Update: March 23rd

Hi everyone!
A few odds and ends before I dash out of the office:

• Like the Horse Park, we are now open for visitors again! The Center is open to the public Monday-Saturday, 9-3 with interactive demonstrations on Saturday at 12. If you'd like to see a specific horse we ask that you call us to make an appointment: 859-246-3080.
• J's Dream has been adopted! He will be leaving with Becky on Saturday for his new home in Ohio. That makes three total adoptions for the year, and only a week after our official opening!
• Code Forty, Invincible Vince and He's A Hoot are still with us. Hootie might have an adoption pending but Code Forty and Vincie are very available. In fact, Code Forty jumped for the first time this last weekend and did beautifully! The higher we raised the bar, the better she went and had excellent form. Check out her page at http://www.thoroughbredadoption.com/ for pictures. She's going to be a star hunter one day!
• We are shipping in several horses in the next week--Guidance Up (TRF) will be coming to us from Florida tomorrow, and Testament (Finger Lakes Thoroughbred Adoption) should be arriving in the next couple of weeks. We are trying to work out a way to get a couple of horses from Mid-Atlantic and Angel Acres also, they have some really nice ones available.
• The interns continue to keep hard at work. Hayley is preparing to show Code Forty in the next few weeks and will be making a picturebook of her show experience with our horses for the Center. Brittany and I are working on the March enewsletter and our halter fundraiser (next on the list is this blog...heh heh). Travers has been working on the arena surface with Jerry and has taken his very first MMSC riding lesson.
• As to the aforementioned halter fundraiser--we are in the process of getting halters donated from the local farms belonging to famous stallions or racehorses (we're expecting to get at least ten, maybe fifteen!) to auction off on eBay next month. We already have Serena's Song, Point Given, Distorted Humor and Bluegrass Cat and there are more good ones coming our way! We'll also be listing some of the many extra blankets, bits and grooming odds and ends we have had donated to us--we always appreciate donations, but we don't have enough room or enough horses to use all the equipment or salves that have been given to us over the winter. Plus we need the space in our garage for feed! Stay tuned on that one....details about the items and opening times are coming soon!
• If you'd like to start recieving our monthly enewsletter, please send me an e-mail (ncvoss2@yahoo.com) and I'll be happy to add you to the list
• We are still trying to raise funds for Corey's surgery! We have gotten $71 donated via Facebook as of this afternoon, but the vet says it wil be about $1k (at cost), so we need your support, whether via the Facebook or MySpace Causes (titled 'Save A Horse's Career!'), iGive.com, GoodSearch.com or a few dollars in our donation bowl here at the office. Every little bit counts! Corey himself will be coming back to us this Wednesday and will be happy to recieve donations (of money or peppermints) in person.

~Natalie

Call For Support!!

All you Facebookers--we have now started a FB Cause called 'Save A Horse's Career!', designed to raise money for Core Sample's surgery. Please please join, and invite your frieneds. If everyone donates $5 or even $1 to the Cause, we could have him at Rood and Riddle by April. The link is here: http://apps.facebook.com/causes/236099?m=ea7cabe2&_fb_fromhash=53d30b6a80849374

Need more info first?

Core Sample came to us a little lame in his right front ankle; when we x-rayed we found he had several chips, most of which are removable and all of which will probably cause the early onset of arthritis if not removed. At the moment he is stiff in that leg but not lame. If we could get the chips out, he would not only live a more comfortable life but would also probably find an adoptive home. Leah, one of our training interns from the fall, has been fostering him and says he is a very sweet, smart fellow who could find a great home if only he were sound. We just don't have the funds to pay for a $1000 surgery, so we really need your help. Please check out the Facebook Cause, anything you could give would be a step towards getting him sound. Thanks all!
~Natalie

Update: March 2nd

Hi all,

MMSC is expanding our web presence--we now have a MySpace and are listed on MySpace IMPACT. I am putting together our own widget for donations towards Corey's ankle surgery (hence the picture above). The vet has quoted us $1,000 to remove his chips (and that's with our discount, eeech) and he's a really nice horse so we would love to get those out so he could be adopted. Please donate all you can!

We're working away on the March enewsletter...look for it on thoroughbredadoption.com in the coming week.

Also scouting out new horses to bring in, as three of ours already have contracts open and the Center hasn't even opened to the public again yet! We're hoping Mid-Atlantic Horse Rescue, Finger Lakes Thoroughbred Adoption Program or Angel Acres Horse Haven will be good enough to send us one of their trainees to fill our barn. Stay tuned!

That's all for now!

~Natalie

February enewsletter is now online!

Hi everybody,
Susanna and I have managed to turn out the February edition of our enewsletter. Check it out:
http://www.thoroughbredadoption.com/mc_images/category/35/mmsc_enewsletter_feb_19.pdf

Update: February 13th

Hi folks!
As you might have seen via Facebook, we survived the Kentucky ice storm without too much damage: just a few trees down in our back pasture and a brief spell without power. The roads around Lexington were quite bad for a few days so none of us was able to get in, but fortunately our horses were still off-campus where they had caretakers in residence so they were well-cared for.
We have now brought two horses, Jay's Dream and Code Forty back into the Center to go back into training early as they each have a potential adopter interested in them. The others will likely be trickling in over the next three weeks.
We begin construction on our run-in sheds Monday the 16th! Thanks in large part to the TRF and High Hope Steeplechase we now have the funds available and will be starting next week with the hopes that they will be finished before the horses are scheduled to come back.
We have chosen our interns for the spring 09 semester! Brittany comes to us from the Georgetown Equine Scholars Program and will be our equine communications intern, so look for blog posts from her in the next several weeks. Hayley is also from Georgetown Equine Scholars, she will be completing our training internship; she has extensive eventing and showing experience and will be showing some of our trainees at the Horse Park. Travers is our farm management intern, coming from University of Kentucky's new equine program. He hopes to combine Jerry's expertise in farm management and horse asessment with his strong communications sckills. Also joining us for part of this semester will be Emily from Paul L. Dunbar High School, who is doing a six-week rotation in career studies for her graduation requirement. Congratulations to all our new students!
We've attracted some supporters to our cause at www.igive.com but we need more! In these tough economic times, it's a great way to give money to your favorite charity (read: the Secretariat Center!) without spending any extra yourself. Check it out!

Letter From Our Director

Hello everyone!
Here is a letter that our director Susanna Thomas wrote for our first monthly e-newsletter (which will be sent out next week sometime) re-capping 2008 and giving an overview for our plans for 09:

Welcome to Maker’s Mark Secretariat Center’s new e-newsletter! What a successful year 2008 was for the Maker's Mark Secretariat Center at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington!

Thanks to the Horse Centered® ReSchooling program implemented this spring:

1. We had 20 horses adopted and 8 fostered for a total of 28 horses finding loving homes this year! The average adoption fee per horse was a respectable $1450.
   
2. We took in horses from six different rescue agencies as well as, the TRF and horses directly from owners and trainers.
   
3. We started an internship program for students from area colleges and universities as well as a volunteer certification program for the public at large.
4. Our training sessions were open daily to the public throughout the Kentucky Horse Park season. Every Saturday we were busy with interactive demonstrations for visitors.

We were busy in the office too:

1. We restructured our website, initiated a blog, now have Face Book address, and have videos of our horses posted on YouTube.
   
2. We completed a marketing study to help position us in 2009 and for the upcoming World Equestrian Games. Our goal is to make ourselves a major attraction to the Horse Park as the showcase site the in the United States for the reschooling of off the track Thoroughbreds.
   
3. We have a proposal for a documentary film about the TRF-MMCS and are now seeking funding for production in 2009.
   
4. We are looking at a variety of fundraising venues for 2010, from sponsorships to marketing the MMSC name and Horse Centered ReSchooling program.
   
5. We also established an advisory committee.

This spring we plan to:
· Start a training library
· Begin a lesson program
· Initiate a regular rostrum of lectures at the MMSC with TB experts
· Develop a line of merchandise for sale.
· Put the details of our marketing study into play.

Big plans, yes, which we think we can achieve by setting one small realistic goal after the next. We would love to hear your thoughts and would welcome any suggestions or advice. After all, this is your flagship facility for the retraining of the off the track Thoroughbred, and for heralding to the public at large the value of the Thoroughbred horse. With your support, we can surely make it the best that it can be.

We’re off!
All best,
Susanna Thomas Director

Center update: January 16th

Just a quick update to let everyone know that we are now taking resumes for our spring 2009 internships...we are starting them a bit late in the semester since the horses are away for the winter so interviews will be held the first week of February.

We launched the undergraduate internship program this fall for sophomores, juniors and seniors from universities in the Lexington, Ky area. This spring we offer students the choice of three different internship positions: equine management/training, equine communications, and farm maintenance.

Equine Management/Training Internship: Teaches students both basic barn management practices, and our 90-day Reschooling Program (R) for our ex-racehorses, which includes a combination of natural horsemanship, classical training methods, racetrack training methods, as well as basic dressage and hunt seat skills. They have the chance to observe our vet, farrier, dentist, chiropractor and accupuncturist at work. Also included in their cirriculum are issues specific to training and management of horses in the Thoroughbred racing industry.

Equine Communications Internship: Teaches students about communication as an art through different promotional mediums such as our website, blog, newsletter and local newspapers/magazines. They learn about promotions for an equine facility as we create flyers and postings for our horses, and hold weekly demonstrations open to the public. Since we are a non-profit, we also teach interns about fundraising and grant-writing as a 501c3. Interns may be required to give a presentation about their experience to potential sponsors at the end of the semester.

Farm Maintenance Internship: Teaches students about the non-training part of an equine facility: pasture and land management, construction of horse-friendly barns and run-ins, surface management and machinery operation/repair are central to the hands-on part of the internshp. They will also be asked to budget projects in these categories for a non-profit organization.

Anyone interested in applying should send their resume and cover letter to ncvoss2@yahoo.com . Applicants for the equine communications internship should also submit a writing sample. Applicants for the equine management/training internship should include a video or still photos of themselves writing as well as one equine reference.

Internship schedules are dependent on students' class schedules. There is a small stipend awarded at the end of the internship which may be given in the form of a scholarship.