Reynolds Elementary School teams up with Sunshine Horses for unique writing program

What is your favorite food? What do you like to do? Do you like other horses?

These are just some of the questions, Reynolds Elementary School students have asked the horses at Sunshine Horses, an organization that works to rehabilitate, retrain and rehome horses in Central New York.

Reynolds and Sunshine Horses have teamed up to offer a unique writing project. Each grade level is writing letters to a different horse: Huck, Clos, Leggs, Gypsy, Firefly and Dawn. The classes receive photos of their horses and have been writing letters to their horses since the beginning of the school year.

More than 1,100 letters have been written and with each letter, the students receive a letter back with the answers to their questions. The letters are displayed in the barn and Sunshine Horses volunteers read the letters to the horses.

The program helps students improve their writing skills and increases exposure to horses to the community. The program also helps the students learn about community service. Recently, the students fundraised and purchased a new halter for each of the six horses.

The halters were distributed at Reynold’s February Positivity Project assembly. Chris Rowland, the program organizer, Katie Starr, the president of Sunshine Horses, and board member Beth Smart attended the assembly.

Rowland is a retired Reynolds teacher and is piloting the writing program with the school.

“It’s an amazing partnership,” she said.