Hooves of Hope, operates with the help of non-compensated volunteers, and is a non-incorporated charity, operating in the state of TX. You can make a difference by volunteering to help us take the horses to those in the community in need!

You can make a tremendous difference in the lives of many, many people with the generous contribution of your time and help. Your personal rewards will be boundless! At this time, your expenses are neither paid, nor tax deductible. However, the rewards and joy are endless, the fellowship and fun incredible, and your contribution to the well-being of others is real and what we are directed by Christ to do when he said: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Our volunteers for elder homes and hospices must be 16 years of age, or 12 - 16 and accompanied by a parent or gaurdian. Each volunteer will have the opportunity to attend training and receive instructions on how to allow the horses to visit, while maintaining safety and cleanliness.

We will be providing a sign-up sheet online in the next few weeks. Until then, if you are interested in volunteering, please send an email to the director with your name, location, area of interest and your age. We look forward to meeting and working with you!

VOLUNTEER GUIDELINES:

1) We do not require a committment of a certain number of hours per week or month. We only ask that you volunteer as you are able, and if you cannot donate time, please consider a financial donation.

2) We do ask that if you want to help with grooming or an event, that you make a solid committment per event, and notify us within 24 hours ahead of time if you are unable to fulfill your committment. Our events do depend on our volunteers, and without volunteers, the events will not take place.

3) We do ask that you always wear solid shoes, no open-toed shoes or halter-type tops are allowed. We also ask that you bring a drink or snack if necessary. We will provide restroom facilities.

4) Once you have participated in the training to become a volunteer groomer or handler, we ask that you wear a yellow shirt to all Hooves of Hope events, OR, you can purchase a Hooves of Hope T-shirt to wear to events.

We are currently accepting applications for the following volunteer positions:

Visitations Volunteers:

We plan most of our visits on Saturdays, and occassionally on Sundays, so that the majority of our volunteers can participate. We will have some visitations in west Houston, and some in College Station, and Brenham, TX.

GROOMERS:

Depending on your availability and location, our visitations volunteers can meet us the morning before the visit, and help us get our horses washed, dried, brushed, groomed, and where appropriate, dressed for their visitation. This is a great opportunity to get your children involved, since we don't allow children younger than 12 to actually accompany us to the visitations to the nursing homes, hospices, etc. But, we do want children to get to work with us and the horses, and helping us get ready the day before a visit, is a great way to get your children involved!

In order to get everyone involved and include young people between the ages of 5 - 15, we've set up our schedules to provide fun training days to teach children, if accompanied by a parent or guardian, how to help us get the horses ready for our visits to the Events.

Please note: Due to Texas liability laws, unfortunately, we require one parent be on hand for any children under 16, and one parent per child between the ages of 5 - 9, be on hand for this hands-on training.

We will give hands on instructions and demonstrations, as well as showing some short videos as the opportunity presents. This is a great chance for the children to get to learn how to groom the horses and handle the horses up close. You and your child will have a ton of fun and help us get ready for our public events. Parents; we will count on you to assist and watch your child as they learn the ropes in the training classes. When they are proficient in grooming, they will receive a certificate of accomplishment that they have taken training to be a Hooves of Hope groomer.

Hooves of Hope provides the horses and all the tools and equipment, so we do ask that you make a small donation of $15 per child, if you possibly can. Although this donation is not mandatory, it will help us to continue offering these exciting and rare opportunities for young children to interact directly with the miniature horses and learn how to properly groom a horse in the process. These skills will translate to larger horses as they get older too. Once your child is proficient in grooming, (the number of training sessions will vary, depending on your child's age and individual abilities,) they can volunteer to help out the day before our public events for free. We do not ask for donations for any volunteer training for persons over the age of 18. The donations help us cover our insurance costs for persons 18 or younger. You can donate online via paypal on our webpage, or in person.

HORSE HANDLERS:

We will have training for those of you that will be actually going to the public events and nursing homes with our horses. We welcome teenagers 12 - 16 to our public events if accompanied by a parent or guardian and you attend at least 1 training session as a handler. If you are 16 years or younger, your training sessions are $15 for a 2 to 2 1/2 hour training session. You can be proficient as a handler with as little as 1 or 2 training sessions if you have previous experience with horses. We welcome you to go with us and help as a handler once you are trained and accompanied by a parent or guardian, if you are 12-16, and adults 17 and older, can come with us as a horse handler once you show proficiency in the training classes. There is no charge for training for those 17 and older.

Depending on your location, you can also meet us at the visitation location, and help us with the horses, either leading, following, and if necessary, clean-up. After our visit, we feed and water the horses, and load them in the trailer and head back to their pastures, and you can head back home. You will need to be 16 years or older with your own transportation, or be accompanied by your parent. You will need to provide your own transportation. We will have an application and waiver of liability available online shortly, as well as very low-cost insurance, in the $25 range per year.

HELPER JOBS ARE IMPORTANT TOO!:

There are ALSO lots of different opportunities for volunteers at our public events and facility visits beyond handling the horses and grooming the day before. You can help by working with the handler to insure a safe area around the horse, especially watching for small children to keep them from behind the horses. You will show them where to pet the horse, watch them for safety issues like keeping them from pulling the horses tail, etc. You can also help with the flow of observers, moving the lines along and such. (Training is very helpful for these positions, though not required. It will be easier if you have come to the training day, usually one week before the public event.)

We also need people to help us at various times and events doing any of the following "HELPER JOBS" and you do not need prior training to participate in our public events and faciliyt visits with these important positions. We just ask that you LET US KNOW YOU WANT TO HELP OUT, preferably a few days before hand, but, we can always use the help, regardless.

• Hand out information such as brochures, flyers, free gifts, etc.
• Take donations or sell gift items or drinks or snacks at larger venues.
• You can help us set up temporary "partition" equipment or help with crowd control, guiding visitors through lines for photographs with the horses, or taking turns petting the horses in larger crowds.
• Take photographs of the visit for our website or future handouts and information using our easy digital camera.
• And of course, perhaps the least glamorous but most necessary and important job, cleaning up any little horsey poop accidents that might occur. (Clean-up on aisle 3!)
• When we visit the elder homes, the assisted living facilities and the hospices, you may want to come along just to sit and talk to people who may need someone just to talk to, even if they have no interest in the horses. We are happy for anyone 17 and older, or 12-16 with parent, to join us in that capacity, as a good will ambassador for Hooves of Hope.

To Volunteer, please contact the director. Thank you so much for your contribution to Hooves of Hope, Inc. You can make a real difference in this community with the gift of your time, talents, patience, optimism and love.