Painted Promise Ranch

10/29/2026

Since everything went so well Monday, little Ellenoire Marie came along to Huger Mercy on Wednesday for our annual Halloween visit 👻 🎃 along with Shazam the frog prince, Ozzie the spider and Trinket the unicorn. So appreciate my fabulous volunteer handlers, Shannon, Aurora and Heaven 🤗 couldn’t do this without them!! The kids, residents and staff, as well as other participants, really enjoyed all the animals. My friends Brian and Arlo met up with us to deliver something, sadly they had a work meeting and couldn’t stay for the event, but nice to have the extra camera man share photos too!! And of course the ever fabulous Virginia 🥰 mind-blowing to think it’s been almost 20 years since we met 🤯

10/29/2026

Very late posting but hopefully the cuteness will excuse me… had 2 mama donkeys deliver their foals on Sunday and one mama rejected hers so now I am mama 😳 We had our annual Halloween visit to Paseo Village scheduled for Monday morning 👻 🎃 and I sure didn’t want to disappoint the residents (or the staff!)… but having to bottle feed the foal, I had a dilemma! Trying to sleep in between feedings, the idea 💡 came to just take her with! So rearranged the Lorry to make space and off we went! As always before heading out, I prayed that God would bless our journey and keep us safe, and everything went great!! Volunteer handlers Shannon, Belle and Aurora were much appreciated, especially great to see Belle as that doesn’t happen near as often since she started working; but I’m thrilled she loves her job at Wildlife World Zoo!! I’d bet money there were at least 💯 photos taken of the baby, everyone was so in love with her. Shazam the frog prince and Trinket the unicorn were our regulars, and introducing… drum roll please 🥁… Ellenoire Marie (my version of Eleanor, and yes there’s a story behind it: great grandma Mary Ellen was one of the first foals I raised, not born here but purchased very young with her mama and I got to choose her name. So I put Mary Ellen in my brain blender 😵‍💫 and came up with Eleanor Marie as a twist, but to honor her great grandma spelled it as Ellen, and since the French word for black or dark is noir, feminine noire, I am spelling it Ellenoire 🥰 Anyway, enjoy!!

10/25/2026

Just a few pictures before it got dark but wow what a crowd at Mountain View Elementary’s event last night! Got too busy to take more pictures but since we live rural and don’t get trick-or-treaters, I really enjoyed seeing all the costumes, kids and adults too! And Shazam, Trinket and Silver Dollar were quite popular even without costumes!

10/22/2026

Our second Halloween 🎃 visit was 3rd Wednesday at Cogir of Peoria. Same costumes because they were already loaded and yes although getting better I still have 2 black eyes 😵‍💫

Special thanks to Mark for his help and extra photos (posted with permission). Missed Michael who was off campus this morning but returned as we were “undressing” the boys so at least got to say hi 👋

10/22/2026

Our first Halloween 🎃 visit this year was 3rd Friday, Lake Pleasant Post Acute Rehab. I was planning to just wear a T-shirt since it’s still warm but due to an unplanned accident Thursday afternoon that left me with two black eyes 😵‍💫 I added my black skirt and witch hair after all 🧙

Silver Dollar was my spider-donkey 🕷️ 🫏 familiar, and since Aurora was a princess 👸 Shazam was the prince 🫅 that the witch had turned into a frog 🐸

Silver Dollar had one “moment” with an oxygen machine, I had to get a shot of those ears, focused!!!

Thanks to Shannon for most of the photos this time… and if you want to see my “makeup job”, it’s the last picture 😂

10/09/2026

Another health and wellness event with Bliss this morning, spear-headed by Benevilla and held at Radiant Church in Sun City. This was a much bigger gathering than Monday’s, with I’d guess well over 20 companies and a much bigger crowd, I tried to walk Silver Dollar around the room and the idea was that Brian would make the circle with Arlo afterwards, but SO MANY people wanted pictures of and/or with Silver Dollar we didn’t even make it all the way within our time frame. Arlo was a ham as always and garners his fair share of love and attention 🐕 I love how well he and Silver Dollar get along! Amazing morning for sure!!

10/09/2026

A different type of visit this week… we did a health and wellness event at Clarendale Arcadia on Monday with Bliss Hospice, to educate and bring attention to our pet therapy. All 3 boys were a hit as usual, and the red tennies got a lot of attention.

10/09/2026

Thanks to Tamara for the “ranch brand” window clings!! Finally getting to post them, they came last week but it has been awfully windy so I just got to put them on Monday morning 💙💙

09/22/2026

Why we do what we do 🤗

A 2026 study published in Scientific Reports by researchers at the University of California, Davis examined how a very short interaction with miniature horses and donkeys affected teenagers’ emotions.

The study included 61 adolescents, including 8 who were reported by their parents to have autism spectrum disorder, ADHD, or both. Each participant completed a single 3-minute interaction with two miniature horses and two miniature donkeys.

The teenagers were randomly assigned to either gently stroke the animals’ backs or give firmer scratches around their necks, while the animals were free to approach, remain with, or walk away from them.

After just 3 minutes, the teenagers as a whole reported feeling calmer, less nervous or anxious, less sad, less lonely, and less excited. Calmness increased from 4.75 to 5.39, while nervousness fell from 2.57 to 1.97, loneliness from 2.05 to 1.59, sadness from 1.62 to 1.33, and excitement from 4.99 to 4.52 on the study’s rating scale.

The way the animals responded also appeared to matter: teenagers who noticed the horses or donkeys displaying lip-wiggling behavior had larger reductions in loneliness, while those who saw an animal voluntarily walk away showed larger reductions in sadness.

09/19/2026

Thanks to my friend Lisa and her coworkers Chris and Mary for joining me at Inspirations of Peoria yesterday morning 🤗 and to Jamie for inviting us! Since there were four minis, Sir Galahad went to work today and got to wear the new magnets!! Silver Dollar and Shazam were joined by Ozzie and Trinket 🥰