I've seen several things change rather suddenly here at Dharmahorse. Our sweet mare Penny has sustained an injury that is a repeat of one that happened two years ago, yet seems more serious now than the last time. She is receiving the same treatments and support as before - and she made a full recovery that time.

Time will tell. Our hopes are high for her.

We became a 501 c 3, non-profit corporation which provides the opportunity for us to receive donations, grants and support for the good work we have been doing and my personal hope is for expansion down the line. I hope we can help more unwanted horses and introduce more people to the gentleness of the horses. I want to build a portable sling so that, should we ever have a horse arrive in the dying condition that dear Strawberry was in (RIP, Strawberry), we would have the chance to actually save him (at least Strawberry knew 48 full hours of unconditional, focused LOVE).

Our focus has always been on education - teaching unconditional love, kindness with the horses and equine care through natural, non-toxic methods. We had sponsored field trips for homeless and near homeless children and their families to give them rides on calm horses being led (we even had 14 - two year old kids one day!). We have life experience special ed young adults come out to learn horse care and help with chores. We are restarting the "Stablewomen Program" in July and hope to do a similar gathering for men by autumn. These programs have taken time, effort and money that we provided on our own. Now, the possibilities expand with our new status.

So, time and time again, I come back to the simplicity of feeding hay based, herb based diets; supplying "free choice" minerals; avoiding all processed feeds; letting hooves show me how they naturally need to be to support the horse; providing the basics of water, natural food, shelter (shade!), salt and LOVE.

It works. It really is simple. Penny needs some pain relievers to keep her comfortable, but the healing takes place within her own body's innate knowledge of how to heal and systems to address the causes of her troubles not to just mask the symptoms.