Help Aurora buy a Yurt
Kimberly, Shanks, and their businesses Aurora Agistment are on the move, but not by choice unfortunately, and are in a bit of a pickle.
With a farm to move, including horses, chickens and 2 indoor cats; and nowhere to go, they have found themselves in a position where the need to ask for some financial help.
Being able to live with their horses is very important as Shanks suffers from PTSD and working with and caring for the horses daily helps him to be in a calm state of mind. Separating Shanks from his horses would be destabilising, and detrimental for his mental health. Kimberly too has found working with the horses daily to be quite essential for her own well being.
A friend of the couple, who lives a 2 hour drive from them, has generously opened their home, offering their spare room while they continue to look. Grateful for the life line but not wanting to be a burden, the pair are hopeful to gain enough money to not only relocate the farm and store items, but to purchase a yurt or tiny home, to have their own space on the property, so Shanks can rebuild his sanctuary and maintain some self sufficiency. The end goal is to be able to secure property of their own that their yurt or tiny home could be relocated to, so they won’t have to start all over again.
In summary
>help with moving costs
>hire or buy a shipping container to store their belongings
>purchase a yurt (or other tiny home)
>secure heir own land to relocate to
From Kimberly- “Shanks and I have spent the last 2 and a bit years building our small business Aurora Agistment on the Sunshine Coast, Qld. We opened our doors during Queensland’s first big lock down and to everyone’s surprise, (especially ours) we survived, and not only that we thrived. After our first guest horse arrived, many others were soon to follow. We were ahead of our business plan, beginning to offer riding lessons and planning clinics well before we thought we would be able to, however, despite initial promises to renew our lease, the property owner changed his mind and has opted to end our lease September 30.
We have been searching for a new property, but have so far been unsuccessful in securing another rental, not just here on the Sunshine Coast, but anywhere suitable in South East Queensland. Competition is fierce and prices are just going up. One of our clients, who own a horse here named Rex, even organised a newspaper article to help in the search, but still no luck
https://www.facebook.com/SunshineValleyGazette/posts/4168788553218050
At the time of writing we have one month to go and are running out of time.
A good friend has offered for us to move in with them, to take up residence in their spare room and keep our horses on their land.
We are so immensely grateful to have somewhere to go where we can live with our horses, as this has always been the goal.
But, moving a farm is hard and we’d like to not be a burden, so we are asking for financial support to help us move and hopefully afford a dwelling of some kind to have our own space on the property, that can be moved when we can secure land of our own.”
A bit about Aurora
Aurora adjustment is a little bit different, we offer a managed herd during the day, as horses can roam together in a large paddock and at night they are each put into their own yard to have space to themselves, so there’s no competition for food.
The style of care we offer we call ‘Informative Care’ and we have created a safe space for new horse owners where we are able to teach them the ins and outs of looking after a large animal without judgement, and create a space for owners to connect with their horses and build a beautiful bond.
Our first horse guest was a five month old colt, who was integrated into our resident herd of three, who taught the colt how to be a horse, to build his confidence and communication skills; things horses don’t have intuitively and won’t develop in isolation.
We are big believers in ‘herd health’, that horses, as herd animals are far better off together than apart, but managing the herd is important too, to integrate new horses slowly to ensure everyone’s safety, while still providing full care, so horses are fed and rugged and handled so they are healthy, clean and don’t forget their manners.
We also transformed the land into an organic space, to grow healthy food for ourselves as well as the community, its also imperative to us to keep the land safe for all the native animals who make their homes here, the birds, the bees and other insects. We make sure to keep wild-corners so they always have flowers and safe havens. Through conscientious farming we have witnessed a re-birth of nature on the land.
“It has been a wonderful, wild ride owning and running my own business, to see the land and the herd flourish. I’m heartbroken to have to send horses away and close our doors. I remain hopeful that one day we’ll be able to reestablish the business and continue providing this unique service to our community.”
”We also have 2 indoor cats, Esmé and Sage, that we are determined to keep, and to keep indoors, to protect wild life and also give them an interesting life, so to be able to provide an interesting well sized space for them is important to us.”
Please help us if you can. We’ve been very proud to have made it this far on our own, but now we really need some help.
