During my time at Gypsy Gold Horse Farm I worked alongside Dennis Thompson - The founder of the Gypsy Vanner Horse Society and the innovator behind many animal products (He invented the adjustable dog collar). Anyone who knows Dennis is aware of his never ending stream of creative ideas.
One morning, Dennis brought up his newest idea - using donkeys to teach children human virtues. He wanted to teach kids about the importance of Curiosity, Kindness, Compassion, Patience, Trust, Honor, and Justice. The program would be called "Wisdom Walkers" as kids would ride or lead the animal while learning lessons about the meaning of the donkey's name.
I thought it was a fascinating idea, and worked with him on bringing his "Wisdom Walker" vision to life for several months. I developed curriculum, created stations, created pins for students to receive after learning a virtue, trained donkeys, found volunteers, and coordinated tours with local elementary schools and Girl Scout chapters. The process was incredibly fun - and the excitement of watching four bright orange school busses filled with 122 second graders roll through the front gates for the first tour is a feeling I will never forget.
Our first tour was a big undertaking— I arrived at the farm in the dark that morning, working to finish barn chores, with volunteers arriving throughout the morning to help groom animals and set up their assigned stations. At 10am, 4 school buses transporting 122 second grade students and 44 chaperones rolled through the gates of Gypsy Gold. We all welcomed them to our 40 acre hidden paradise. Their excitement was contagious.
To manage such a large number of kids, I divided them into two groups. One half ate lunch and participated in an "Honor Your Body" yoga session (pictured above), while the other half rotated through six activity stations, interacting with the farm's horses, donkeys, mules, and parrots. Afterward, the groups switched. The success of the day was made possible thanks to our incredible team of volunteers and the support of Dennis’s daughters, who flew in from Texas to help.
The virtue we focused on for the first tour was "Honor". Throughout the different stations they learned to honor culture, animal, and history. On the way out, we handed each child their first Wisdom Walker badge and told them we were honored to have met them.
Pictured below are some of the materials I developed for this program including the overview given to chaperones, educational station posters, and pins.
After our success with our launch of the Wisdom Walkers program, we decided to focus on smaller groups. I gave Wisdom Walker tours to 4 groups of girl scouts using the donkey Honor - a 5 year old Jenny that I trained for the program. She will put up with just about anything and is great with children.
While I had an absolute blast developing the Wisdom Walkers program, I left Gypsy Gold in August of 2024 in order to focus on growing my bookkeeping firm.
Pictured above is me and Trust at a Palm Sunday Service. The crowd of nearly 200 people was great exposure to prepare him for future Wisdom Walker tours.
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