We not only survived, we thrived!

2020 in a nutshell
11 Veterans, 5 spouses and 5 of their children/young adults participated in our Spring & post-Covid-19 lockdown Summer & Fall Programs: 27 sessions each for Monday, Tuesday morning & Tuesday afternoon groups. 
2 of the children attended Summer Horse Camp and 3 attended weekly riding lessons during their summer break. 
10 more Veterans, 2 spouses & 1 child attended a half- / full-day Clinic.
Vietnam Army Veteran (Volunteer Len) was honored with a Quilt of Valor.
A total of 95 sessions were conducted in 2020
10 Volunteers made all of this possible!
Raising our Flags on May 22
Hello my good friends!
Welcome home
Dear friends, supporters and financial impact squad

We trust this email finds you all well in this crisis year. We mourn with all who have lost loved ones and pray for restoration for all who are suffering as result of the pandemic. I am sure that you know that we left no stone unturned to keep our Veterans alive (literally for some), interacting and able to provide basics for themselves and their families in this pandemic. Here is what kept us so busy over the past 9 months:

  • Facebook Equine Learning Group. During the lockdown and ongoing: online lessons about all things equine.

  • Facebook Support Chat Group. Sharing pictures, videos, jokes, concerns and encouragement. This has made a huge difference during the isolation of the lockdown and again now in the winter months for our participants and volunteers.

  • Gift card drive. Thank you to all who responded to our drive! We received around $2,000 in cards that we were able to hand out proportionately to our Veterans.

Don (US Army, Iraq): "Thank you so much for the gift cards.  It's nice to know that people are still looking out for one another during this time of uncertainty. It really helped during these stressful times."

  • We bought groceries and delivered to our participants in need. In the early days of the lockdown, we bought and delivered items listed by Veterans who indicated that they had lost jobs, were at home caring for family with Covid or for personal health issues, or were susceptible to illness. We had their backs.

  • T-shirt sales. The amazing American Warrior Initiative Foundation donated 100 R.E.D. T-shirts to us to sell to raise funds - 100% of the proceeds are applied to our programs. These have been so popular, Ken Goffstein (Fairway Independent Mortgage Corporation) sponsored another 100 for us! Got yours?
R.E.D. T-shirts @ $22 each
22 to raise awareness of the daily rate of suicide among our nation's Veterans. ~Help us do our part to reduce this~
You can email us for your T-shirt/s at
[email protected] and send a check to us (P.O. Box 329, Whitehouse Station, NJ 08889) or you can also connect via email and the pay via our online donate link below:
  • May 22 - Reboot! Just as soon as Gov. Murphy said "Equestrian Facilities may open on Friday May 22", we galloped into action to Covid-proof everything as best we can for a safe environment. Each participant got their own sealed container with grooming kit, rope, treats, sanitizer etc. Each horse got their own new halter. Every session has been so precious this year, with deepened bonds and appreciation.

  • No initial volunteers - an army of two. All our volunteers were initially unable to attend due to risk. We were grateful to Olivia Erikson who returned to assist on Tuesdays. I divided the participants into smaller groups to limit numbers of horses (participants too 😉) to watch over during sessions, and increased session days at the farm to 3 initially. We started adding back some volunteers in the last 4 weeks of our summer season - by then they were chomping at the bit to return!
Volunteer of the year - Olivia - served over 160 hours
Olivia returned this year after interning with us as equine assistant through the summer of 2019. She volunteered from May 22 - December 8 on Tuesdays, working very hard on the farm through the summer alongside the morning crew, assisting with the morning and afternoon horsemanship sessions, training our Ben to get him fit and strong in preparation for riding sessions
  • Early June Re-union. MOVE Fitness Center in Blairstown offered us a picnic lunch for all our HFF family. We gathered for an outdoor picnic - socially distanced with individually packaged and minimal contact lunches provided. Our volunteer Veterans and Participating Veterans and their families were so happy to see one another, many for the first time since early March. Priceless. A Huge thank you to the folks at MOVE! (See picture at top)

  • Celebrating the life of our beloved Harold Musselman (Army WWII). Two weeks after our June re-union, which he attended, we were so saddened to lose our Harold at age 98. Harold did not miss many sessions over 3 years as our honorary volunteer! Harold was an inspiration to all our participants and we miss him dearly.

"We should not mourn that such a GOOD MAN PASSED, but celebrate that such a GOOD MAN LIVED!!!"
From our Vice President, Allen Gondeck (USMC Combat Veteran, Iraq)
In September we honored the memories of four WWII Veterans who have greatly impacted Project Horses for Forces:
Quilt of Valor earned - Len Tiner (US Army, Vietnam)
The Hunterdon QOV quilters presented a Quilt of Valor at our request to Len for his service to our country in Vietnam.
Len has worked tirelessly at the farm for 2 years, renovating the S/Sgt. Mike Moretti Stables and doing general farm maintenance and also volunteers in our programs. L: with Ray (USMC Vietnam)
For more please visit: Facebook video
  • Drakestown Equestrian Fall Festival. In October we enjoyed a fun outdoors day at the farm where visitors learned about the riding school, our Veterans Programs and enjoyed pony rides for their kids, several vendors and good food! Our own Tack Sargent Corey showed off his wares and his cowboy skills!
The Sherriff's in town
Our very popular Sawhorses
  • 2 Clinics. Since our groups from the VA / Vet Centers were precluded from attending clinics in 2020 due to VA Covid-19 restrictions, we sadly did not host our customary clinics. However we were so pleased to host 2 Disabled Veterans Families together at a Day-clinic in the Fall and we also provided a venue and program for a networking gathering for several VSOs serving homeless Veterans in the Newark area and a group of the Veterans they serve.
We enjoyed a special Veterans families day-clinic at the farm: grooming, learning how to lead their horses, playing games with the horses, enjoying a scrumptious lunch followed by a fabulous trail ride. They loved it and plan to return!
Our volunteer Veterans and program participants made this day extra special for the visitors.
Representatives from VAST (Veterans Achieving Sustainability Through Training), NJ Veterans Network & other VSOs, visited the farm with a wonderful group of Newark Veterans - to offer assistance and network with the them, and everybody equally enjoyed lunch, the farm, the goats, the horses and meeting some of our Veterans and Volunteers.
  • Farm work. Several of our Veterans worked incredibly hard at the farm. This was great for them as they were so much happier being busy than sitting at home. Phase II of our Barn renovation was completed - painting the old part of the barn R.E.D. - with the help of Team Re/Max 365 in Whitehouse Station and the MOVE Fitness Center folks who returned in the fall to complete the painting! A great shout out to all who gave many hours to this project over the summer and fall.

  • 27 weeks of sessions completed. We maximized our Summer and Fall sessions and concluded our programs on December 8. Sessions were extra meaningful this year in the light of the limitations and stresses of the year. Over the last 7 weeks, everyone got to ride their horses to close out the year, which was extra special.

Ray - who joined the program with his wife: "I can't explain it but feel you know what I mean about just interacting with such majestic animals. Being in their world for the little time I am, calms my inner storms. I find a few hours of peace here I can't feel anywhere else. Sunny knows I'm trying hard and is letting me know it's ok, he'll work with me."
Ray (USMC Vietnam) with Sonny
"Farmer Corey" (USMC Iraq) over 200 hours volunteered
Trail riding - Tim (USMC Vietnam) & family
It should therefore be no surprise that we had much to celebrate at the end of the year: 2 weddings, new jobs, graduations, new study directions, 2020's program highlights & lessons, the fruits of hard work and the renovation progress, health and friendship as well as our great team of Volunteers and workers!

We are deeply grateful to our 2020 Weekly Program Volunteer Team: Woody (Air Force), Joe (Army), Ken (Army) & wife Linda and to Vivian & Olivia (Equine Assistants) - we simply can not run our weekly programs without our amazing Volunteers there to assist and provide camaraderie to our participants.

We dearly missed the rest of our regular volunteers & several participants who were unable to attend in 2020 and look forward to a fresh start in 2021
Year-end Celebrations
Our gratitude to Pastor Nathan Tuckey of Southridge Community Church (one of our main program sponsors) who reminded us of the Light and the Hope of the Christmas Season in these dark times, and to Vivian & Hunter Paulter who provided gift baggies for all our participants and decorated the stands and lunch table with joy and cheer! They even baked fresh horse cookies for our Herd.

And with all this hay for you to chew on, and Santa's horse bucking his way out of 2020, we wish you all a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and a 2021 to make all our hearts glad again.


Ruth Nortje & the Team
Project Horses for Forces, Inc.