Man's Second Best Friend

This is just a short blog to remind all of us that the health of earth’s animal kingdom is a reflection of the health of humankind, and that cruelty to animals of any kind is unacceptable human behavior.

Be kind to an animal today and kindness will be bestowed upon you tenfold in return….

Write on,

Mittster

Holiday at the Ranch

If you are anywhere in northern Arizona on Saturday, December 11, 2010, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., the Holiday Party at Connections Equine Therapy Program in Cornville is a must destination! Click on the title of this blog for more information about Connections.

There will be a Chance To Win $1,000 Cash with a $20 raffle ticket!!

Also there will be:

Horse rides for kids

Face and hair painting

Ornament making

Hay wagon rides

Natural horsemanship demo

Client demo

Santa will be there for photos

Raffles of gifts

Snacks

Music

Connections provides the magical horse-human experience to enhance the potential for healing in individuals who seek physical, mental and emotional balance.

Sandy and I will be there volunteering for this wonderful event. Hope to see YOU there!

Directions to Connections Equine Therapy Program from Sedona:

Take 89A west to Page Springs Road, travel approx. 5 miles to Purple Sage Rd., and then park at the Oak Creek School for a wheelchair-accessible wagon ride to Connections.

Write on,

Mitt Winstead

The Miracle Horses

HELPING CHANGE LIVES WITH HORSE THERAPY

Connections Equine Therapy Program (a not for profit corporation) in Cornville, Arizona, desperately needs financial aid to keep the program alive for challenged boys, girls, men and women. My wife and I have been volunteers at Connections for seven years and have seen firsthand the miracles that horse therapy provides to our human community.

If you could only see the light of hope shining from the eyes of adults who have not only never ridden a horse, but are so physically challenged that they never in their wildest dreams thought it possible in the first place!

If you could only see the light of hope shining from the eyes of children who, for the first time, groom a therapy horse from a wheelchair and find a lifelong friend!

If you could only see the light of hope shining from the eyes of young and old, dealing with addictions, learning how to handle and care for a therapy horse and, in the process, learning about themselves!

If you could only see the sadness and pain in the eyes of the dedicated founders, board members, and volunteers who have spent years watching these miracles and who now understand, without immediate financial help, this program will be lost to all of its clients!

The eyes are a window to the soul, and the soul of Connections Equine Therapy Program is crying. Please Google Connections Equine Therapy Program and see firsthand the goodness this program represents. In a world with so much negativity, especially right now, how can we watch such a wonderful and positive program that helps so many cease to exist?

Please help us help others who cannot help themselves. Our dream is to be able to say, "The program lives!"

Mitt Winstead
Camp Verde, Arizona

http://connectionsaz.com/
mittinc@commspeed.net

Animal Lovers' Delight

Once in a lifetime, if you are lucky, you may meet someone very special like Sandy Winstead. This lady will be a dear friend to any critter that passes by whether they need a home or not.

She also tirelessly donates her time and energy to the Connections Equine Therapy Program in Cornville, Arizona, helping challenged people of all ages learn more about themselves through the amazing healing love of horses.

I have seen the ecstatic smiles on the faces of clients as they ride for the first time in their lives while Sandy leads their horse around the arena and side walkers make sure they don't fall off.

It's not all fun with the horses and clients either. Sandy volunteers for horse care duty, which includes shoveling horse dukie, feeding, watering, brushing, hoof cleaning, fly spray and masks for all the horses. There is also the chickens who need feeding and the dogs who need their early morning treats.

Sandy is also on the board of directors in the capacity of secretary. She attends all the meetings and is the founder's personal assistant. You would think after many years as an office professional for The Dow Chemical Company in Michigan, she would have had enough dictating and such, but no, she does it out of love for the program, owner, volunteers, clients and all the wonderful animals at Connections, and her love of being a secretary.

I, for one, am amazed at her devotion and selfless dedication to volunteerism. Sure, I am sometimes a Connections Equine Therapy widower and, no doubt, prejudice. But, you have to know, I am also the proudest husband in the world!

Write on,

Mittster

Connections Equine Therapy

Today, I would like to post an open letter from Andrea Baldwin, founder of Connections Equine Therapy. If there was ever a cause, this is it!

Write on,

Mittster


May 2010


Dear Supporters,

Thank you for your loyalty and support. It has been a challenging yet rewarding year and we need your help to continue. It is very sad to see what our clients are going through with all the cutbacks which affect those who are living marginally to begin with.

Equine therapy may seem like a luxury item—but to riders like Caroline who loses her ability to walk if she doesn’t ride, or Donald whose riding helps him fight the effects of a lifetime in a wheelchair, or little Jesse who at 5 was unable to speak and is now talking, and last but not least, Miss Allie, a beautiful, fairy-like preteen who lived in her fantasy world with imaginary friends until she met our horse Asia who has coxed her into the real world—it’s not a luxury at all. Allie struggles socially at school, and we all know how hard teen years are, but can you imagine her experience? Here at Connections she is becoming a top rider and starting to ride independently. She stays very focused and her imaginary friends don’t come to sessions anymore. She is loved and cherished for her uniqueness and is doing something that builds her focus and self-esteem. We and her family have been anxiously awaiting her AIMS testing scores to see in writing if the changes that we’ve observed were translating to her academic work. Her family told us that, “Connections has helped Allie more than anything else they’ve ever tried.” And the AIMS results are in and Allie’s scores have soared! But she still needs our support to help her with social skills and continue in her academic progress.

I feel so blessed that you have stayed loyal to Connections and helped us to continue to serve these individuals and others. I feel blessed every week Asia gets the special senior feed he needs. I am grateful for every flake of hay I feed. I often look into big brown or blue eyes and see trust there that we still value their service and will continue to provide them with a secure home where they can do the work they love. Even the newest member of the team, little Minity “Mini,” has started helping others by putting such smiles on their faces. We have been amazed how she will go to clients and put her head on their shoulders and let them hug her—sometimes pretty roughly—it seems she already knows why she’s here and what she’s here for.

We are constantly being creative to be better stewards of your donations, and here are some things that you could do to help:

• If everyone who has an E-mail address would E-mail it to us, at connections@commspeed.net, we could cut our newsletter costs by E-mailing it to you. Be assured that E-mail addresses will be kept confidential and used only this purpose.
• Take a few minutes of your time and sign up for GoodSearch. Every time you do a search on the Internet, using GoodSearch, it creates revenue for the program.
• Sign up for eScrip, which gives Connections a percentage when you shop.
• For more information and directions on these last two bullets, please go to and click on “Donations” on the sidebar.

These are areas of long-term support for us in the future, but we need your help now. Many of you may not know that we have supplemented some of the Connections’ budget by providing services through our equine-assisted work to various organizations that pay for these services. Due to the economic downturn, we have lost these accounts.

We are now very excited to announce that we have been chosen to provide corporate team building experiences in our experiential program through referrals from Enchantment Resort in Sedona. Enchantment is an amazing place that received the World’s Best Award by Travel & Leisure in 2009. You can check them out at www.enchantmentresort.com. We have also been approached to provide services for a new rehab that will be opening soon.

Soooo there is light at the end of this tunnel, but we need your help to get there!

Happy Trails…and I can’t thank you enough again,



Andrea Baldwin