Calling the community
Saddles of Joy seeks help after storms damage nonprofit’s facilities
Saddles of Joy took a brutal hit from the storm on Saturday, but Executive Director Susan Solstice affirms the nonprofit will build back better.
“The organization has been around, the facility’s been around 20+ years, so we’re not going to let this one defeat it,” she said.
Solstice explained that while some parts of Yuma experienced only strong winds and others rain, Saddles of Joy was devastated by both. Fortunately, the animals are all fine, but the facilities, trees, aviary, roofing and more were hit.
“From everything that I’ve seen and observed, it looks like a microburst hit us and we got water and the strong winds,” Solstice said. “A lot of places just got the winds and they’re like, ‘What rain? What are you talking about?’ And it looks like we just got both. Everything from the telephone poles out on County 14th – and that’s the second time in a week that that has happened. They just finished clearing four poles and then bam, it came back.”
Among the damages caused by the storm, one major hit tore a hole right through the nonprofit’s library.
“We had a great big steel announcer stand up by our first arena that I guess the wind caught,” Solstice said. “That thing had to weigh – I don’t know – 1000 pounds, maybe more. It crashed right into our little library … it went right through the walls. So we’ve got that all plastic and stapled over.”
The barns stayed secure, but several shaders including the ones for the party area and the disability ramp for children in wheelchairs to get on horses have been devastated and torn to bits.
Solstice explained that the hardest blow for Saddles was the loss of their giant trees.
“They were 40, 50 feet and provided blessed shade and places for our chickens and
peacocks to roost and we’re gonna miss those,” she said. “That’s all right: we’re gonna replant some fast growing trees, but it’s gonna take a couple years for them to get up.”
The tree damage had also caused quite the scare when it fell on the aviary where Elvis the turkey and a couple of geese and ducks lived.
“When I got there, Elvis the turkey was thrilled,” Solstice shared. “He was out and about wandering around, gobbling up a storm; so happy to be out. We were sad for a little while because we thought the tree had taken out the ducks and the geese and all of a sudden one of my volunteers [goes,] ‘Susan! Susan! Come here, come here!’ and I go over there and she points out to look through all the branches and everything. And there’s the ducks and the geese swimming in the pond, they’re just fine.
“But when I started talking to them, they started talking back like, ‘We’re trapped. We can’t get out. Send food. Do something.’ So that was the very first rescue effort of the day is that some guys came out with chainsaws and cut a hole through the tree debris so that the ducks and the geese could waddle on out and we rehomed them for a while.”
She noted that the game are ground dwellers and they’ve seen a coyote or two come through so rehoming them for the time being will protect them.
Solstice added that the other animals were a little shaky after everything as if they had wanted to ask “what was that?” but as soon as they were given food, they essentially expressed, “Oh nevermind, food!”
Saddles of Joy as a therapeutic riding program has all kinds of animals because “therapy comes in many forms.” Horses, donkeys, miniature horses, goats, pot-bellied pigs, giant sulcata tortoises, chickens, peacocks and other forms of domestic animals all reside at the nonprofit, providing healing joy to those who visit.
Saddles of Joy provides therapeutic riding lessons, standard riding lessons, equine psychotherapy and animal-assisted therapy, but is typically closed to the public during this season until Oct. 1 because of the summer heat.
Some services are still offered in the early morning in this season, but they’ll be put on hold until Saddles can get at least one building put back together so they can turn on air conditioning.
“Once we get all the debris picked up and the ground dry – because that’s river bottom silt, that stuff isn’t the sand like up on the mesa,” Solstice said. “When this stuff gets wet, it is so slippery. Once the debris is picked up and it’s dry, then we can resume any very early riding lessons or therapy; anything of that nature. We’ve got 6:30 in the morning: you want to get up that early and come, then we will absolutely accommodate. But otherwise, October first is our start open-up date, grand reopening again.”
Solstice also assured that Saddles of Joy has insurance, but it’ll take some time to receive. She estimates that the big damage to the library, the roof for one of the feed rooms and other little things will be covered, but they also have awnings, trees and even a grill to replace.
With the help of the public, they hope to rebuild. Saddles is accepting support through donations made to their GoFundMe fundraiser as well as physical help cleaning up. For them, every little bit helps.
“We’re really pleased the community has been very generous so far because that’s how we exist: their donations,” Solstice said. “We’re not a big fancy nonprofit that gets great, big, huge grants; we are a month-tomonth, fight-and-scramble-for-everypenny, all-volunteer nonprofit. We do it off the sweat of our palms, so all of this is appreciated and it will all go to restoring the things that we need. We’re not going to have any wild parties with the money. Things are expensive!”
To help Saddles, community members can donate to their $10,000 goal on GoFundMe by visiting https://bit. ly/3SQ3t3P. Those looking to roll up their sleeves and help with the cleanup are encouraged to bring gloves to the nonprofit located at 2749 W County 14th St. on either Wednesday, Aug. 17 from 9 a.m. to noon or Saturday, Aug. 20 from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m.
And to stay updated with upcoming fundraisers and progress, follow their official Facebook page at https:// www.facebook.com/SaddlesOfJoyInc.