Updates and answers on fundraising for Boyd Martin

Boyd and Minotaure du Passoir, one of the horses who was saved

We are getting a lot of emails, so I will post answers to questions, information and updates here.

Questions:

1) How much of the proceeds are you donating? 

• 50% of your order will go DIRECTLY to Boyd. So on a $165 saddle pad order, we are donating exactly $82.50. Not a penny less.

2) Can I get a Hunter Pad or a Half Pad instead of the Cross-country Pad?

• YES. We set up a special Cross-country Saddle Pad as the donated item in honour of the event horses, but you can change it to a dressage, show jumping, hunter saddle pad or half pad.

• We would prefer that you would place your "charity" order directly on the special item we have set up and if you want something else, just WRITE in the COMMENTS: the item, colour and size. It just makes it easier for us to calculate the donation amount.

 CLICK and ORDER USING THIS ITEM, 

write in the comments if you want something else.

3) When is the sale of pads for Boyd's benefit going to stop?

• Sunday is the last day to place your order. On Monday morning, we will close the fundraising section and send Boyd the check.

4) When will my pad be delivered?

• The charity pads might take up to 2 weeks to be delivered.  We are receiving a high volume of "charity" orders, on top of our very busy "normal" sales. Please understand that we are trying to get orders out as soon as possible, but this is an unusual situation. We are prioritizing our "normal" orders, as we don't want to penalize clients who are not aware of this fundraiser and just need their ECOGOLD pads for their next show. If you NEED the pad quickly, please write it in the comments and we will do our best.

5) Can I get the saddle pad in colours?

• At this point, we are out of colours. So white or black are the only options for the saddle pads. If you want to get the Memory Foam Triple Protection Half Pad, all the colours we offer normally are available.

UPDATE:

As of 10:45 Friday, we have raised $3547.50. Originally, we thought we would raise $990 with the sale of the 6 saddle pads donated in name of the 6 horses who perished (would have rounded up to $1,000), so anything above that is simply incredible.

Thank you to everyone for being so supportive, kind and generous.

Amber Heintzberger, who coincidentally is ECOGOLD's PR person as well as Boyd's (he found her first!), linked to this video this morning. (I wasn't able to watch the first one that everyone was posting on Facebook two days ago, but I'm glad I watched this one):

May you all gallop atop the clouds in heaven

How Chelan Kozak and Lexi Campbell got my iPhone wet

First, an update on our fundraising efforts for Boyd.

- So far, we have raised $2887.50 from the sale of the 6 saddle pads donated in memory of each horse lost, and the additional saddle pads where 50% is donated to Boyd. We are posting updates daily on our Facebook page.

- The fundraiser will continue through the weekend. Sunday will be the last day.

- You can be absolutely sure that 100% of what we raise will go directly to Boyd. We will send him a check on Monday. He is our sponsored rider, and that's the way we've decided to do it. He will spend the money the way he sees fit.

To purchase an ECOGOLD Saddle Pad and donate to Boyd Martin:  Click here!

So... how did Chelan Kozak get my iPhone wet?

Early this morning, on my phone, I saw that Chelan had sent the following email to all her contacts. Needless to say, I was deeply touched by her gesture:

Re: Boyd martin's barn fire

On 2011-06-01, at 11:25 PM, Chelan Kozak wrote:

Hey everyone,

As many of you have heard US eventer Boyd Martin lost 6 horses in a tragic barn fire earlier this week. http://www.eventingnation.com/home/ Out of such horrific tragedy comes bright light. In case, the 'light' is that the Eventing community has come together in many ways to assist Boyd, his working students, owners, etc in their recovery efforts from this tragedy.

Ecogold, makers of the BEST saddle pads in the universe began by donating six saddle pads in memory of the six horse who perished in the fire. Those pads went in such record time that Ecogold decided to donate 50% of all saddle pad sales for the next few days to Boyd's crew's recovery efforts. If any of you has been thinking of buying a saddle pad, now is a great time. Each have you has probably heard me ramble on about how much I like the ecogold products, but I have never been more proud to be associated with their products as now. It is during adversity that we see a person's (or company's) true colours.

Thank you Ecogold for your support for fellow event rider during such a time of sorrow.

 http://horsejunkiesunited.com/2011/05/a-moment-of-silence-and-how-to-help-boyd/

 Chelan Kozak www.3DAZE.com
 "The difficult we do immediately; the impossible, takes a little time."

 Similarly, Lexi Campbell got my iPhone wet... 

...when I found this on ECOGOLD's Facebook page. She had posted the following note on her FB wall, tagged all her friends, as well as ECOGOLD. I do not know Lexi personally, so I found it remarkable that a total stranger would help in this way. I was truly humbled.

I don't know what I would do without my horse

Help Boyd Martins team by buying a Ecogold pad!
by Lexi Campbell on Wednesday, June 1, 2011 at 2:15pm

I had recently bought an Ecogold pad for my hard to fit mare, it is the best thing in my tack trunk. I am tagging all my equestrian friends to spread the word of the tragic barn fire that happened. There are many ways to help and donate but I find that besides giving just plain old money you can buy an awesome pad from Ecogold and 50% of the profit goes to Boyd Martin’s fund. I would want the same done for any of my horses or friends horses regardless if you are an international rider or just a pleasure rider, we are all equestrians and we all belong to the horse community regardless of our background.

If you have no use for a jumping or dressage pad my suggestion would be to buy one as a gift or buy one to donate to a nonprofit organization whether it’s for a horse rescue or a handicapped riding association

https://www.ecogold.ca/product_info.php?cPath=37&products_id=119

http://eventingnation.com/home/2011/05/fire-at-boyd-martins-barn-at-true-prospect-farm.html

the best thing in my tack trunk

Yesterday, I wrote a post on our Horse Junkies United Blog - When we all became members of True Prospect Farm, so I will not repeat the same things about how impressed I am by the horse community, coming together in this difficult time. 

To Chelan and Lexi and all of you who have stepped up, donated, spread the word, sent messages of support, written nice comments: Thank you. Your kindness has been a blessing.