DENVER — The Urban Farm in Denver’s Central Park neighborhood is asking for the community’s help after someone broke into their tack room, stealing more than $22,000 worth of equipment for their horses.
“You don’t have to own a horse, you don’t have to own your own equipment, we’ll even provide you with helmets and a boot,” which is what makes the non-profit special, said Executive Director Michelle Graham-Rodriguez.
The Urban Farm offers field trips, equestrian classes and even helps at-risk youth. Without the equine tack, those programs wouldn’t be possible, said Graham-Rodriguez.
Monday night, the farm said someone cut their barbed wire fence on the perimeter of their property and broke into the tack room stealing pricey equipment fitted to each of the horses.
Denver Police are investigating the case. So far, no arrests have been made.
Each saddle at The Urban Farm is fitted with a gold plate. Graham-Rodriguez hopes this unique identifier will help police find the thief if one of the saddles happens to end up at a resale shop or on the black market.
“We are a nonprofit farm; we are doing our best with what we have to serve as many as we can,” said Graham-Rodriguez.
The farm is supposed to host the Interscholastic Equestrian Show (IES) next weekend. Staff is hopeful the community will step up to help with much-needed donations so they can keep kids riding and programs running.
“It was definitely an unfortunate reality that we walked into,” said Graham-Rodriguez.
If you’d like to donate, The Urban Farm needs any new or lightly used equine tack, specifically saddles, bridles, girths, stirrups, stirrup pads, saddle pads, bits, and stirrup leathers designed for English, hunter jumper and dressage riding.
You can drop off donations on Saturdays 9 a.m.-1 p.m., Monday -Thursday 9 a.m.-3 p.m., or by scheduling an alternative time-- please email andrea@theurbanfarm.org to do so.
Any financial donations can be given here.
