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The Stable Voice

Upcoming Events 2

Update from the Executive Director 3

Farewell to Sam 4

Thank you to Volunteers 5

Spotlight on Our Horse 6

Board Update 7

Thank you to our Sponsors 8

Fundraising 9

Tack Shop update 10

The VTRA annual horse show will take place at our Central Saanich facility on Saturday May 31, 2014. Year after year, this event is the highlight of our therapeutic riding program, where our riders get to show their achievements to their community, families and friends. And as an added bonus, this year the Lions Club of Central Saanich will be

part of our great event and have their famous fare available for purchase from the concessions. ALL profits will be donated to the VTRA program!

Everyone is welcome to come out and

cheer on the riders!

Semester 4 Dates

April 23 to June 9

*No class May 19*

YOU ARE INVITED TO THE VTRA ANNUAL HORSE SHOW

INSIDE THIS EDITION

May 2014

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The VTRA Ride-A-Thon is

our annual pledge event

and all of the proceeds go

to support our therapeutic

riding Program.

How does it work?

Participants collect pledges from the community for

their ride (which includes a trail competition) on

Saturday June 14, 2014. Registration and breakfast

start at 9am and the ride starts at 10am at the Elk

Lake/Beaver Lake Equestrian Centre.

This year, we encourage you to set-up your own

VTRA Ride-A-Thon page online to collect your

pledges through Canada Helps. A step by step

guide is available on www.vtra.ca! It is quick easy

and can seamlessly integrate with your social

pages.

If you prefer, you can use the paper version. Pledge

sheets will be available at the VTRA facility or on

our web-site. Pledges collected in this fashion will

need to be delivered prior to the start of the ride.

What’s in it for me?

First and foremost, this if for CHARITY! You will also

take part in a fun event including a PANCAKE

BREAKFAST (coffee or tea, ham and a pancake for

only $5)! Finally, we have prizes up for grabs for our

most effective fundraisers!

For more information, visit www.VTRA.ca and read

our how-to guide.

Join us on June 14th, 2014, at the Elk Lake -Beaver

Lake Equestrian Centre for a day of fun!

Start with a pancake breakfast, available for

purchase from 9:00 am: coffee or tea, ham and a

pancake for only $5.00!

The poker walk will start at 10:00 am and is

expected to take participants about 1 hour to

complete (prize will be given at 11:30 am).

So what is a poker walk anyway?

We will have set up 5 check-points along the

designated trail. All registered participants will

collect a playing card from each check point to

make up a poker hand. Once at the

finish line, registered participants will be given

a chance to buy an extra 2 cards for only $1 in

hopes of improving their hand. Finally, the best

hand will win a basket full of Doggy Goodies!

Registration can be done on-line at vtra.ca, or

from 9am the day of the event at the Elk Lake/

Beaver Lake Equestrian Centre.

All Proceeds will go to the Victoria Therapeutic

Riding Association.

For more information, visit www.VTRA.ca

Doggy Poker Walk

Ride-a-Thon 2014

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Announcements

VTRA is pleased to announce that we

have just been chosen as the

recipient of a $10,000 PSA Airtime

Grant as part of the 31st Annual

C-FAX 1070 Community Awards. This

came as a complete surprise but

needless to say we’re pretty excited.

Thank you C-FAX 1070!

Horse Shaped Cookie Cutters: do you

have any? One of our volunteers is

looking for horse related cookie

cutters for a fundraising bake sale!

Let us know if you have any you could

donate!

Update from the Executive Director

Here we are with only 4 weeks of riding left before the year end horse show and 5 weeks until

the end of the summer term.

It’s been another great year for our program although not without a few ups and downs –

particularly with some of our horses. Cisco began the fall session with a flare up of his

allergies and had to go home for a bit of recovery time. That meant that we were down to 9

horses (as we started off with fewer than usual). So we began a hunt for additional horses

with great gusto. Several prospects came through our door but as you know, suitable therapy

horses are not easy to find. Cisco began his round of allergy meds and returned to us (thank

goodness) and finally last month we found and purchased Orchid, who is working out very

well. In addition, after special care from Anne Waterhouse for the past 2 years, Angel has

returned to our barn for some light work beginning next fall.

In an effort to make the transition as smooth as we can, you riders and volunteers will be asked

about your interest in our program for next year. This will help us set a spot aside for you and

determine how we can best meet your needs.

- Sue Colgate

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Farewell, Sam!

Samantha Howe, our Program Coordinator has decided to step down from VTRA to dedicate more of

her time to her family. Sam began with VTRA as a volunteer, and in January 2008 joined our staff as

our Program Coordinator and Instructor. Assessing, scheduling and tracking over 150 riders each

year can be a daunting task at the best of times, but every year Sam pulled it off as only she can. Her

classes were fun and challenging, and riders always had a blast.

Sam will be sorely missed and we hope that maybe she will come to visit (now that she is living so

much closer to the barn) and maybe do some substitute teaching on occasion.

THANK YOU, SAM!! Thank you for your years of inspiration, encouragement, dedication, and compassion.

You will be greatly missed!

Don’t forget to stop by and visit!

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“I volunteered with VTRA because of my daughter. I have never worked with such an upbeat crew both staff and volunteers. From all angles there is a spirit of well being,

sunshine, encouragement, compassion, understanding and joy. From my perspective as a father, I observe my daughter delighted with the experience of riding a horse, enjoys the instruction and looks forward to each session. We all come away enriched both riders,

volunteers and I am sure staff as well.”

- Robert Winkenhower

The 2013/2014 riding year has been amazing here

at VTRA and we have all the volunteers to thank!

With our small staff of four people we rely heavily

on volunteers to run our program.

It takes approximately 100 volunteers each week to

run our classes.

Our volunteers are so dedicated and committed to

donating their time each week, it’s truly amazing.

Some work directly in the classes with the horses

and the students; some work in the barn helping

with all the jobs that make the facility run; others

help with doing maintenance, building projects,

fundraising efforts, running the tack shop, cleaning,

organizing and hospitality. The list goes on and on!

On April 13th we held a Volunteer Appreciation

Lunch-In for our volunteers at Zanzibar Restaurant

in Brentwood Bay and had a great turn out! The

food was delicious and the company was delightful!

It was a fun opportunity for all the volunteers to get

together and celebrate the work they do and share

the interesting, entertaining and inspiring

experiences.

We are truly so honored by the dedication and spirit

of our volunteers. The sense of community, support

and friendship for our students, horses, program

and other volunteers is so humbling. The efforts of

the volunteers really make a positive difference here

and to everyone involved.

You truly are amazing people!

THANK YOU VOLUNTEERS!

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Para-Equestrian Canada hosted a video competition this spring, providing riders from across Canada the opportunity to compete against other similar riders. Riders submitted a video recording of themselves riding a specific test, and were judged by Para-Equestrian judges. Barb Sabathil and Joey entered their ride in the competitive Para-Dressage "Sea-to-Sea" category, and came 1st in Class 13! Congratulations to Barb for all her hard work!!

CONGRATULATIONS!

SPOTLIGHT ON OUR HORSE: ORCHID

Hi!

My name is Orchid, the new VTRA pony, and I am very

excited to meet you! I am a pretty chestnut pony with a

flaxen mane and tail. My best feature is my long, beautiful

forelock (the bangs on a horse are called a forelock). My

breeding is a Haflinger crossed with a Polish Arab, and I am

six years old. I know I’m young, but am very smart and ready

to learn!

I really enjoy spending time with all my new friends at VTRA.

The volunteers are very nice and the other horses are fun! I

get to spend the weekends partying with my new herd of

horses in the back field, and they tell me I fit in well.

I’m really excited about learning how to become a VTRA therapy pony. The instructors are going to spend the summer training me and I hope to be ready to start my job in September! Come and see me at the VTRA barn!

Mini-Auction Update!

Happening now: the final VTRA mini silent auction of the 2013/2014 year!

The auction will end the last week of May, so be sure to get your bids in and collect your

winnings before the final week of classes.

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Apparently Dr. Seus said, Don’t cry because it is over. Smile because it happened. As we approach the end of the VTRA year (another 6 weeks to go!), these are indeed words to remember – and to be thankful that VTRA staff have once again risen to the occasion and provided a quality therapeutic riding program.

I also want to acknowledge the dedication and hard work of the Board. I am so fortunate to work with a great team - committed to VTRA and task focused. They like to get things done! This has meant that we sometimes struggle to find the balance between wanting to get lots done and knowing that we are after all a small operation with staff who are already stretched to the max.

That said, looking back to September, we began with a Board lunch/retreat to set goals for ourselves for the year. While it is common to develop a 3-5 year plan, we felt that we needed to establish priorities for this year with the idea being that next year we would be in position to develop a longer range plan.

Our focus for this year has been to conduct an operational review to see if we are really doing as well as we could. This has entailed a review of our IT environment, along with our human resource needs. We asked Liz Brown to conduct a review of our IT and software programs to identify our longer-term capacity issues [we are not alone – having asked other therapeutic riding programs what kinds of software they used, it turns out several were also trying to resolve how best to manage their rider and volunteer databases]. As a result of Liz’s work we will be creating a new rider and volunteer data-base using Sumac. Likely riders and volunteers won’t notice any difference but it should reduce some of staff’s frustrations that existed as a result of weaknesses in the current data-base. We anticipate that Sumac will also reduce time spent by staff inputting information.

At the same time Board member, Penny Ledoux, undertook a review of human resources to

find out if there were ways to relieve some of the pressures on staff, all of whom wear many hats – perhaps too many at times. We were able to identify a number of tasks/roles that we believe in time can be done by volunteers. Most importantly we realized that staff were kept busy with a lot of administrative types of tasks – not always the best use of their time, skill, and expertise. To help alleviate some of these pressures we have hired an administrative assistant – part time and temporary – to help out until the end of June. In the meantime we are reviewing options for the fall with a view towards ensuring that staff are well supported. There are some decisions to be made in the coming weeks but we are confident that we are in a good position to do so and excited to be moving ahead.

While the operation review was taking place, Board member, Amy Thompson, undertook a review of the bookkeeping and financial processes to ensure the Board had well structured, easy to read, and definitive income statements. As well, thanks to Amy’s contacts, VTRA is going to be a beneficiary of the upcoming Victoria Bar Association and Victoria Chartered Accountant Association golf tournament, being held on May 23rd Uplands Golf Club.

Meanwhile, Audrey Cooper continues to roll out the beautifully designed notices, brochures, invitations, and the like, while Board member Annie Brothwell continues to take the lead in organizing the rescheduled Ride-A-Thon and newly added Doggy Poker. Board members Leah Stone and Amy Thompson have been actively researching ideas for a Christmas fundraiser – details to follow in the fall - and Leah asked her alma mater, Queens University business program, to provide us with a plan for possibly developing the Tack Store further. We are looking forward to receiving that plan. Board member Emily Miller has been our Constant Contact guru (it is an email distribution program) and Board members Bob and Leslie Climie provide sage wisdom and guidance when most needed and make sure that we are adhering to sound governance practices. (Continued Next Page)

Board Update—April 2014 From the President

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THANK YOU! ☆ Thank you to Ed Thacker, Greg Abbott, Spencer Stadler, Glenn Kolehmainen,

and the Central Saanich Lions for your hard work around the VTRA facility!

☆ Kaylen Eardly celebrated her 10th birthday, and instead of presents asked

for donations to VTRA! She raised $20. Thank you and Happy Birthday!

☆ Thank you to Deep Cove Market and Adrienne’s Tea House for promoting

VTRA within the community by selling our key

chains and collecting donations!

☆ Thank you to FluidSurvey for donating software

for our surveys!

☆ Thank you to C-FAX 1070 for our Community

Award!

☆ Thanks to all those that donated items for our

silent auction this year! We couldn’t do it with-

out you!

What Riding Means to Me

“Having fun, being with

horses. I feel excited, but

it calms me. It's helped my

strength. It makes me feel

like I'm in control and it

gets rid of my anger. I

really look forward to

Tuesdays!”

- William Kempster

Continued from page 7...

So as you can see, we are indeed an active Board with a lot of hardworking and dedicated members. Thus, it is with sadness that I also have to also announce that Leslie Climie is stepping down from the Board as of April 30th. Her dedication to VTRA is well known and her contribution on the Board has been outstanding. Leslie will be missed but I am hoping she will stay on a few committees.

In the meantime two people have come forward with an interest in joining the Board and we hope to introduce them in the fall. They are currently attending committee meetings and getting a feel for how the Board works and some of our tasks/activities.

So, we hope to see you at the annual horse show on May 31st, and if not, I wish everyone a warm and pleasant summer – coming up in just over 2 months!

Carol Hubberstey, President of the Board

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Other ways you can support VTRA:

Choose VTRA as your charity of choice at Tru Value Foods in Cordova Bay

and 1% of your total comes back to us in the form of gift cards

Keep receipts from Country Grocer and deposit them at the VTRA barn. 3%

of what you spend is returned in the form of gift cards

Use our Co-op #37989 when you purchase groceries, gas or furnace oil at

Peninsula Co-op

Bring your empty drink containers to VTRA

Donate your gently used items to our silent auction, tack shop, or office!

We are always looking for large salt-lick holders, laser printer cartridges,

stamps, 7.5x10.25 brown envelopes, 8.5 x 11 laminating supplies, and

cookies/coffee supplies for our volunteers!

2014/2014 Fundraiser Campaign: Thrifty Foods Smile Cards

As many of our volunteers and riders can

attest to, it isn’t always sunny on lesson

day! During the winter, the wind can

whistle right through the front door of the

indoor and create a bit of an ice box effect.

To help fight those chilly days, our Thrifty

Foods Smile Card campaign this year is to

raise money to install new doors on the

indoor. When you shop at Thrifty’s, use a

Smile card (available at VTRA office).

Take your smile card to Thrifty’s and add

any amount of money to it, then use your smile card when you purchase your groceries. 5% of all money

spent is returned to VTRA as a direct donation. This offer will expire when we reach our goal of $3500, or

at the end of March 2015, whichever happens first.

If you would like a card, please contact sue.colgate@vtra.ca.

Thanks for helping to keep us warm!

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Spread the news: the tack shop is bursting with great deals! Show season is fast

approaching, and the tack shop has everything you need to make you and your horse

look great! Saddles, bridles, blankets, brushes, boots, breeches… we have it all! Our

tack shop crew has been hard at work photographing, posting, and cleaning the

donated tack.

A big shout out to Kyrie Bond (left), Bobbie Holob (center), Francesca Allan (right), and Jess Hallas-

Kilcoyne (not pictured) for all their hard work!

Tack Store Hours

Monday: 9am-1230pm

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday: 9am-5pm

Friday: 1-5pm

Other times can be arranged by appointment.

For Appointment:

778-426-0506

tackstore@vtra.ca

FAENSI’S LITTLE TACK STORE

Want to Help Out?

The Tack Store can always use more donations of good quality tack! Drop off your do-

nations during the Tack Store during business hours, or make an appointment.

We can also use more volunteers! If you love cleaning, organizing and selling—this is

the place for you!

If you are interested in lending a hand in the Tack Store, email volunteer@vtra.ca.

Thanks for all your support in 2013/2014! We look forward to seeing you again

in October! If you are a current volunteer or rider, and you know you would like

to return in October, please let us know as soon as possible!

Have a safe and happy summer!!