DONATE TO
EQUINE STUDIES INSTITUTE
For many years, we ran Equine Studies Institute as a kind of free university for horsemanship -- modeled on a 1960's and 1970's concept where many universities employed seriously underpaid (but enthusiastic) grad students to teach classes open to anyone in the local community. California's junior colleges also used to be free of tuition. Alas, those days are long gone. Nowadays thanks to rising costs all institutions, public and private, big and small, constantly find that the wolf is at the door.
In a brilliant book-length essay entitled "The Mind of the Maker" Dorothy Sayers expounds on the relationship of the creative artist to society, and points out that there is an important difference between those who do a job just for the money vs. the writer or artist who will commonly labor equally hard whether she gets paid or not. Not only that: Sayers astutely observes that when offered free time or a vacation, the creative artist will, 99 times out of a hundred, choose to spend the time doing the very same work. This is because the work is the artist's calling, not a mere job but an extension and expression of that person's very life: work and life are one.
So, I am afraid, it has been with me. I have been lucky to be able to continue to be involved over a long span of years with horses and horse people, and have sometimes been paid for what I love doing. But not always. The Forum, which has been online for 20 years now, carries hundreds of letters from me to students which take thousands of hours to write, and for which I receive no pay at all. The same goes for all the free bells and whistles -- such as the current Horsemanship Quiz and the many free downloads in our "Knowledge Base" section. You may already have looked through the "Bookstore" section of this website and noticed the section on "back issues" -- for many years I published a newsletter called The Inner Horseman at cost for the benefit of anyone interested. We used also to make an Associate Membership available, which cost $25 but for which the applicant received a benefit valued at $25. You get the idea.
Your financial support of Equine Studies Institute is much appreciated. At this point it is a straight donation. We are not officially a charitable organization and your donation is not tax-deductible. The benefit you get from donating is knowing that you are underwriting our effort to help horses through making it a little more likely that higher education in horsemanship may continue to be available. You might also know a neighbor or two -- brand-new horse owners or maybe some folks who are struggling to get their horses trained by roughness and punishment -- who would benefit from coming here.
Your donations keep the lights on in our office. They maintain this website and pay for upgrades and additional content. They underwrite our efforts to produce books and films at a price affordable to every horse owner.
You can make a donation in one of two ways: electronically or by snailmail.
Electronic donations can be accepted only through PayPal. You must either have a PayPal account or else your credit card must be pre-approved by PayPal. Directions for this are at the PayPal website, www.paypal.com. Once you have an account or credit card approval, you can click on the "send money" tab and indicate that the payment is for "services" or "gift". Direct your donation to the following email address:
Please note, that's dot-org NOT dot-com. We have nothing to do with the people at the dot-com version of our address.
Or -- you can click on this convenient PayPal donation button:
To make a donation by snailmail, we can accept check or money order payable in U.S. Dollars (USD) only (this would be any ordinary bank account held by someone with a U.S. or APO address).
Make the check payable to: Equine Studies Institute
Mail the check to: Deb Bennett, Ph.D., Director
Equine Studies Institute
P.O. Box 4 1 1
Livingston, CA 95334
USA
I personally thank you for your interest in the work of this Institute, especially those of you who have supported us consistently over a long span of years. Thank you also if you're new: with your support, we intend to be here for many years into the future.
My best wishes to you for happy riding --
Deb Bennett, Ph.D., Director
Equine Studies Institute
