Empire Pony Pals

12/17/2024

A busy Sunday at Empire Hills Farm , home of the Equestrian Club’s Empire Pony Pals. Twelve minis, a donkey and a mini mule got pedicures by Hector Garcia. They all got groomed and measured for blankets too!
Our mini mares came to us from Abraham Ranch and Saving Grace rescues. Five of them had terrible hoof issues and one still has some work to do.
THANK YOU to all our volunteers who came to help today!
If you’d like to sponsor a Mini, donate to their care or volunteer to help please reach out at
Sleeping Bear Equestrian Club
www.sleepingbearequestrianclub.org

12/16/2024

If anyone has any Mini Horse blankets for sale or donation, we are still in need. Please let us know!

12/12/2024

Hello friends and fans of Pony Pals!
At long last, we are ready to officially launch our Club! We had our first Board meeting last night to ratify our Mission, Vision and By-Laws, and today we unroll the official Sleeping Bear Equestrian Club.

Empire Pony Pals will now become a program of the club, which will be a non-profit 501c3 entity.
Club members will receive 10% discount off our Pony Pal program. PLEASE JOIN THE CLUB!

Our NEW website is complete with membership information, volunteer opportunities, ways to donate and a host of other information on your club.
We have kept annual membership dues to a minimum and hope you will consider joining and helping us create a strong, sustainable and wonderful equestrian club for our region!

Membership is open to ANYONE, regardless of whether you live in the region, visit it or just want to support our programs and goals.

Please reach out with any questions, and look for the Merch Shop to come online soon, and updates to the Resource page as membership grows.
Thank you all for being so supportive and here's to a great new club, new adventures, and new possibilities!

12/04/2024

Pony Pals... this is a good video to watch. Remember I say I "work" with mine daily, why I have the connection with them that I do. Everyday I am feeding, cleaning their area, and loving on them when they come up to me for attention. I pay attention to their body language and their "mood". You might even find me sitting in their paddock talking with them. Or I am stopping by the gate / fence to pay attention to them if they see me walking by and they come up to the fence wanting attention. "Working" is not always in a halter or saddle. By doing this I have a bond with them. Some might take longer than others and some might seek it out more than others. This is with all the animals on the farm.

11/27/2024

Thanks to Jacob Danziger for filming our first ever Pony Pal end of season performance. These kids worked so hard on this! Looking forward to new routines for our 2025 season.

11/04/2024

Hmmm….maybe next year?

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/17h1aKFRmm/?mibextid=WC7FNe

11/03/2024

Duncan and Nugget are with their Pals to today in downtown Sutton’s Bay! We are here supporting their parent’s Pediatric clinic event until 3 today!
Farm Pediatrics

11/02/2024

11/02/2024

Wow! What day for our Pony Pal Performance and family picnic! This caps off a summer and fall of hard work by these kids, learning all about horses, their care, understanding them and working with our Mini’s they performed for their family and friends today and we couldn’t be prouder of them and how well they did! Looking forward to spring when we start up again!

10/30/2024

We are in our final week of the season for our Pony Pals! They’ve been working hard on learning their first routine and are doing so well! Looking forward to their performance this Saturday for their families and then exciting things in store for Spring!
Our Leelanau School kids continue until Christmas break.

10/27/2024

C’mon out from 4-6 at Bayview Church corner of Division and Waterfront for Trunk or Treat! Gracie and Duncan are here!

10/23/2024

After a whirlwind weekend, we finished this weeks Pony Pals with our The Leelanau School kids back after break. They learned about horse types, breeds, color patterns and markings, followed with grooming and beginning ground work with Champ and Ginzy.
Our littles practiced their routine with mini’s that just wanted to eat grass!

10/19/2024

What a GREAT day with the Pony Pals! We are nearing the end of the season and having our farm sleepover with the Pals! Today started with a wagon ride with Wilson’s gorgeous Percherons, then a pizza party back at the farm, craft time painting paddock plaques for the ponies, riding lesson on Champ and movie time watching The Black Stallion.

10/13/2024

Our Mini herd is complete! This past week saw the arrival of our sweet girl mini’s! Welcome Lorelei, Annie, Mandy Twinkeltoes, Brenda and Peggy Sue. They came to us as rescues from Michigan Humane, just like Alex and Napoleon.
They will settle in over the winter and begin with our Pony Pal program next spring.
As always, if you’d like to support our rescued minis and our kids programs, we appreciate it!

https://gofund.me/455cbe64

10/02/2024

We had a great day at Empire Pony Pals today! Our Leelanau School kids learned about safety around horses and how to catch, halter and lead. We also had a horse chiropractic demonstration by Dr. Lisa Melling, DVM. This is the also the first time our young kids were all together in the same day with all the ponies! We were able to practice their performance routine all the way through. They all did great!