Touchstone Cycle of Giving Launched in Embro

Friday, 11 November 2022 at 16:22

By Brad Kraemer

The fundraising campaign has already got underway and will last for a month.

ZORRA - Embro's Touchstone Farms has launched a fundraising campaign.

Touchstone Cycle of Giving is an initiative built on the premise of providing relationship-centred comfort for the animals in their care while offering relationship-centred services for the community. Money that is spent at the farm by the customers goes towards the well-being of the animals.

Jill Parkhill and her family purchased the farm in 2015, but it wasn't until a couple of years ago that they had to make a big adjustment.

"When COVID hit, everything sort of changed. We had to re-focus how we do things to stay within the regulations. Now we're able to do a few more things at home. I am a certified EAL practitioner, which is awesome, and my daughter is now also certified, so we get to do equine assisted learning."

Parkhill also explains equine assisted learning.

"Because most of our horses are rescues and have their own completely unique history, it also provides a really unique way for our clients to bond with them and relate to them and our horses' reactions are different because of that history, which is really cool. We use the horses when we set up different exercises and we use the horses as a gauge. When someone is asked a question or is asked to do a task, we watch the horses' reactions as well."'

The practice is backed by Psychology Today magazine: “Research shows that equine-facilitated therapy and companion animals help all kinds of individuals with all kinds of special needs – providing care that we humans cannot.”

The fundraising campaign has already got underway and will last for a month. You can expect fundraising activities such as horse rides, pumpkin patch and Christmas photos with the horses dressed up.

Parkhill ended with this message:

"We appreciate everybody who comes out here, everybody who comes out and supports us, everybody who comes out and supports the animals. We have an amazing community and we just want to be able to do more in the community and keep the animals happy and safe and cared for and just keep giving back. That's the whole point right?"

You can show support or find more information here.