2018 has been a year to remember for so many reasons! Upon reflection, we couldn’t envision so many wonderful and exciting things happening for our organization in one year. We could not be more thankful for such an impactful year!
Here are a few highlights:
This little piece of heaven is the perfect and most tranquil home for our horses and program.
This will certainly help us gain awareness in town.
54 class members who are leaders in our community are fundraising on behalf of our organization to provide us with a ROOF in our therapy arena, equipped with a fan and lights! This will help us complete sessions regardless or the rain, heat and sun!
This year we added one more Mental Health Counselor and 4 Equine Specialists who have been certified for Equine Assisted Psychotherapy and Learning. This will allow us to see even more clients in 2019!!
This year we also welcomed Jenny Arrison as a board member. Jenny brings a wealth of non-profit experience along with a passion for helping youth. We are excited to work with her in 2019 and beyond.
We were able to retain grants from Florida Blue, Helpful Hands Inc, Lawrence E. White Family Foundation and a few other large generous donations from families and foundations in Seminole County. We ended the year with a fun celebration as we were a chosen organization to benefit from a Christmas Charity Gala by the Amsler Family Foundation and received a generous donation to end the year!
We continued our partnership with Community Based Care of Central Florida, treating youth who have been abused and suffered trauma and neglect at no charge to those families. We also continued our Veteran program, treating veterans suffering from PTSD and their families at no charge to them.
This is a huge help to our program expenses as the horse sponsorships help to cover the horses feed and hay, one of our largest expenses! Moose and Gracie; Sponsored by Pat and Karen Connors, Sadie; Sponsored by John and Velma Geisinger, Toby; Sponsored by the Dannelly Family, Connie; Sponsored by the Van Gundy Family, Buddy; Sponsored by the Sanford Orlando Kennel Club, Dixie; Sponsored by The Siegrist Family and CrossCountry Mortgage and Rhett; Sponsored by 22 Health. Thank you sponsors!!!
We could not serve the way that we do without the generous support of our community, our incredible volunteers and board of directors, thank you! We are so thankful to be able to offer this life changing work and serve even more people in 2019!
Photo: Volunteers at our Christmas Party
Crossroads Corral Co-founder and Executive Director, Lindsay Brim had an opportunity recently to sit down with Michael Rafferty of 105.9 SunnyFM. Lindsay was able to explain how Equine Assisted Psychotherapy works and our upcoming events!
Take a listen to learn even more about the wonderful work at our corral.
There are so many wonderful things to do with horses, but for non-profits it is important that we “stay in our lane”. I thought it would be helpful to lay it all out in black and white as far as what Crossroads does and does not do.
What We Do:
What We Don’t Do:
At Crossroads Corral, it is very important for us to stay true to our cause and our mission. I hope that if you had any questions regarding our services that you now have a clear picture of exactly what we do and how we serve!
When people learn that we use horses to help people, their mind immediately goes to riding. I am here to explain why our therapy clients don’t ride in our sessions and the great benefits of working with the horses on the ground for both horses and humans.
First I want to talk about basic horsemanship. Any good horse person knows that when you purchase or adopt a new horse, the first thing that you should do is ground work, also if you’re into horses and horse riding, you should check this custom browbands which are perfect for this. By this, I mean spending time building the relationship with the horse on the ground. This is so important for building trust, learning how to communicate with each other and building a strong bond. This is similar to any human relationship. When humans meet each other, much “ground work” is done prior to advancing the relationship. You don’t ask someone to marry you on the first or second date, right? Well I hope not anyways!
Working with the horses on the ground helps us to learn about ourselves and our behavior patterns as well as build a relationship with another “being”. The horses provide honest, un-bias feedback to our body language, non-verbal communication, and feelings/fears that we don’t even know is there sometimes, and of course if we have horses, learning about horse menange maintenance is essential as well.
Here are a few reasons why our therapy program is incredibly effective and only involves ground work:
In conclusion, we are a facility devoted to serving individuals and groups with Equine Assisted Mental Health services and we are not a therapeutic riding facility. All of our therapy sessions take place on the ground with a Licensed Mental Health Professional and Certified Equine Specialist. There are so many incredible benefits of working with horses on the ground including helping us to become self-aware, heal and grow. This work is being done across the country and over the last four years, we have seen incredible results in our very own program with our horses who love to do this work!
We are SO excited to be moved into our new home! The farm is just over 5 acres, with large fields, an 8 stall barn with attached paddocks, plus the minis have their own small barn and turn out! We have a brand new, lighted riding arena as well as a beautiful shaded round pen for therapy. This year we will be getting a new building that will hold a bathroom as well as an office! We love the water views, natural wild life and our horses are truly so happy here!
Address: 6879 S. Sylvan Lake Drive, Sanford Fl 32771
We are minutes from the back gate of Heathrow and a few miles from I-4.
Thank you to all of our incredible volunteers and supporters who helped make this move happen!
We are so exited to introduce our friends to our new home in the Heathrow/Sanford area!
New Address: 6879 S. Sylvan Lake Dr, Sanford 32771
The property is over 5 acres and has water views, an 8 stall barn plus a home for our miniature horses. The property is extremely peaceful and beautiful! We have seen many deer and cranes roaming the property and enjoying the peace and quiet!
We can’t wait for everyone to see our new home!
“Horses teach you a lot. Very little of it actually has to do with horses” –unknown
2017 has been an exciting and busy year on the farm! We are so thankful to our passionate volunteers, supporters, board of directors, horses, clients and team who make this work possible! This year we had a large focus on growing our Equine Assisted Psychotherapy Program to serve more clients with exceptional mental health services right on our farm.
Here are some highlights from 2017:
With the good comes the bad and we can’t acknowledge this year without mentioning the loss of two incredible therapy horses, our Amaretto “Retta” and Windy Hills Angel Eyes “Angel”. We miss these girls more than words can say!
We have some exciting plans for 2018 so please stay tuned! Make sure to like our Facebook page to keep up with our updates and events!
See Ya NEXT YEAR! Wishing our friends a blessed 2018!
As Thanksgiving approaches, it is a wonderful time to reflect on the year and what we are thankful for. As an organization, we are so thankful to be able to provide a life changing and meaningful service to others through horses, but we certainly cannot and do not do this alone.
When starting a Non-Profit Organization, otherwise known as a 501 ©3 the passion and drive is already there but, there are many important things to take into account. What is our mission? Who will we serve? What makes us different from other programs? Who will sit on our Board of Directors? (I’m sure you get the idea here.) A very important factor is how will we raise money and become sustainable? This is one of the biggest challenges and what we are incredibly thankful for on this Thanksgiving and every day, our donors and supporters.
Because of you, we are able to provide our Mental Health services to Veterans who suffer from PTSD and their families, youth and women who have suffered trauma, abuse and neglect at NO to very LOW cost. If you have donated to our organization, attended events, sponsored a horse, promoted us on social media, referred a client or became a community partner, WE THANK YOU! If you have given your time to our organization in any capacity, we are so thankful.
Where do donations go? Our team is more than happy to volunteer our time to serve, we raise money to provide the necessary care for our horses, otherwise known as our “equine therapists” so that they can have their needs met and be in optimal health to serve others. Just to give you an idea of what I mean:
-Horse Boarding (payment to our landlord for the horses to be on the property $1500/month)
-Feed (approx. $300/month)
-Hay (approx. $850/month)
-Farrier (horses need their feet trimmed/re-shoed every 6 weeks approx. $400/month)
*This does not include any Vet visits, farm equipment, repairs and other things that are required to run our operations
When donating to our organization, you are providing a life changing experience to someone in need in our community. Mental Health is incredibly important, often overlooked and and we provide a way of delivering this service in a unique and powerful way. We could not take on this battle alone and we are so thankful to those who have decided to support our mission and those we serve.
In this season of giving, we hope you continue to support Crossroads Corral and help us to fill in the gaps of mental health!