Hay and Truck and medical fund

Farrier Ken Norman’s Hay, Truck And Medical Fund.


My name is Ken Norman, I am a farrier who lives in West Pawlet, Vt. Many of you helped me a year-and-a-half ago when I underwent surgery for a double-knee replacement and was out of work for three months.
Your support was invaluable to me, our family, our animals, and I am asking for help once more.
My wife Eli and I are seeking $8,000 to help us buy hay for our horses this winter, to repair our stricken trucks and help us deal with the aftermath of a very unexpected and serious injury to Eli, who is my wife and partner.

It is not easy for me to ask for help, as those of you who know me know well, but I am so grateful that so many of you responded. Your assistance helped to save our farm, our horses, my work, and the life of my family.

There is good news: my knees are doing well, they are still healing but I am getting better and stronger. Full recovery takes a long time.

There is bad news: we have not yet been able to recover and move beyond some serious problems coming all at once.

We need help buying hay for our animals.

We need help dealing with the aftermath of a serious wrist injury to Eli, one that prevents her from working. In February of 2015, she fell and broke her wrist. She has since undergone three surgeries, eight casts and eight months of rehab. She has not been able to work on the farm or work with or train horses – an important source of income for us.

We need help fixing our shoeing/farm truck.
As a result, we are asking for help in raising $8,000 to buy hay, repair our farm vehicles (without which I can’t work either), deal with medical costs relating to Eli’s injury, and any further loss of income.

It has taken me awhile to get back to full-time. I am sorry to be asking for help again, I know everyone has their own problems. In a way, this is not a new need but a continuation of the original request for assistance.

Life has its own rules, as many of you know, and moves at its own pace.

Recovery is never as simple as we expected. The crisis I faced has continued, in different and stubborn ways.

Eli broke her wrist shortly after my surgery, and that has greatly complicated our recovery. Her inability to work has greatly added to our physical and financial burdens.

In recent weeks we have had to take the money we saved for hay for the coming winter and used it instead to buy a new transmission for my shoeing/farm truck.

Without the truck, we can’t even go and pick up the hay we need, even if we had the money to pay for it.

Hay has started to come in now, and we have 9  round bales on the farm, they cost $50 each.
We use more than 100 round bales each winter, depending on the severity of the weather. We also need to put up 2,000 small square bales to use in the barn. They cost from $3 to $5 a bale.

Farm life and equine rescue work is ever more expensive and complicated. We are committed to our lives and our work and we look forward to the day, hopefully soon, when our lives return to normal. We have a lot of good work to do.

I ought to say that my Farrier Truck, loaded with equipment, is now our farm truck also, it does it all. Our original farm truck is now dead, it was 22 years old, RIP.

As many of you know, my wife and I care for horses, rescue many, often respond to farmers and equine owners in trouble. We are always available to horses and people who need us.

I also volunteer  on our local  fire department, and Eli and I contribute to the community whenever we can.

I am not the sort of person who asks people help or who expects other people to pay for our lives and farm, but we have been caught in one long and perfect storm, and we will need some assistance in getting out of it, and as importantly, caring for the horses who need us and need to eat and stay warm this winter.
We appreciate the help you gave us earlier and hope you see your way to helping us once more.

Thanks so much.
For those who may want to contact us         Thornwood Farm
1696 Warren Switch
West Pawlet Vt. 05775