Volunteer
Running a horse rescue can be overwhelming – especially when you try your hardest to do it right. You may start the day medicating sick horses, feeding and mucking manure. You rush to the computer to work on the website and social media, then spend mid morning with the farrier, trainer or vet. Then it’s off to the feed store to stock up for the growing herd. You head back home to unload and mix grain and realize the horses have produced a whole new batch of manure, just in case you were bored! Muck again. Medicate and feed sick horses. You hope you can make it through the evening feeding before the sun goes down because you can’t afford lights for all the shelters.
Like I said, it can be overwhelming. Swingin’ D could not survive without the volunteers who share their valuable time with us and our horses.
- contact us
ADMINISTRATIVE
- Bookkeeping
- Marketing
- Social Media
- Fundraising
RANCH OPERATIONS
- Pasture Management
- Fence Building and Repair
- Vehicle Maintenance
- Manure Management
HORSE CARE
- Grooming
- Feed Management
- Walking
- Loving
We’ve put together a volunteer guide that shares our values, beliefs and processes for running the rescue. We’re no experts, and we’re always open to better ideas, so please feel free to enlighten us! If you have tricks and tips to make our jobs easier, we’re all ears. If it works for us, we’ll make it part of our volunteer guide!
Grooming and Bathing
Head to tail? Tail to head? What's the best way to groom and bathe a horse? As with everything, it depends on the horse, but here are some tips we find helpful.
Safety First, Last and Always
Horses live in a state of Fight or Flight, and every move you make around a horse should be made with that in mind. Our volunteers' safety is of foremost importance to us.
Rescue Rules
Our volunteer manual includes a few ranch rules and guidelines to ensure we operate as smoothly as possible. We want our volunteers to feel welcome and accepted at all times.
Rules and guidelines are not made for good people with good intentions. Most rules and guidelines come from surprises.
Swingin’ D Horse Rescue has a pretty comprehensive and stringent Volunteer Agreement we developed from the best practices of other successful animal rescues, and our own life experience. Most people will not be phased by the requirements, which are designed to protect the volunteer, the rescue, and most of all, the horses. Please look the agreement over carefully before you decide to give of your valuable time.
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