My Nonprofit Reviews

Minis and Friends is a great non-profit to work with. The little horse therapists help bring big smiles and happiness to those they visit and the volunteers and mini-owners who work with them. We are in our 17th year in Austin and hope to be around for many more years. Since we visit only on weekends, for 90 minutes at a time, we could fill the whole calendar easily. We work with a front-end and a back-end volunteer and a 3rd volunteer who follows behind to watch out for excited occupants of walkers/wheelchairs who might run into the back legs. Exciting moments are frequent! Currently, we only have one mini-owner in Austin, and we are seriously looking for others to join us. So, please, if you have a mini or two - consider joining our team - it will be the most heart-warming time of your life!

I have been with Minis and Friends since its' creation in late 2006. We currently have one mini owner in Austin itself who has 6 trained miniature horses. We have another former Austin owner now in Elgin, TX with 2 working miniature horses. With the heat this summer, it's been hard to work with pre-ready (2+ hours) for clean-up, washing & grooming the minis before the 3-digit heat sets in. We are looking for new residential facilities mostly in South Austin as many of our original ones are now something else (COVID). We are also looking for 2-3 new mini owners who would like to learn to bring their miniature horses indoors and then work with us. We are still primarily working on Saturdays/Sundays in the mornings. We hope to have a Volunteer Class in the next week or two, so sign up on Volunteer Match or go to our beautiful website Volunteer page (https://minisandfriends.org/volunteers) and download an application to send to us at minisandfriendsvolunteers@gmail.com. We look forward to seeing many new facilities and new team members! PS Some favorite short videos (we need new ones!)

Minis and Friends is getting back on the road with visits since the Pandemic. However, it's been a slow road because we are down two mini-owners. We will start recruiting for new mini-owners after our board meeting this month. In the meantime, the Austin minis are visiting two to three times a month on Saturdays when scheduled. When we visit though, we have loads of fun, and the minis really enjoy the attention. They are still eye-stoppers everywhere they go and Spectrum News did a nice article on us recently (https://www.facebook.com/MinisAndFriends - August 22) - check it out! Julia's minis are wearing the new Minis and Friends neck sashes and they look awesome in them. We invite you to visit our website (https://www.minisandfriends.org) and our Facebook page (MinisAndFriends) - our latest pictures are there... and if you are a mini-owner, and would like to train and work with us, please contact info@minisandfriends.org.

Minis and Friends is in its 9th year and it only gets better and better! Recently we visited at a local Children Shelter for Abused and Neglected Children and had a break though with a little boy who was even afraid of the dogs that visited, he was just afraid of everything they said. With the gentle connection by our volunteers and Remington, he not only walked him but gave him a hug at the end of his time with him. This month (we go bi-monthly), he asked specifically for Remington and his volunteer Hilary and we were so very proud of him wanting to work again with Remington and going the extra mile to ask for him specifically. One step at a time, to open doors and bring hope and healing, and breakthroughs!