The Sixth Way of Giving

On this day:

Click below to hear the song.

Sixth Gift:

Six Days of Trimming

How these gifts helped:

Equamore Foundation uses this gift to help its horses.

At a basic rate of $35 per trim, the value of this example of community service totals approximately $6,000. Without the help of Larry, Mike, and Becca, Equamore Foundation would be hard put to keep the 116 hooves of its 29 horses in condition. With it, our horses are able to play and romp in their fields on healthy, trimmed feet.

Equamore Foundation uses the gift to help the community.
Having been saved the enormous expense of hoof care for our 29 horses, Equamore Foundation has been able to expand its programs beyond horse rescue into public education with the goal of eliminating the problem of unwanted horses before rescue efforts become necessary.

How you can help.
Any talents you have can help Equamore Foundation care for its resident horses. In addition to horse-related help like horse handling and grooming, we need people who can help us print and distribute our newsletter, writers who can tell our horses’ stories, gardeners who can help beautify the Sanctuary, even sweepers who can keep the breeze way clean.

Click here to see other business partners who give their time and talents to Equamore Foundation as part of their community service

Twelve Ways of Giving . . .

The Sixth Way of Giving:

Donating Time and Talent.

Beginning in 2009, farriers Larry McCue and Mike Gilbert have volunteered their time and talent to make sure that Equamore’s horses have the best hoof care available. Like clockwork, every eight weeks or six times a year, these two came to the Sanctuary for a marathon trimming session, some days trimming 30 horses between them. In 2010 their efforts were augmented by Becca Thomason and her partners Cheri Edwards and Neil Carter, who volunteered to help by taking on the hoof care of three Equamore horses as their way of giving back both to the community and to the horses who help them earn a living.

History Lesson: December 31

In the “12 Days of Christmas” the gift of the day is “six geese a-laying.” The gift from these Equamore friends was six days of trimming.

Of course, it’s New Year’s Eve and time to sing, “Auld Lang Sine,” which was “updated” from an old Scottish ballad by Robert Burns, who sent his version to the British Museum. Throughout the English-speaking world, Auld Lang Syne is traditionally sung on New Years Eve (known as Hogmanay in Scotland). That tradition does not hearken back to Burns but rather only to Canadian band leader Guy Lombardo, who sang it midnight January 1, 1929, in the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City.  Guy Lombardo’s orchestra played the song every New Years Eve, in live broadcast from New York, until 1976.  Since then, their recording has been played each year as part of the Times Square “ball drop.”  The song always reminds us of old friends and “good old times,” which is a rough translation of the song’s title. Here are two of Burns’ verses:

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And auld lang syne?

Chorus:
For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne.
We’ll take a cup o’ kindness yet,
For auld lang syne

And ther’s a hand, my trusty friend,
And gie’s a hand o’ thine;
We’ll tak’ a right good willie-waught,,
For auld lang syne.