New England Valkyries

WOW!!! You guys are AWESOME!!

Where do we even START? 

We had a fantastic turn out for our vaulting workshop today. From the wild wheel barrel girls who were working on their core strength, to the fabulous triples, to the riders who took up the challenge of vaulting, to the grown-ups who boldly kicked off their boots and really gave it a go, you were amazing.

We really enjoyed having you come out and vault with us and we hope you had a lot of fun, too. We appreciate that everyone really took it seriously and tried to learn some vaulting skills.

We have a few more pictures over on our FaceBook page—please come like us!  And if you took some pictures, please share them with us there!

We also post demos and other workshops there, as well as updated to our vaulting calendar.

Thank you all for coming and for your very generous donations! We hope you also liked seeing some of the NEV vaulters perform for you on Pico.

Think about taking a session or two of lessons with us — we'd love to have you ALL come and be Valkyries—fearless, fantastic and awesome!

Another "Kick Off Your Boots and Give Vaulting A Go" Workshop and Demonstration

It's time for another of our famous  Kick Off Your Boots and Give Vaulting A Go workshops.

This is our fourth one and we love doing these and sharing thsi awesome sport.

Here's your chance to learn more about this sport and try it for yourself.

This 90-minute workshop offers an opportunity to try the sport without committing to a series of lessons.  The workshop starts with a demonstration by the team, then participants will break into groups to learn vaulting moves through a series of games and personal instruction.  

Time and Date: Sunday Novermber 20th from 3:30-5:00 PM
Place: Shepley Hill Farm (at Puritan Hill)  122 Old Ayer Road, Groton, MA

We encourage a donation of $25-$35 per person which helps support the nonprofit New England Valkyries. Your tax-deductible donation advances our mission of continuing to offer recreational and competitive and affordable vaulting expeiences to a wide range of children and adults. 

Spaces are limited. It's first come, first serve. Once you pay, we'll email you with lots of details and a link where you can pay online. If you prefer, you can pay in person or by mail.

SIGN UP HERE and reserve your spot!

Can't make this one? If you are interested in attending future workshops, please sign up for our newsletter. We'll make sure you get a notice in advance. Thanks

Email: info@newenglandvalkyries.org

 

Buy a Pie at Springdell Farms

Sweeten up your Thanksgiving with a great pie! Springdell Farms in Littleton, MA is generously selling pies on behalf of New England Valkyries. Part of every purchase will help support  vaulting programs for kids and adults. Stop in for a pie and pick up some of their fantastic produce and other products for you holdiay table. You won't be dissapointed!

And there are lots of pies to choose from: Apple Cranberry to Boston Cream to Blueberry as well as all the classics—Apple, Pumpkin and Pecan.

Springdell Farm is located at 571 Great Road, Littleton, MA 01460. (Click here for directions.) They're open daily from 9-5, seven days a week.

Thanks, everybody, for all your generous support of NEV!

 

Thank You, Everyone! We Have A New Horse!!

Last week just before the World Equestrian Games kicked off, we made an offer on Uriel and it was accepted. This week, after a vet check, he'll be ours.

We want to thank everyone who made a gift and helped us achieve this goal. We are so honored to have such enthusiastic supporters of vaulting and so many peopel who believe in this sport and what it offers. Thank you so much for your vote of confidence in us. Thank you for this amazing horse. Thank you for giving us to introduce vaulting, and horses, and the opportunity to reach for your dreams to other kids and adults.

We look forward to showing Uriel off to you here on our website and perhaps live, next spring, when we put together a performance. In the meantime, let us know if you'd like to see him in practice! THANK YOU!!

We're Getting Closer!

 

Download Our Proposal:  Vaulting Toward The Future
Download a  Pledge Form

Please Help Us Bring This Superb Vaulting Horse To New England

Last weekend, NEV offered a special demo for invited guests. We showed off Uriel's dressage and vaulting skills and talked to a small audience about what it would mean to bring this horse to our team. We hope you got a sense of just how special this horse is and how much talent and potential he has to be a world-class vaulting horse. Some of you also made a gift—we very much appreciate it and hope you know how much your gift means to the team. Many attendees made generous pledges and we are getting closer to our goal.

Unfortunately, Uriel will be soon transported back to Florida by his owner, if we can't buy him. Though we may still have that opportunity, our chances may be significantly diminished. So right now, we are seeking pledges that can put us in the ballpark of a fair offer. Every team family has made a commitment and every vaulter will also be working on fundraising activities from yard sales to pie sales to add to our resources.

As one of the oldest clubs in the northeast, NEV has owned horses, had the use of generously lent horses, and trained horses for vaulting. But in the past six years we have struggled to find a canter-level horse we can train and use consistently.  We struggle to offer canter-level vaulting, to support team vaulting, to help vaulters from other clubs continue to vault when they come to this area for college. Yet even without a horse we have several vaulters who have the potential to be among the best vaulters in the nation, if they had regular access to a canter-level vaulting horse.

NEV takes its mission of promoting vaulting and offering instruction and training very seriously. In addition to supporting a competitive team, the club offers recreational vaulting, lessons, performances, scholarships, demos and free clinics so that anyone can try vaulting. We would love to be able to offer more vaulting demos and give our vaulters opportunities to perform even if they don't want to compete.

We have seen vaulting change people’s lives. From volunteering with City to Saddle to, helping with Pony clubs and therapeutic vaulting programs, we've seen what vaulting can do. We’ve seen repeatedly how vaulting helps individuals grow and gain the confidence, strength, and courage to achieve personal goals. We’ve seen how vaulting helps participants develop the capacities for teamwork, collaboration, and creativity. We’ve seen adults who have never been athletes find the athlete inside them, and we’ve seen children with special needs or learning challenges develop greater focus, persistence, physical strength, and trust.

With a great horse, we can do more—for our vaulters, our region, our sport. We believe that this is a horse that can carry our ambitions and help us reach the highest levels of our sport,  raise the quality of vaulting in our region,  make vaulting more available to others, and to provide the kinds of experiences that allow participants to discover the best of themselves.

If we can raise an additional $10,000 quickly through gifts or even loans, we will be able to make a fair offer on this horse. If you can make a pledge, or if you know anyone who might be interested in helping us, if you can make a loan or help us find a sponsor, we'd be extremely grateful. Your participation would help secure the future of our club and make a tremendous impact on our program. Thank you so much for your interest and your support. We look forward to hearing from you.We look forward to seeing at the barn you soon.

Download PLEDGE Form

The New England Valkyries equestrian vaulting club is a Massachusetts 510(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Thank you.

Please Help Us Bring A Great Vaulting Horse to New England

Dear Friends of NEV,

We're excited to have identified a fantastic potential vaulting horse and ask for your support to help us buy him for the New England Valkyries. A great horse will have dramatic impact on our club and what we can offer to recreational and competitive vaulters—and this horse has the potential to be one of the very best.

We have seen vaulting change people's lives. We've seen vaulting help children and adults develop confidence and courage, and then use these capacities to achieve personal goals. From the elite vaulters who come to vault with us, earn their medals and prepare for competition, to our truly awesome City to Saddle vaulters, to our fearless adults who start vaulting to challenge themselves, vaulting is a unique sport that inspires all us in profound and interesting ways to reach higher and give more of ourselves to the world.

We hope you will download our proposal and read more about what a horse will mean to us and to vaulting in our Region—and why we need your support. If you are a business or corporation interested in sponsoring us, we've also prepared a sponsorship overview. Please let us know of your interest as soon as possible.We'd be delighted to create something that meets your needs.

Please make a pledge—small or large, your generous gift will help us achieve our  goal. Your gift will bring a great horse to New England and make vaulting more accessible to more people. We're already almost halfway there, so every gift counts. We would greatly appreciate your support!

• Download our proposal here.
  
• Download a pledge sheet here to let us know we can count on you.
  
• Download an overview of sponsorship opportunities here.
• Email us if you want someone to call you to discuss how you can be involved.
• If you wish to be attend a special performance and reception for interested contributors and meet this exceptional horse and see him in action, please email us as soon as possible.

We are a Massachusetts 510(c)(3) nonprofit organization and gifts are tax-deductible.

THANK YOU!!

Vaulting T-Shirts and More....

If you've recently purchased a T shirt from our vaulting store, THANKS!! We really do appreciate it. We're working on some new designs and some new items as well, so stay tuned, and we have also added ORGANIC versions of some of our favorites. Some prices have dropped, too. Don't you need a cool vaulting T to wear for summer Regionals?  We do!

Click here to go now to our  STORE...

Thanksgiving Pies!

Once again NEV is taking orders for Thanksgiving pies. These delicious pies come to us from Wilson Farm and a portion of each pie sale goes to support NEV horse expenses. We're proud of the fact that almost everyone in the club manages to take a pie order or two!

These pies are a  great value—only $10 or $12 for a truly excellent pie that can generously serve eight people.  Pie orders must be received  by November 15.  Please make checks payable to New England Valkyries. (Vaulters, if you are taking orders, one check is preferred!) You can mail your order to us at: New England Valkyries PO Box 22, Littleton, MA 01460, or email your order info to us at info@newenglandvalkyries.org and we'll send you Paypal instructions. We cannot ship pies, sorry.

You can pick up your pies at Apple Valley Farm in Harvard on Sunday Nov. 22 between 3:30-5:30  or we maybe be able to arrange to deliver your pies to you if you are in the greater Boston area. Thank you!

See a list of pie varieties and download your order form here! Download NEVPies.pdf

If you want to order them from your favorite vaulter, you can do that as well. Vaulters, for instructions on taking pie orders, click here and scan down to where it says Pie Sales.

Vaulting Workshop A Great Success

We had a fantastic turnout for "Kick of Your Boots and Give Vaulting A Go: The Sequel." Sixteen daring participants came to Apple Valley  for a  afternoon of vaulting. The NEV vaulters gave a wonderful demonstration on Hershey who was fantastic as always—not to mention extremely handsome. That was followed by fun and games on the vaulting barrels. Guests got to learn how to mount, test their "clicks" and even try some  fancy freestyle moves. The team also noted that they really enjoyed sharing their knowledge with our visitors.

Amazingly, we're looking forward to seeing 5 or 6 of the group again soon. Interest was so high that another 6 or 8 week beginning vaulting session will be added in the coming months, so there will soon be a second practice on Sundays. It also looks like we'll be adding  one or maybe two  adults to our adult group— who knew watching kids have so much fun would prove so irresistible?

A special shout out to the Prehls and Donnelan's Supermarket for donating enough fresh-baked cookies to feed an army! They added extra sweetness to an afternoon that was already pretty special. And a great big thanks to everyone who volunteered to set up, clean up, slice apples and generally help out!

A few people asked about the t-shirts the team was wearing. NEV offers "Extreme Pony Riding," Vaulting Ninja," official NEV t-shirts and more in our club store. Proceeds, of courses, support horses and vaulting scholarships.

If you missed this workshop and would like to participate when we offer it again in the spring, be sure to sign up for our newsletter, and we'll let you know when we have some dates.

"Kick Off Your Boots and Give Vaulting A Go..." The Sequel! Now for Kids!

Thanks to popular demand, NEV is excited to host a SECOND "Intro to Vaulting" workshop. This time, it's for kids and teens, ages 6–16, who would love to try the sport without committing to a series of lessons.

This workshop will be held September 20, 2009 at Apple Valley Farm, 3:30 pm until 5:30 pm, and once again, there will be many tasty refreshments to celebrate your accomplishments. Parents are invited to watch.

After a dazzling display by NEV's vaulters on the barrel and the horses, participants will break into groups and learn some vaulting moves through a series of games and personal instruction on the vaulting barrels. We promise lots of fun and excitement. Maybe we'll even convince some of our new friends to stay on and vault with us during the fall. Suggested donation: $35 per person and proceeds support the team. NEV is a nonprofit organization and your donation is tax-deductible.

SPACES are extremely limited. Sign up here to reserve your spot!  Signing up only reserves a spot for you—we can't accept payments online at this time. Please bring your donations with you to the workshop. You will receive additional details about the workshop by e-mail with 48 hours of reserving your spot. Thanks so much. We look forward to vaulting with you!

SORRY! THIS WORKSHOP IS NOW FULL. We plan to have more workshops in the future, so please sign-up for our newsletter and we'll let you know when the next one will be. THANKS to everyone who signed up!