Five-year-old Rachael McMillan and her mother Suzanne have always loved horses. When they saw the financial effect COVID-19 was having on local horse schools, they decided to get creative in an effort to help out.
Horse riding is something of a tradition in Rachael's family and she's been around the animals since she was a baby.
Connected to Nature
"She loves all animals. she loves horses, dogs, butterflies. If you ask her she'll tell you she's connected to nature," says Suzanne. "I'm so heavily involved with the horses, it's my passion so we spend a lot of time at the barn. Weekends and in the summertime. Going for rides and just being around them and teaching her about them."
Rachael would often accompany her mother on trips to horse schools.
"It's something we can do together," her mother says. "You know, brushing the horse and getting to ride, playing around the barn and seeing dogs running around. It's nice having some space to play."
When the COVID-19 pandemic began, local horse schools lost all the income they would usually be getting from lessons and camps.
"Without lessons, the income is essentially stopped," Suzanne says. "Between feed, medication, health care, hoof care, any supplements that they might be on. Horses can cost anywhere up to $1,700 per month each."
When the McMillan family heard about all of this, they began thinking of a way they could raise some money. They began with Meadowlarke Stables in Mississauga, where Suzanne grew up riding.
"It was a little bit scary," Suzanne says. "We wanted to help out in any way we could and, you know, having a five-year-old at home who needed to do some school work, I wanted to include her. She wanted to be involved so, since she was learning to read, we put something together."
Rachael reads
The McMillans decided to set up a Youtube account and GoFundMe page. The idea was for Rachael to read books (most of which were about horses), to encourage donations to barns and "schoolies" in the GTA. Selected titles include, Black Beauty, My Little Pony and Guess How Much I Love You.
The bank's charitable initiative will now be matching each donation the McMillan's receive.
Since they began, they've worked with six horse schools in the Halton and Peel regions.
"Lots of support from family and friends, then we've had some people contact us from a horse focused magazine," Suzanne says. They've also been approached by RBC's Random Acts of Canadian program. The bank's charitable initiative matched all donations up to June 15th.
Since Ontario entered Stage Two, many Oakville businesses are doing better than they were. Restaurants and stores can now operate at diminished capacity. It is all encouraging, but things can still be dicey. This is true for horse schools as well.
"They've started to give some lessons but the lessons are very restrictive," Suzanne says. "Most farms didn't offer camps, some of them did but on a lot smaller scale. Where normally there'd be five or six people, now it's only one or two."
The horse riding community in Oakville still needs help, and Rachael and her mother aren't planning to let up on their work any time soon. They still want to help out the animals and the people who take care of them, one book at a time.