News from the Southlands, July 2021
Executive Director’s Note
We cannot express how wonderful it is to have our summer camps up and running this season! The Southlands Pony Camp will run a full 6 week schedule finishing on August 6th. This program filled to capacity VERY quickly and has been a pleasure to witness. Watching the children gain independence, self-reliance and become more confident in themselves and their skills reminds us of the power of spending time with horses!
Nature’s classroom is running a 4 week program this summer. These youngsters spend the morning learning about all things nature and spending time on a farm/ Anya and Tara work to develop an age appropriate educational program that keeps their charges busy and engaged in the natural wonder that abounds at Southlands.
Just over a month ago Susie Williams and Michele Tugade, with their ever present band of super volunteers, were able to once again start working with Day Top Samaritan Village. This unmounted program teaches adults the same wonderful skill set that happens at Southlands Pony Camp. Many adults who have never has the opportunity to spend time with horses learn basic grooming, leading and handling skills. These experiences help everyone with non-verbal communication, confidence and joy while spending time with our gentle, yet, giant friends. Day Top Samaritan Village also helps us out with volunteering to put hay in. Many of you know that Southlands grows the majority of the hay we need to feed our horse population for most of the year. That thread with maintaining our agrarian connection to the property means a whole lot of work getting the hay crop in. The volunteers from Day Top come in for a few hours of unloading and stacking thousands of bales of hay. We simply could not accomplish this Herculean task without these generous, willing volunteers.
There have been some staff & responsibility changes at Southlands. Jonathan Edel, Head Trainer, and Michele Edel, Barn Manager & Trainer, in addition to teaching and managing the health of the horse herd, have taken on direction of the working student, training and maintenance staff. This will reduce overlap of duties, allow for a more direct communication on barn and facilities operations and provide better integration of horsemanship education. These changes mean that I, as Executive Director, can focus on administration, development of community programs and fund-raising. I have already made important strides in our grant seeking proposals which you will hear about in newsletters to come.
Many of you have seen or heard that our office manager Sarah Vosburgh, has decided to move on. We appreciate all of her hard work and wish her well in her new endeavors. We will be looking for part time coverage in the office. If you are interested, please speak get in touch!
FROM OUR TRAINERS
July has been a super month at Southlands, despite the hot temperatures! The best news is that we welcomed a new school horse donation from Sal and Jane Manetta, former clients of ours, from Aiken, SC. The new guy, named George is a chestnut, 16.3 h, 16 year old Belgian/TB cross, and he’s the perfect beginner school horse, who can also do some jumping lessons for more advanced riders. He has experience in eventing, dressage and fox hunting and his calm, stoic nature makes him the perfect mount for a variety of riders. Adding George to our program has been truly wonderful! He’s taken the place of our beloved Hero and has far exceeded our expectations. We really can’t thank Jane and Sal enough for donating not one, but two of their horses to our school, Kyra being the other “ unicorn.”
Summer at Southlands is a busy time, with Pony Camp and shows. We had a successful Jumper series show on the 7th and our HVHJA show on the 18th. We couldn’t do these events without all of the support and help of volunteers! Our hearty thanks to Ashley Capalbo, Anna Kalishman, Sarah Regnar, Madeline Berg, Emmy Nelson-Madore and Holden Meilman for showing up to help us get the jumps set and designing excellent courses! We really appreciate our Southlands family! It takes a village to get these events to run smoothly and we have a wonderful group behind us! Thanks so much!
One more note here is to congratulate Sarah Regnar on the lease of Butterscotch, aka Scottie and Anna Kalishman on the continued lease of Vionabese, aka Viona. It’s a privilege as trainers to see these young riders grow and learn new skills, with their own special horses. We look forward to the future of all of our Southlands riders, learning, growing and becoming competent in all facets of horse care and riding.
From The Board
Save the Date for our 2021 Sunset at Southlands Gala – Saturday, the 11th of September! This year’s theme is JOY because we are all looking forward to coming together in-person as a community ... at last, after a year (and more!) of being apart. We will celebrate the joys of Southlands and the gifts of nature and horses in our lives. Indeed, Southlands has been a sanctuary for all ... Thank you, Mrs. Dows.
Our annual fundraising gala promises to be a wonderful evening of connection and community. Special guests will be honored for their contributions to Southlands, and fun will be had by all. Join us for cocktails & light fare, live music & dancing, a silent auction, and a magnificent evening as the sun sets over Southlands. Can’t wait to see you there!
ANNUAL MEETING NOTES
Board elections were held Saturday, July 24th, at the Annual Members' Meeting. We welcome Nicola Atherstone as our newly elected board member who brings significant experience in the management of non-profit foundations. Tatiana Serafin was elected to a two-year term (after her initial one-year term). Vicki Haak, Suzanne Battenfeld, Robert Nieuwenhuizen, and Eve D'Ambra had their terms renewed for two years. For more on the Board read on here.
We bid farewell to Helen van der Voort, who has served for over a decade on the Board of TSF in every leadership position. She joined Southlands in 2000 in Susie’s Saturday and Sunday morning adult group classes and it was magic from then on. Helen will remain as an advisor to the finance committee where she has worked tirelessly for many years.
Read on for the annual report from Elise Quasebarth, Southlands Board President.
Special opportunity
We are excited to announce acclaimed New Yorker cartoonist and Southlands hero Liza Donnelly has made a special SIGNED print in honor of Southlands. She is selling them on her site with 50% of the proceeds to benefit Southlands. See link here. Thank you Liza! More of her wonderful work will be part of our Gala action. Stay tuned.