Horse Herd Support Costa Rica
Donation protected
Support the Leaves and Lizards Horse Herd through COVID-19
#herdsupportcostarica
There is an extraordinary herd of 23 horses who need your help now!
Perhaps you know them already – maybe you had a profound connection or healing experience with them - or perhaps you can see their wise, beautiful spirits and feel drawn to them.
This herd have touched many hearts, and now there is a chance for you to support them too.
As many of you know, the Leaves and Lizards hotel in Costa Rica has been closed since mid-March and has recently been sold. Enrique, the Costa Rican horse-guide, now owns all the horses - he is planning to set up his own horse-riding tour business when tourism re-opens in Costa Rica but in the meantime the horses still need care and there is no income at all to pay for it!
The horses currently live together as a herd, some in family groups, and they deserve good food, enough space and daily health care - with your help we can keep it this way and provide some income support to Enrique’s family and other local community members.
Whether you have personally experienced the powerful teaching and healing from horses (equine experiential learning), or whether you know and care about this horse & human herd, or whether you simply love horses and want to support a Costa Rica community, then this is your chance to help them through a difficult time!
A donation of $100 will support 1 horse for 1 month.
ANY SMALL AMOUNT YOU CAN DONATE IS VERY MUCH APPRECIATED!
More details of this situation are below if you want to keep reading….
- NO INCOME…..The borders to Costa Rica are still closed to tourists. The new owners of the retreat hotel are doing a refurbishment so will not re-open until early next year. Without tourism there has been a sudden and complete halt in income for many locals, including Enrique and the former Leaves and Lizards staff.
- UP UNTIL NOW…..since March Enrique and his family, together with a small group of volunteers, have been caring for the horses – cutting grass, feeding, rotating pastures, treating injuries, mending fences etc. and a kind-hearted friend to the horses gave us a donation to cover hay, vet bills and a few much-needed regular hours of work for Ronald (the horses’ previous main caretaker and the most experienced and essential in keeping them healthy), which is supporting him and his family. Everyone has been doing a great job, but it’s hard work!
- WHY NOW?…..we can see that this situation is not going to change in the short-term, so we are asking for your help to care for these hard-working and exceptional horses for the next 9 months at least, until there is chance for Enrique to re-start his business and start making money again to support the horses. We currently have a number of horses injured or sick, needing medicine and vet care, which is not cheap of course so the bills are mounting up.
In addition, certain of the horses are too old to keep doing tours (or have injuries) and we would like to be able to support them in their much-deserved retirement and potential therapy work in the future, so any additional funds raised (beyond what is needed to support through this period) will go towards care for these horses.
WHAT WE NEED……the money you donate will be spent on the following items (or unforeseeable things related to the horses and their care):
* Grain, supplements and regular medicine for the older horses who need it (the other horses are not working so in many cases grass & hay is enough)
* Hay (and transport of hay) for certain horses / as a back-up to grass
* Managing pastures: there is work involved in growing and managing horse grass when you don’t have unlimited space. The horses live in one field (they’ve eaten all the grass there already) and Enrique and his kids cut grass (this is back-breaking work for a good few hours every single morning) in other fields to transport to the horses to eat from feeders. Enrique’s extended family is kindly donating use of the pastures but there are still costs to treat, grow, cut and transport the grass, maintain water supply, fences etc.
* Paid work for Enrique's sons (Steven & Andrey), Kendall and other local workers to cut grass, haul hay and maintain pastures
* Paid work for the horses’ usual caretaker Ronald (who knows their individual health and routines inside out, trims their feed and treats injuries)
* Medicine and equipment for tick and worm treatments, hoof care and the inevitable minor injuries or illness
* Veterinarian bills (unpredictable and hopefully infrequent but an unavoidable cost and we are facing this right now)
BUDGET….To give you an idea, for only the essentials listed above it costs around $2,300 per month to support the herd and some of the team.
So a donation of $100 will support 1 horse for 1 month.
The fundraiser target is a projection of costs for a 9 month period until the hotel and the borders are likely to be re-open, and Enrique can start operating the horse tour business again.
FOLLOW THE HORSES….We love to share the horses with you - if you would like to keep in touch with them please follow or like Enrique Molina’s facebook page and Sally Nilsson's facebook page The Dandelion Life, where we are posting videos and updates.
Every small amount is appreciated and, if you cannot send money (we appreciate that times may be tough for many of us), then please send your love and positive vibes as the horses will feel and appreciate these too.
Some of the Herd:
Beauty
Dorado
Gitana
Mr Big
Lluvia, Bonito, Tango
JR
Enrique (with Ciara and Nato)
Rosa and Sally
Juano
Ronald trimming Beauty (while a young Lluvia drinks)
Hungry Rayo waiting for hay from Andrey
Cosmo, Titan and Elisa sharing the hay
Espartaco with a mouthful
Thanks to Leila for the fabulous photos (the best ones are hers!)
#herdsupportcostarica
There is an extraordinary herd of 23 horses who need your help now!
Perhaps you know them already – maybe you had a profound connection or healing experience with them - or perhaps you can see their wise, beautiful spirits and feel drawn to them.
This herd have touched many hearts, and now there is a chance for you to support them too.
As many of you know, the Leaves and Lizards hotel in Costa Rica has been closed since mid-March and has recently been sold. Enrique, the Costa Rican horse-guide, now owns all the horses - he is planning to set up his own horse-riding tour business when tourism re-opens in Costa Rica but in the meantime the horses still need care and there is no income at all to pay for it!
The horses currently live together as a herd, some in family groups, and they deserve good food, enough space and daily health care - with your help we can keep it this way and provide some income support to Enrique’s family and other local community members.
Whether you have personally experienced the powerful teaching and healing from horses (equine experiential learning), or whether you know and care about this horse & human herd, or whether you simply love horses and want to support a Costa Rica community, then this is your chance to help them through a difficult time!
A donation of $100 will support 1 horse for 1 month.
ANY SMALL AMOUNT YOU CAN DONATE IS VERY MUCH APPRECIATED!
More details of this situation are below if you want to keep reading….
- NO INCOME…..The borders to Costa Rica are still closed to tourists. The new owners of the retreat hotel are doing a refurbishment so will not re-open until early next year. Without tourism there has been a sudden and complete halt in income for many locals, including Enrique and the former Leaves and Lizards staff.
- UP UNTIL NOW…..since March Enrique and his family, together with a small group of volunteers, have been caring for the horses – cutting grass, feeding, rotating pastures, treating injuries, mending fences etc. and a kind-hearted friend to the horses gave us a donation to cover hay, vet bills and a few much-needed regular hours of work for Ronald (the horses’ previous main caretaker and the most experienced and essential in keeping them healthy), which is supporting him and his family. Everyone has been doing a great job, but it’s hard work!
- WHY NOW?…..we can see that this situation is not going to change in the short-term, so we are asking for your help to care for these hard-working and exceptional horses for the next 9 months at least, until there is chance for Enrique to re-start his business and start making money again to support the horses. We currently have a number of horses injured or sick, needing medicine and vet care, which is not cheap of course so the bills are mounting up.
In addition, certain of the horses are too old to keep doing tours (or have injuries) and we would like to be able to support them in their much-deserved retirement and potential therapy work in the future, so any additional funds raised (beyond what is needed to support through this period) will go towards care for these horses.
WHAT WE NEED……the money you donate will be spent on the following items (or unforeseeable things related to the horses and their care):
* Grain, supplements and regular medicine for the older horses who need it (the other horses are not working so in many cases grass & hay is enough)
* Hay (and transport of hay) for certain horses / as a back-up to grass
* Managing pastures: there is work involved in growing and managing horse grass when you don’t have unlimited space. The horses live in one field (they’ve eaten all the grass there already) and Enrique and his kids cut grass (this is back-breaking work for a good few hours every single morning) in other fields to transport to the horses to eat from feeders. Enrique’s extended family is kindly donating use of the pastures but there are still costs to treat, grow, cut and transport the grass, maintain water supply, fences etc.
* Paid work for Enrique's sons (Steven & Andrey), Kendall and other local workers to cut grass, haul hay and maintain pastures
* Paid work for the horses’ usual caretaker Ronald (who knows their individual health and routines inside out, trims their feed and treats injuries)
* Medicine and equipment for tick and worm treatments, hoof care and the inevitable minor injuries or illness
* Veterinarian bills (unpredictable and hopefully infrequent but an unavoidable cost and we are facing this right now)
BUDGET….To give you an idea, for only the essentials listed above it costs around $2,300 per month to support the herd and some of the team.
So a donation of $100 will support 1 horse for 1 month.
The fundraiser target is a projection of costs for a 9 month period until the hotel and the borders are likely to be re-open, and Enrique can start operating the horse tour business again.
FOLLOW THE HORSES….We love to share the horses with you - if you would like to keep in touch with them please follow or like Enrique Molina’s facebook page and Sally Nilsson's facebook page The Dandelion Life, where we are posting videos and updates.
Every small amount is appreciated and, if you cannot send money (we appreciate that times may be tough for many of us), then please send your love and positive vibes as the horses will feel and appreciate these too.
Some of the Herd:
Beauty
Dorado
Gitana
Mr Big
Lluvia, Bonito, Tango
JR
Enrique (with Ciara and Nato)
Rosa and Sally
Juano
Ronald trimming Beauty (while a young Lluvia drinks)
Hungry Rayo waiting for hay from Andrey
Cosmo, Titan and Elisa sharing the hay
Espartaco with a mouthful
Thanks to Leila for the fabulous photos (the best ones are hers!)
Organizer and beneficiary
Sally Nilsson
Organizer
Belen, NM
Eric Kolesar
Beneficiary
