23/06/2024
Thanks so much to all those that have donated towards the horses at Tiger Trails. Your contributions are greatly appreciated! All the support from both friends and afar has been overwhelming. Everyone involved has best intentions what ever angle they choose to look at this from or assumptions around this situation made. Just to let everyone know straight from the horses mouth so to speak for me personally at this particular time with the only option of buying hay having to be purchased from the mainland, my reaching out via gofundme is solely about the affordability of feeding the horses under the current challenging circumstances at this particular time only. Meaning feeding these guys alone over the next 3 months will more than triples their normal feed costs that I budget for each year. Thats why it’s a massive added expense in this particular year for the first time ever making it difficult to afford. Each load of hay delivered including freight and ferry is costing me $14,738 That works out to $297 per average round bale of hay. That same bale bought locally normally costing only $100 delivered. Up until last year I have always grown my own hay supply for the horses on the property rather than buying in hay, making what I do taking on horses more than affordable for all the years gone by. I’m doing it no tougher than any other farmer out there at this time. We are all in the same boat with the late break in the season meaning added feed requirements for all stock, added expenses and added workload. I’ve got a responsibility to the farm stock as well as a responsibility to the horses in my care. The highs and the lows of farming thats just what we deal with year in year out as farmers. And years like this obviously eats further into the budget stretching resources to their limits. As for the horses especially within the racing industry and harness racing industry there’s so much conversation around life after racing so a very worthy opportunity for me to be reaching out, raising awareness, allowing those who want to reach out in support to do so and accepting peoples contributions to this cause are all as valuable as each other and worth my doing so given these circumstances. It’s also worth mentioning that in recent times several privately run retraining facilities for retired race horses have had to close their doors due to the expense involved and low market prices for selling them on to appropriate forever homes making it unviable for them to continue. Likewise many trail riding business and horse riding schools Australia wide have also closed down due to unaffordable insurance premiums the same as here on KI with Tiger Trails. Despite Tiger Trails being closed to the public, the past few years have been some of my most productive , rewarding and enjoyable still taking on and making progress with rehoming especially the retired racehorses but all horses and ponies I send off to new homes. There’s been so much support for these horses shown now and over all the years I have been taking horses on at Tiger Trails. Including horses, ponies and donkeys from local people and from the mainland simply no longer able to keep them for whatever personal reasons. I have happily done so completely at my own expense. Throughout the now 16 years of Tiger Trails operating many times I have been asked who supports or sponsors what I do. It seems to always come as a shock to everyone who asks that Tiger Trails has always been fully self funded in covering all costs involved with turning once unwanted horses into, safe, reliable horses worthy of the opportunity to live out their lives as they deserve. I’ve felt strongly all the way through it’s my choice to do what I do so my job to fund it.
I was hoping to be updating today with happy snaps of the second load of hay we ordered from the same supplier as our last load of quality horse hay. Unfortunately what they have sent this time is not even remotely comparable. The entire load sent is straw, blackened with water stain, containing zero grain, full of dust and only benefit for use as garden mulch. It’s of zero quality or benefit to any stock let alone horses. Such a shame to think of a fellow farmer taking advantage off a fellow farmer especially in such desperate times as these.
I have obviously changed supplier and eagerly awaiting the next load arriving on Wednesday.
Tiger Trails is reaching out to all the horse lovers out there and those who enjoy a da… Yaeda Dorrestijn needs your support for Tiger Trails, Kangaroo Island
