Preschool Pony Rides

Once a year we do pony rides for a special needs preschool. Today was our 4th time doing it, and the first time we had spent a year collecting up stuffed horses, unicorns, donkeys, zebras, and anything else equine, so that each child could take home their very own pony - as well as several stick horses to leave in their classrooms. My friend Carol who got me into this in the first place, and worked so hard to gather enough ponies, unfortunately missed out for the first time, due to a family emergency. Thankfully she did round up 2 more helpers for me, one at the very last minute! And two of my new friends from the AZBCR website came along as well.
Patiently waiting... (and you can see the stick horses hanging on the brick wall behind them)

As for the red stuff, that was left-overs from a visit by Jamba Juice - ha! And my horses and donkey didn't even poop once outside the trailer :)

Volunteer Michelle and her mini mare Ginger, who was one of the first miniature horses we rescued back in 2003.

Volunteer Mel with my Foxy, who also came to us through the rescue.
If you look real close you will see that Mel has both arms casted! Good thing Foxy is such a well-behaved horse ;)

Volunteer Samantha with my Betty Jean, who gave a fine demonstration of why donkeys are so often called stubborn... although right here she is doing really well!
And volunteer Melanie with my Sunshine during her stint as the "spare", whose job is to be petted by the kids who are not currently riding.

(That's Michelle and Ginger again in the background)

And off to the right you can see Betty Jean...

The stuffed ponies were very well-received and the real ponies behaved very well, so a great day was had by all!

And look what we got at the end! Too cool...