How ASIAB was started..

How did the barn get started? How have you grown so fast? These are common questions from just about everyone. It is actually quite a story. I feel like that is life though - a lot of really good stories when you stop to tell them. It doesn't mean they all have to be happy, but they all led somewhere, and usually that somewhere is a pretty darn good spot. 

In January of 2018 my sister invited me over for our weekly Bachelor/Bachelorette Monday. My sister would cook us dinner and I would provide several wines for us to drink and to try to guess 'what' we were drinking. I was in the alcohol distribution business at the time, selling beer, wine and spirits into restaurants, bars, liquor stores - just about anywhere with a license. But, more than that my sister and I just loved wine. It is literally part of our family history and learning about the wineries stories, tasting their products, understanding the WHY behind the taste of THAT particular bottle - it is just something we geek out over. 

On this particular night my sister was scrolling her phone on Instagram when she saw a fashion designer share a picture of a donkey in her stories asking if anyone could help .That he was shipping to slaughter the next day. Margaux immediately turned to me and said 'you need a donkey!' I casually laughed at her and explained to her that I did not need a donkey. I had never even met a donkey. Didn't know how to care for a donkey. WHAT would I do with a donkey?! Her response was, well, you're going to save the donkey and we will just love it! This was right around glass of wine number one. Mind you this was Chris Soules season so my attention to my sisters donkey pleading was not quite where my attention was. Right around glass number 2 I reached out to the stables where my two horses were being boarded asking what it would cost to board a donkey. Their response was literally a laughing face and would $50 sound fair a month. $50 was more then fair a month. Glass number 3 came around and after weighing the costs of buying him, quarantine, transport to California, monthly board and normal expenses that come with an equine, I looked at my sister and said - lets get the damn donkey! 

45 days later Kevin arrived. I remember being out to lunch with my then boyfriend and getting the call from the hauler that he was around the corner. We quickly paid our bill and drove the 2 minutes down the road to the stables. There he stood. There stood this little donkey. He was so sad seeming. So lost and confused on where he was and why. I immediately approached him and gave him the biggest hug with tears coming down my face. He was everything I could have imagined him to be. He was Kevin. 

It wasn't more then a few days before my friends, customers and family were asking about the new long eared family member. I was excited to show his picture from the kill pen lot, his photos now of him happy at the barn, his cute nose and face. He was all legs and ears. My grandpa LIT UP when he came out to meet him. He came to life with stories of being in WW2 in Germany with his pack donkeys and how they were some of his favorite memories as a teenager. (My gpa was 15 forced to fight with the German army at the boarder of Germany and France).

One friend in particular who wanted to come by, was a member of my wine group. I happened to run into him and his girlfriend at the restaurant down the street and, of course, they wanted to know all about the donkey I had recently brought into my family. COME AND MEET HIM! He wasps literally 2 minutes down the road! So, we paid our tabs and loaded ourselves up into our cars, and headed to the barn. 

Once we got there, Jen, my friends girlfriend, started talking all about how she had grown up taking lessons and showing in the paint horse circuit. It completely caught me off guard because I had also shown in the paint horse circuit when I was younger. Come to find out, Jen was the red headed girl whose horse I was always obsessed with at the barn. Her horses name was Krebs for short. He was this big sweet BEAUTIFUL handsome horse. There were two love affairs for me at that time, my horse Mr. B, and Krebs. Anytime the red hair'd girl showed up to get him out, I was there watching her every move with him. I wanted to ride him SO BAD, but was always too nervous to ask. What a crazy small world! I couldn't believe THIS girl standing in front of me was from back HER! 

That famous movie line ' Did we just become best friends?!' THAT was THAT moment between her and I. Once we got the shock of THAT out of the way, Jen mentioned how she had always wanted to rescue horses. Clearly, I was like me too! It was my dream! I started the Animal Rescue Club when I was 10. All I ever wanted was to help animals- it didn't matter what it was, insect, bird, cat, dog, I just wanted to help. 

I mentioned to Jen that I worked full-time for an alcohol distribution company and that:

1. I didn't know the first thing about starting a non profit
2. We could do this and just do it part time. Even if we saved even just one horse or donkey at a time, it was still making a difference. What did we have to lose in that?! 

Let's do it. That was the final consensus. I told her I would talk to my sister Margaux, she would talk to one of her best friends, who had also shown horses when she was younger, and if everyone agreed then we would start the process to form the non profit. This was in March of 2018. Within two weeks Jen and I had all of the paperwork completed and submitted, not it was just a waiting game to see if the IRS would accept everything and make it official. 

Lets stop for a moment because this is a question I also get all of the time:' where did the name come from?'

WHERE DID THE NAME COME FROM: In order to file the paperwork we needed a name for ourselves. I had explained how I absolutely loved the concept and vibe of Outstanding in a Field. It was and is this super neat organization that focuses on bringing people together to support local farmers and producers to celebrate hard work, love and passion. I loved THAT. Bringing people together. That's what I wanted it to be about. Bringing people together, regardless of walk of life, to support something GOOD. It took some brain storming and playing around with words. All Seated in the Barn. All Standing in the Barn. All Together under the Barn. All Seated in a Barn. It was perfect. We knew it the moment we said it. People coming together, seated at the same 'table', differences and opinions, income, ethnicity aside, under 'their roof', together FOR them. 

So we did it. We started the Barn. By June of 2018 we had our letter from the IRS and were ready to save a horse or donkey! Excitedly we all got together at Jens house and started scrolling the Bowie page. That is after all where Kevin came from so for us, that must be how you did it. That must be how you save them. We added up what we could each afford to give for the save of one and we did it. A mare and her foal. Our first saves. 

REALITY OF LIFE: Just like with any group project or assignment, there's always one or two people who end up doing most of the leg work. We all had full times jobs, some of us kids, and relationships. We also each had our own visions of what we 'saw' as being our non profits end goal. We all genuinely wanted to do this, to make it work, but life happens and at the end of the day the physical and mental labor has to be there or it won't work. Stalls need cleaned. Money needs raised. Horses need exercised. Board needs paid. Bills need taken care of. If there's no money coming in, then there's no money coming in and it has to come from somewhere or what is the point. You can't have a rescue with breathing, living animals and not have the ability to take care of them. 

This is when I sort of had to make the choice to grab the bull by the horns. I had completely drained my bank account by this point. I felt like a one woman show running this barn while trying to take care of myself, as well. My income was now not just supporting my personal life, but the horses and donkeys we had saved as well. I had to shit or get off the pot. The rescue couldn't support itself so I needed to find a way to make it work. I needed people to notice the barn and believe in what it was about. I couldn't support this by myself. I needed help.

SIDE NOTE: This is when LeAnn started with the barn. God bless her. I was cleaning pens one day, we had no volunteers at the time (this is about August/September 2018) and up walks this lady with a big smile on her face asking who she needed to talk to to volunteer. I was so confused on how she even found the barn. I am sure it showed on my resting bitch confused face - Thank GOD she didn't walk out at that moment lol. I think we still are confused on how she found the barn! BUT, at the end of the day, God pointed her there. It saved me that day and it saved her that day in more ways than one. I looked around at all 5 animals and said, I guess grab a rake, I need help cleaning. 

Now, back to the story. I started researching successful non profits on Instagram and the best role model for me was one of my good friends and his dog rescue. WHAT was he doing on social media that I could do better. I also followed several horse and animal sanctuaries and rescues (who I still follow and look up to today). What are they doing. What do I like about their social media, what's interesting, how are they presenting their rescue, what's their energy and their vibe. I just started making notes on what I thought was interesting - its always all about the stories. I took what I loved about all of them and just started to make ASIAB my own, from my eyes and my heart and my energy. I wanted people to feel the barn through the camera. That is after all what we are captivated by whether it be a beautiful picture or a movie. We can FEEL it through the lens. 

It was a lot of slow and steady from there. Doing as much community involvement as I could to try to gain support. Yoga sessions at the barn, wine dinners, Open Barns monthly, Music Nights, pop-up wine tastings. standing on street corners with signs. YES, we panhandled. We didn't have a choice.- literally I was and would do doing anything I could to get support and help besides social media. I couldn't fail the horses and donkeys we rescued. It wasn't an option. 

One at a time. Five horses, 10 horses, 30 horses. It always came together as scary as it was. It started with LeAnn and then there were 10, 15, 20 volunteers. A whole beautiful family WANTING to help. WANTING to see the barn be successful. We all worked together. We told our family and friends about the barn. We shared stories. We collected cans and bottles to raise money. I wasn't alone at all. We all believed and felt what the barn was about and together we made it work. It allowed me to continue to work and to also run the non profit. I am so grateful to these people who were such a massive part of the growth of the barn. Many of them are still volunteers to this day.