Richmond — Does putting funky heart glasses on a rescue donkey and hugging it sound like your idea of a Valentine’s Day well spent? Berkshire HorseWorks will be hosting their fourth annual Romance at the Ranch, a photo opportunity with the 11 horses, ponies, and donkeys that make up the rescue herd on their property in Richmond. The February 14 event runs from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and is donation only, with proceeds supporting the Eagala Model Equine Assisted therapeutic, educational, and recreational programs that Berkshire HorseWorks has offered since 2013.
Couples and families alike will be able to dress up the animals—and themselves—at different stations filled with Valentine-themed scarves, glasses, or coats for the equine participants. “We spend a lot of time in the dollar store,” said Berkshire HorseWorks founder and Executive Director Hayley Sumner, and people donate items too. There will be kissing booths with the animals, as well as cookies and hot cocoa. Berkshire HorseWorks will help set up shots, and people can take their own photos or have them taken and sent to them. “They can spend as much time as they like [with the animals],” said Sumner.
Romance at the Ranch has grown every year, part of the nonprofit’s push to open up their ranch for more community events, Sumner told the Berkshire Edge. They offer “a little bit of solace, a bit of a feel-good in times when they’re so challenging.” Almost 200 people came out when they brought all the horses to a fundraising event with Hilltop Orchards, and over 160 attended a holiday event that brought Santa to the ranch for the first time. People could create their own holiday cards. The tractors were out, and kids could climb up on them. “It was just joyful, and that’s really our goal, to be able to provide some outlet for what’s going on in the world. We try to build the community a little stronger each time and expand what we do with them.”
“The Valentine’s event has been a mainstay for people who want to see what’s going on at the ranch,” Sumner continued, “and they wind up joining for different programs, and it’s a time for parents to really bond with their kids over something happy.” Valentine’s Day decorations aside, the event is about building relationships with the animals. For people who may have fear of the bigger horses,” said Sumner, “it’s a very easy way for them to be introduced.” How does one build trust with an animal that may have been “left in a field for many years without being touched?” she posed. “It’s really interesting to see the natural and organic way that people just open their hearts and are together with the ponies.”
All of the animals at the ranch are rescues, mostly from Massachusetts. “In one capacity or another, they have had challenging lives,” Sumner noted. Some were abandoned after being adopted. “One woman had two in her backyard, and she went into assisted living and left them there.” Some animals have to be purchased, and funds have also enabled Berkshire HorseWorks to acquire a herd that better reflects the diversity of its clients, Sumner explained. With the metaphorical learning that clients undertake, they can connect with the animal and put their own struggles onto it. “Having a diversified herd, whether it be one with a limp or one that’s blind, I think that is beneficial to their treatment.”
But between feed, medication, and farriers, it costs between $5,000 and $8,000 to sustain a horse for a year. One has an insulin issue; another an eye condition. “For us to be able to just open the doors to provide scholarships for the children that are coming to Ranch Life or need life-skill development or kids’ team building … the overhead is pretty crazy, so we’re really trying to figure out ways to spread the word,” said Sumner. A 2024 grant allowed them to purchase a trailer and mobilize their education programs off site. “We’ve been able to access other schools that don’t have the budgets for transportation, so that’s been wonderful, being able to go to senior centers and other community events and bring the horses there.”
This year, their major initiative to offset costs is to cultivate more business clients for corporate team building and staff development. “We’re looking forward to educating organizations from the community that they don’t just have to go on a fishing trip or have a pizza party; [equine-assisted team building] is actually a very legitimate way to tackle a corporate development issue,” said Sumner, or just have a fun experience to relieve the daily stress of the job. She hopes to host a big open house for HR people from different businesses, where they will be able to participate in a demo and spread those ideas to their staffs.
“Whether it’s a child or a corporate client,” Sumners described, “if I send them out to the field and say, ‘Go observe the herd, come back and give us one observation,’ 99 percent of the time they come back and say, ‘Oh, he’s angry,’ ‘He’s lonely,’ he’s whatever it may be.” The Eagala Model practices using “clean language instead of perception,” so that people don’t prescribe meaning based on past triggers. “What is it that makes him angry? Could it be something else?” she might counter. With the animals standing in for people or feelings, clients can work through traumas. By practicing objective observation, “we get them down to a more organic way of looking at interactions with the rest of the world and their peers.”
A full description of Berkshire HorseWorks’ programs is available on their website, including a preview of some of the animals people can meet at Romance on the Ranch on February 14.
