams; and they will carry the stress from your day when you can't carry it anymore.

They carry graduations, they carry new careers, they carry moves away from everything familiar, they carry marriages, they carry divorces, they carry funerals, they carry babys before they are born, and sometimes they carry the mothers who cannot carry their own baby. They carry mistakes, they carry joy, they carry the good and they carry the bad. They carry drugs and addictions, but they also carry the celebrations.

They will carry you to success when all you have felt is failure. They will carry you, never knowing the weight of your burdens and triumphs.

If you let them, they will carry you through life, and life is hard, life is heavy. But a horse will make you feel weightless under it all.”

-Written by Sara Huffman

Photo credit: https://www.facebook.com/DorotaKudybaArt/photos

Good night, God Bless. 🙏🏻💖

At Hope's Anchor Farm we aim to teach our students and volunteers the proper way to care for a horse, how to handle a horse from the ground and in the saddle! The weather is getting warmer🌞 and we'd love to have you at the farm!!

Come enjoy a day at the farm! We are trying to raise funds for some upcoming expenses for some of our herd members and we need your help! Come support Hope's Anchor Farm and all the critters here❤️

On a different note, I did have a wonderful session with Captain yesterday.
We worked on different things to get him more comfortable with being handled. I haven't kept you guys updated on here but Captain has been quite the wild child on the farm. We've run into many complications trying to get his feet and teeth done. He is very fearful and does not like to be touched really anywhere. So we are working on this right now in hopes that he will one day make someone a nice companion pony!

This is worth the read👇🏻
Dear Horse industry ( and world)

Stop being awful.

Stop putting others down for the sake of one's own prosperity.

Stop the whispers in the warm up ring.

Stop the snarky remarks behind closed doors.

Stop with the clicks and underhanded complements.

Stop with the need for newest and latest fashions or tack sets but never riding your horse in fear they may get dirty.

Stop manipulating others words or actions.

Stop normalizing poor sportsmanship and start normalizing folks who work hard.

Chances are if you've had horses long enough you've encountered some sort of this. From the competition world, to trail riders, to rescues, to top level riders, it's everywhere and it's terrible and it's got to stop. It's got to.

I've met riders, young and old, who are petrified to ride infront of people because some where along the line, someone told them they weren't good enough. I've seen talented people quit because of gossip and I've seen people give up on what they believe in because folks made them belive they were only 1' tall.

When you see a rider kicking them selves after a bad ride, tell them great job for hanging in there and give them some tips.

When you see that girl show up in the rusty old bumperpull, know she likely put everything she had into her entry fees.

When you see an organization fighting for what they believe in, fight with them.

When you see the girl too shy to ride, ask her to help you out by hopping on to keep your horse company because it would be an awfully big help.

When you see the girl scared to death in line up remind them why they are there and they have this.

When you see the girl discouraged over progress, remind them how far they have come.

The world is full of ugliness, horses should be our escape, not a place we feel belittled. We are all incredibly blessed to have Equines in our life. Becoming better Horseman is hard enough without having folks tear you down.

Please start normalizing raising each other up.

-Erin O'Neill 🌿

Salt & Pepper ponies❤️ Captain and Ember are having some downtime living together at the farm in Honey Brook. They have bonded together and are slowly learning to trust people as a team🥰

My one eyed girl❤️🌸

Muddy photoshoot part 3: Abby, Faith and Jupiter ❤️❤️

Muddy photoshoot part 2: Nala😍❄️

Muddy photoshoot part 1: Azalea's mare face🥲❤️ the closer she gets to the camera the angrier her face gets😂

Sugar Babe says hello🥰❤️

Look who moved to our main barn!! So excited for everyone to meet Freesia while she searches for her new home!

Merry Christmas!!🎄

Tucker (new name Teddy) is starting to finally settle into his new home! His new owners have been working on his groundwork and he's coming along pretty nicely!❤️

Some pics from our student and volunteer Christmas party last night!! It was cold but we had a blast!

Join us for our Christmas horsemanship camp!! It's going to be lots of fun with tons of education!

Happy Thanksgiving from the farm!!🦃🍂

Such a hard truth😪

Animal rescuers, learn to say no.

Also, learn to let go.

When funds are too low, say no.
When capacity is reached, say no.
When you're frazzled, say no.

When an animal has low quality of life, let go.
When they have a poor odds of recovery, let go.
When they truly are dangerous, let go.

Taking on more than you truly can provide for long term hurts animals and the rescue world.

Allowing animals to go through too much because your emotions hurt is destructive and counterproductive.

These things have always been true and important, but in the world we have now, a world in economic crisis where the numbers of animals coming in or in need is higher than in a very long time, the best thing we can do is to say no and let go.

If we collapse under the pressures of the need, then there is one less rescue to help long term.

If we hoard and give too little to those in our care, we make donors to animal work lose faith in all rescue, create massive burdens to other groups that remain and harm animals already in our care.

So many roads they veer off were paved with good intentions at the start.

You can best help animals in crisis by taking on only what you actually can handle and never holding too long because of human emotions.

Haven't done an update on Ember in a little while! She is getting so comfortable around people, she comes to you as soon as you walk in the gate! She also started putting some weight on FINALLY 🙏🏻 swipe to see her before and after pics

Tucker enjoying his new home🥰

Captain got his shoes off yesterday! Poor guy was in so much pain in his feet😪

These two, always finding mud to roll in🤦🏻‍♀️😂

Azalea and Captain had their teeth done yesterday! Azalea did wonderful, as usual😂 Captain on the other hand put up a bit of a fight but we got it done!