Meeting the Mini’s (miniature horses) was the educational element at the Feb. Manes and Tails (MT) Meeting at Deb Lavine’s farm in Monticello. During the warmer months of 2009 Lavine hosted a weekly program for a month which turned out to run all summer. Young people learned handling and grooming of these little horses as well as meeting their tiny offspring and choosing other topics to study such as the colors of the horse and about driving equipment necessary for pulling a cart.
Contributed photo
Tracy Thibodeau of North Caribou cuddles a miniature horse at a farm in Monticello. Thibodeau will host the next meeting of Manes and Tails at her farm on the Plante Rd, near Connor.
The visiting MT members enjoyed the wonder of the miniature horses and learned that Lavine will offer the program “Meet the Minis” again this year starting in May. Some of the MT group were coached through a mock lesson of grooming and handling.
MT members then proceeded to Shelly Taylor’s home for the business of sharing and networking horse and therapeutic horse activities and trainings. MT has a new facebook page called Manes and Tails Aroostook, set up by Karen Crouser. Web-site updates are on the way and MT is always looking for more volunteers to join the team for grant writing, assisting with programs and future fundraising to support the scholarship programs for participants and for coach trainings.
Presently MT is looking for equine insurance information for County operations, in hopes of sharing info and resources from and with all barns of Aroostook.
The next Manes and Tails meeting will take place on Saturday, April 10, at 3 p.m. and will start with a farm visit with Tracy Thibodeau and her horses in North Caribou where she will be working with youth again this year. This visit will befollowed by the business of networking about equine insurance, business cards or flyer’s swap and updating for printing a new MT brochure for distribution. Fund-raising ideas are always welcome.
Meetings are always open and this one is another great chance for anyone interested in meeting horses and finding out more about county wide services to visit and ask questions or make suggestions.
The Plante Road is about ? mile west of Route 1, north of Caribou, (just South of Connor village).
Thibodeau can be reached at: 227-6974, or e-mail at funnyfarm_19@yahoo.com.
For more information contact Nancy Dumond Violette at ponygirl489@msn.com or 868-5324; or Shelly Taylor at staylor@houltonregional.org 538-9365.
Information about the Manes and Tails organization is available at www.manesandtails.org.
