Meet Zachary, Jacob, and our Curly Flock Farm

Hi!  My name is Zachary.  I love Lego’s, trains, ferryboats, chickens, and my curly horses.  I am autistic and allergic to horses, but not to curly haired horses.  I can breathe around them and they do not make me itchy.  Promise is my favorite horse.  I like to ride her. 

This is Jacob.  He likes Lego’s and chickens, too.  He isn’t allergic to horses, like me.  He loves Baby and wants to ride her, but mom said we have to wait until Baby is more trained. 

Hi!  I’m Mom, also known as Jennifer.  A few years ago, we enrolled Zachary in equine therapy for his autism, but after he broke out in hives and suffered severe asthma attacks from being around straight haired horses, we thought we were done with horses.  Then we discovered curly horses.  Now, we have five curlies: three Bashkir’s, one Fox Trotter, and one BLM mustang.  And we can’t imagine life without them.  They have helped our children in so many ways.  

            

Until fairly recently, we lived in San Diego, California, where we were blessed with multiple opportunities to share our horses with lots of other children, some with special-needs, some allergic, and all horse-crazy.  Now, however, we are living in a small community on a small island, and although we love it here, we miss giving other children opportunities to see how special these horses are. 

This year, because we love children and we love horses, and in the spirit of the Ride-A-Curly contest, anyone that visits our stand at Lopez Island Farmers Market this summer will be given free “Ride-A-Curly” rides.  Any and all donations will go to our local 4-H club and to Curly Horse Rescue.  Also this year, we plan to continue what we’ve been doing for the past two years: continue to learn from and about these calm, curious, friendly, curly-haired horses. 

This is Ed, also known as Daddy.  Ed makes all of this possible for us, and for that, among many other reasons, we love him.  And he doesn’t mind wearing silly hats J

Meet the Curlies!

Shalome:  our first horse; he is smart, funny, sweet, sometimes a booger, always first at the gate.  He will start under saddle this year.  If Shalome could come into the house or climb into the car, he would.  He loves people and has the most expressive eyes.  Zachary is looking forward to riding him one day, but in the meanwhile, he loves to pet him and hug on him.

Promise:  safe and sane but not always sound, Promise is our recessive-gene curly-haired Fox Trotter.  She is our special-needs horse, and we work hard to keep her sound.  She loves children and is patient and tolerant around them.  Last year, over sixty children were able to ride her and give love to Promise; I think she also loved them.  She will continue to do what she does best: provide children a safe and quiet ride. 

Marley:  unflappable, quiet, a thinker, but still a baby.  Our third horse, Marley, was captured in the Salt Wells Creek BLM herd management area in October 2010; he is a spring/summer 2010 baby.  As novice horse owners, we were nervous about adopting Marley.  The whole concept of a “wild mustang” really intimidated me, but I have always loved the mustangs, and this horse needed a home, so we adopted him.  Marley, however, was nothing like the “wild” mustang I imagined.  He was halter trained at the Wild Horse Inmate Program (WHIP) in Canon City, Colorado and they did a fantastic job with him.  He is sweet, gentle, patient, and will make an outstanding trail horse and mount for larger special-needs individuals.  He is still young, though, so we will continue exposing Marley to different things, and will do some ground work, but mostly, he still gets to play, be groomed, and be loved on.

Baby:  when I hear people talking about in your pocket, Baby is the horse that comes to mind.  She LOVES people, and has a heart of gold, but like some other extreme curlies, she can be pushy.  With her, this year, we will be working on ground manners and then she will start driving.  Baby is Jacob’s favorite horse and he can hardly wait to ride her.  When we still lived in San Diego, Baby lovingly gave herself to a few breast cancer survivors who loved to come and breathe her in.  I think Baby was born to help other women and children suffering from trauma or living with special needs.  This horse has a heart of gold.

Magic:  captured my heart when I first saw her, but she would not let anyone near her.  Skittish, untrained, and was closer to wild than Marley; to say I was nervous about bringing her home would have been a huge understatement.  But she had a kind eye that spoke to me.  I promised her that we would go slowly and softly.  We brought her home last year, in January of 2012, along with Baby.  I hand fed her for months and slowly she learned to trust me.  When I felt she trusted me, we hired a trainer to come and work with her and me.  She is soft, kind, and generous; she has an amazing spirit.  I love this horse. 

  

I love all of them.  And I love all children.  Besides helping my own children, my goal this year for the RAC contest, is to find a way, on this tiny little island, to bring my two loves together, horses and children, so they can grow and blossom J