This year, we were able to hold our annual fundraiser at the ranch we currently call home, Amacker Ranch in Gardnerville. In previous years, we did our Mane Event up in Tahoe, but this year we decided to host it down in the Valley so we could get some face-to-face time with families in the community in which we are located. And boy did we have fun!
We really wanted to make this a fun fall-themed experience for our local community, so we planned to have much more activities and stations than we have done in the past. We had face painting, games, fall-themed crafts, and bounce houses for the kids. We hosted a tack sale for all the horse owners in attendance, and we had several food trucks with a variety of food and beverages so there was a little something for everyone.
One of the important experiences we wanted to provide this year was a horse meet & greet with our horses. The program would literally be nothing without them, so it was a great opportunity for the community to meet them and see for themselves why they make the program so amazing. They loved meeting all the new people and getting lots of pets and attention.
Everyone at BHH loved seeing how happy it made kids, adults, and seniors alike to interact with the horses, even if only for a few minutes. One of our volunteers shared a moment she had with one of our older guests who was so excited to meet the horses because the last time she had pet a horse was when she was 10 years old. What a beautiful moment that was for her, she was beaming when she left the arena. We are so happy we could provide the moment for her!
We also had a lot of people who had never interacted with a horse before! Many kids shared how cool they thought it was to meet a horse for the first time! Our horses are so relaxed around strangers, so we were excited to give people the opportunity to meet horses for the first time in a structured setting. They are big animals, but so many of the kids barely seemed to notice! They were just excited to give them lots of pets.
We were also very excited to provide some demonstrations—led by our program director, Seanna Jackson—so that people could see first hand some of the magic we experience here at Between Horses and Humans. It is one thing to hear about a join-up, but it’s another to see it in person. And it’s even better to experience it for yourself, so we hope to see a lot of our spectators back for either our youth or adult programs so they can try it out!
The feedback we got from attendees made it all worth it! So many people let us know how much fun they were having and how much they are looking forward to attending again next year! We got so many compliments on the impact we’re creating in our community and many kids, adults, and seniors expressing interest in getting involved!
From a technical standpoint, we had more attendees this year than we have in previous years. In addition to that, we were able to get more personal donations and monthly donations than we have during previous years. So many people stayed for over 2-3 hours, which is way over our usual average.
We really couldn’t have done it without the help of our amazing group of volunteers, staff, and board members. Everyone stepped up to help make this the amazing event it ended up being, but truly, we wouldn’t be able to run the program without them. We appreciate them so much and look forward to another year with them!
We definitely will be doing our Mane Event next year! We hope to do the same activities, while also coming up with even more stations and activities that will pique the interest of any attendee, young and old! All in all, we think it was a MASSIVE success and look forward to doing it again next year!
