Please Vote For A Good Cause AGAIN! :D

Floating this back up to the top on the 28th - this is fantastic, they're up to #9 now! I've been voting every day, voting ends on the 31st, go LIRHA go! Follow the link below to vote.


This may well be the last blog in the world where you expect to be told what to vote for, unless it's maybe for Greg Barton for Olympic Hall of Fame - but tonight I have a special request.

I have a paddling friend who lost his wife to a riding accident last year. I think it would've been understandable if he'd never wanted to see another horse again, but on the contrary, he's had the far more beautiful response of committing himself, in her memory, to the care and well being of her pride and joy, a sweet Haflinger by the name of Charm, and right now, to trying to win a grant for a handicapped riding program that she was involved in, the Long Island Riding Association for the Handicapped.


That's where you can help, if you will! The grants are awarded based on votes, with the top 10 programs being awarded money. The riding program has been hovering right around the bottom of the contenders. At the moment they are actually in 10th place, which is in the money, and your votes (you can vote every day from now until January 31st) can help them stay there, or even solidify their position a bit more.

Unfortunately, there is a registration to vote, but I've made an exception to my normal tendency to shy away from those sorts of things to vote for them and I hope that you will too. Click here to vote! : o #10! http://www.refresheverything.com/lirhalongislandridingforthehandicappedassociation " Note the next morning - redoing the link here, but if it STILL goes to some random-selection page, type in "LI Riding" and they will come up.

BTW, I have to say a special thank-you to blogging friend Claire and her friends at Quantum Savvy and Parelli Natural Horse Training. I first found "Claire's Garden" through sea kayaking circles, but almost exactly 2 years ago, she traded in her sea kayak for a sweet horse named Abbey, and this afternoon it suddenly hit me (oh, DUH!) that she might have a circle of horsey friends who'd be just as enthusiastic about riding programs like this as I am. The program had been stuck in #11 for some time - I passed the word and here it is a few hours later and they're back up to #10 & in the running for some gear again. Hooray!

Yes, I'm doing this because it'll make Bob very happy, same for Arlene if there's any way she can look down & see people working to help out a program she loved -- but I'm also doing this because my inner child never quite gave up being horse-crazy. Believe me, if money and time allowed, there would be more horses gently shouldering their way in among the dinghies and kayaks that normally rule the roost lilypad around here.

ps - the pony above isn't Charm, that's another Haflinger with whom I am actually acquainted. I just liked the picture and I don't think I'd figured out an excuse to use it yet!