04/15/2026
Story time!
Full disclosure: these two littles are mine and the two horses they are loving on are our personal mares that we use for the program. (We don’t recommend any small volunteers going in the stalls unsupervised ever..these are just our pets). The horses know them and the littles have been trained on how to properly interact with them (see one little in the paddock and one out 🤣).
However, volunteering with your littles can be safe and peaceful as long as you keep a close eye on them (or tethered like I do). If that idea stresses you, come at a time they are at school and put your head phones on and just enjoy the scenery and smell of the land…I promise it grows on you and you’ll crave it.
My son is 2.5 and tethered to me. We did not move horses today due to his young age (and little fast feet and 1200 pound animals don’t always mix well) but we did feed grain and give carrots. You can also water with littles and sweep the aisles. We prefer volunteers to be at least in their teenage years but I’d be lying if I didn’t give credit to some of our die hard girlies who started at 8.
If you have older littles (my eldest is 6) they actually LOVE cleaning stalls (she started around 2.5 because I was a single mom and chores still needed done). I’d move the horse while she was at a safe distance away, move the wheel barrow into the stall and she’d go to town with a pitch fork.
The evenings at the barn are peaceful. So are the mornings. Message us today to see how you can volunteer! I teach on Saturdays and Tuesday nights are my assigned grain night. We train! You don’t need any experience just a love for animals and some hard work.
I also write AMAZING letters of recommendation if you need them for school…hint hint wink wink. Summer is coming. Please join our amazing group of volunteers (just DM us so we can get all the liability forms signed and set up a training day)!
