Nancy's Blog
Funding for Specific Programs and Horses for Heroes
I brag on the Dream Catchers team on a regular basis. Every staff person at Dream Catchers is also a volunteer and a donor. I have never worked with a group of more dedicated professionals. They believe in the mission and work hard each day to accomplish that mission. We need our volunteers- we could not do what we do without them, but the work we do also requires financial support.
Our Annual Budget
We are in the process of developing our budget for next year. Dream Catchers’ operating budget is just over $500,000 annually. We operate on a fiscal year from July 1 through June 30. 75% of our income comes though donations. This includes special event income (such as Bridles and Bow Ties, our annual dinner and auction). Our program fees generate 25% of the total income, approximately $131,000 annually. We receive no federal or state funding. Therapeutic riding is not reimbursed by insurance. Grants have been primarily used to provide therapeutic riding to classrooms of special education students in Williamsburg, James City, and York Counties. That funding, from the Williamsburg Community Health Foundation, will be exhausted at the end of June 2010. When we have funds available, we provide scholarships and partial scholarships based on the Free and Reduced Lunch Program income levels.
Self identified groups of five individuals or more, such as classes for students receiving special education, groups of soldiers, and groups of students in special education recreation programs system can participate as a group. Each group comes to Dream Catchers for two hours one time per week for between eight and twelve weeks. The cost for these groups averages $100 per person per week. I say “average” because some groups require more staff than do others. Each lesson is two hours in order to allow each participant sufficient time for the groundwork and riding.
Restricted vs. Unrestricted Funds
Unrestricted funds are those dollars that can be used to pay the operating expenses. If a donor designates money to support a specific thing, those funds are restricted to funding only that item or program. For example, the Dream Rider funds that were raised during Bridles and Bow Ties are only used for scholarships. The other funds, from the auction items, raffle, and ticket sales are used to cover general operating expenses. Without unrestricted funds, we cannot buy feed, bedding, pay for veterinary care or other operational expenses. The more unrestricted funds we raise, the more flexibility we have in how those funds are spent.
Horses for Heroes
We are proud to announce the addition of the nationally recognized Horses for Heroes program - LINK. This program serves groups of military service people with special needs. The service men and women in this program may currently be attached to a Warrior Transition Program and/or a Wounded Warrior Program, or may be a veteran.
Military personnel in the Warrior Transition Program are assigned to that program because they have significant health needs. The focus for the Warrior Transition Program is healing followed by transition back to regular service, reserve status, civilian life, or veteran status. The injuries to these soldiers have often occurred in combat, but not always. Military personnel who suffer from injuries or illness incurred in the line of duty after September 10, 2001, in support of Overseas Contingency Operations since 9/11 and receive or expect to receive a Physical Disability Evaluation System rating of 30% or greater in one or categories that are more specific are designated as Wounded Warriors.
Through a very generous private donation, our first group of soldiers began riding today. They will be with us for two hours each week for ten weeks. We could not have started this program without the funding to support it. We are planning a Sporting Clays Classic on October 23,2010 at Old Forge Sporting Clays in Providence Forge (between Williamsburg and Richmond) specifically to raise funds for this new program. Watch for sponsorship and entry details- they will be out in a few days!
When we met this group of soldiers last week they said as much as they were looking forward to riding, they were looking forward to “peace and quiet.” Thanks to the volunteers who understood that this group did not need the large number of volunteers most of our groups need. Respect is being shown for this group’s wishes for a peaceful and quiet experience.
Grant Writing Seminar
Dream Catchers is offering a free grant-writing seminar specifically for school personnel on July 23rd at Dream Catchers. This one-day course will help school personnel find and write grants. Our hope is that the attendees will use these new skills to get grants that will help fund their classes riding at Dream Catchers! I will teach this seminar. I teach grant writing through the Rappahannock Community College Non-Profit Certificate Program. There is no cost for this seminar. Participation is limited to 20 people.
We at Dream Catchers work to be excellent and trustworthy stewards of every dollar you donate or pay as a fee. We keep our expenses as low as possible without compromising on the services we provide or the care we give our horses. We have an independent audit conducted annually. If you have any questions about our budget or our funding needs I welcome your call.
Merlin, a Sudden Good-Bye
Monday ended with the sudden loss of Merlin to acute colic. We begin to expect some health problems in our more senior horses—and we have a number of then well past the age of 20 years but Merlin was only 16. He was very young in terms of our Dream Catchers horses. However, horses over the age of fifteen are more at risk of colic and other conditions. 
Merlin had a good day on Monday, June 7th. He had been on a trail ride with his owner, instructor Carol Ivey. They had a nice romp around the farm. Monday afternoon Merlin developed acute colic. Dr. Gary Doxstader of Tidewater Equine came immediately and provided treatment. The treatment was not working and the back-up plan, made with Dr. Doxstader, was to take Merlin to Woodside Equine Clinic, in Ashland VA. Woodside is the closest surgery and emergency facility. They provide the routine care to our horses, but are not close enough to provide the fastest care in an emergency.
We knew the first treatment was not working because Merlin’s pain got worse very quickly. He kept trying to lie down and roll to relieve the pain in his belly. Dr. Doug Berry, Dr. Katherine Burke, Dr. Leighton, and Dr. Scott Anderson (a member of the Dream Catchers advisory board) were all waiting with the surgical team. Merlin was in tremendous pain. There was no time to do an extensive work-up that would typically include procedures such as ultra-sound and sampling the fluids around the intestines. Dr. Berry advised the only hope was to open Merlin’s belly up and see what was going on. He determined that Merlin had twisted his large colon into a knot. The knot had stopped the blood flow. Further surgery was not a reasonable solution.
Carol and her husband Ed made the decision to euthanize Merlin immediately. They respected and loved him too much to put him through the surgery. They made the right decision. As I wrote in a blog in September of last year “If the horse is sick, and not expected to recover, and in pain, then euthanasia is our humane responsibility. Shea is a good example. She got sick very suddenly with life-ending and excruciating condition- colic. Older horses do not have a great chance at surviving surgery—even with the best surgeon and the best follow-up care. Colic surgery is expensive- at least $5,000- more likely double that and it might double that sum again ($20,000). As the steward of each dollar donated to Dream Catchers, investing that amount of money in a single animal with poor chances of success is irresponsible. In cases where the animal cannot be maintained relatively free of pain, then, on the professional advice of veterinary staff, this is the decision.”
I stand by those words. The Dream Catcher horses receive outstanding care with every aspect of their well-being managed by a team of professionals. The barn crew, whom people tend to think of as doing only the labor in the barn, pay attention to little details—how much did each horse drink, did they eat all their feed, did they produce a normal amount of manure, do they seem listless? Skip Mollenhauer, the Horse Resource Manager, is a consummate horse professional. She oversees the care of each horse, and the horses look great! Even with the dedication and attention to detail of the barn crew (Dawn, Ben, Terry and Sylvia, managed by Lauren), horses get sick. Sometimes they get very sick very suddenly. Someone asked me, “What were the lessons learned, what could we –or should we-have done differently?” The answer, after much thought and discussion with Woodside, is nothing. From the day in and day out management, feed regimen, exercise program and work load to the response to this crisis, there is nothing we could or should have done differently. When I ran into the barn after learning Merlin was sick I found Lauren listening to his guts with a stethoscope and Ben taking his temperature. From that moment, through the first response of Dr. Doxstader to the time Merlin was unloaded at Woodside was 2 ½ hours. That was an extraordinarily fast response. It didn’t matter. The damage to Merlin’s colon occurred as soon as it was tied into a knot.
Again, we depended on the professional advice of Woodside. They know us well. They know we love and value our horses, and they know we honor them. They also know that we depend on them to be honest with us about what the right decision is in these situations. We are grateful for their advocacy for our horses and their honesty when it comes time to make difficult decisions.
We all loved Merlin, and we will miss him. He has a special place in my heart, as his scars were a brutal reminder of the cruelty of the old-school training methods for Tennessee Walking Horses that I have worked for twenty years to end. He overcame his abuse and trusted in us. We honored his trust by making the best decision we could on his behalf.
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