I need ideas for a young girl looking to volunteer

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lilmiraclesfarm

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I was left a note about a young girl about 12-13 who wants to go to an agricultural school. She wants to come and help me and get some more experience working with animals and a reference letter for the school.

This is something I've never done before so before I go ahead and call her parents and make a commitment to it, I would love to have some ideas to bring forth in what I could have the girl do.

Anyone have ideas to as what I could have her do? I have goats as well, but I don't milk them. So its not like I can teach her that.
 
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Great idea!

Definitely general maintenance and health care, hoof trimming, feeding, nutrition, proper handling, safety around the animals, animal behavior, diseases, treatments, proper areas to give shots, breeding, record keeping, just to name a few..
 
Its the way I started. I went out once a wk, and walked a very gental pregnant mare, and cleaned stalls. I loved it. I am very grateful for this experience. I am now a happy owner of two minis.
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Lildrumemr
 
All of the above mentioned, and they can be extended out. For instance - Nutrition - Understanding the building blocks, which brings it more into agriculutral realm. Give her hay samples and have her get them tested. When she gets the results back, then talk to a equine nutritionist, a bovine nutritionist, etc. This helps a person understand the different animal needs. (Since you have goats, for that too. And then the difference in salt needs between the different animals.

What a great opportunity! Thanks for committing!
 
I agree with teaching her what you can about anything you do. The way I have found to be best would be to work with her, answer any questions and also maybe give short explainations for some of the things you do and even sometimes how they may differ from others. It also never hurts to mix a bit of fun with the work. For instance--we will clean this stall for Lucky and then you can walk Lucky a couple of minutes and love on him and give him a treat before we go to the next stall.

I have found with the 13 yr old girl that comes out here, that she is eager to learn, but I need to keep the lessons short because she will catch on quicker.
 
Just one thing that jumps out to me is to make sure it's okay with your insurance to do this, and you may want to have her parents sign some kind of a waiver. I know I probably sound like a worry wart, but I just have such a strong risk management mentality both personally and professionally that I wanted to throw it out there in case it would be something you would want to think about.
 

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