Red Rock, TX
Texas is home to the second largest number of wild horse and burro adoptions in the country. As of January, 2004, Texans had adopted over 16,000 wild horses and burros since the inception of BLM's adoption program.
Chris Erlon was one such adopter. He found that he had a natural knack for working with wild horses and helping other adopters so he became involved as a volunteer for wild horses and burros. In 2002 he was recognized as Wild Horse Mentor of the Year for his work assisting others, demonstrating at BLM adoptions and his promotion of good adoptive homes for excess wild horses and burros.
Chris Recognized a need to have a proper facility in which to work with animals and teach adopters. Now Vice President of the all volunteer Least Resistance Training Concepts, a non profit organization dedicated to educating adopters and individuals in wild horse and burro issues, Chris and his wife, Julie, purchased some acreage near their home and dreamed of building a simple but practical training facility.
Proper corrals and infrastructure are expensive and grant funds from traditional sources were drying up. Just as Chris was struggling to figure out how to fund the project, EquestrianSingles.com rode to the rescue.
EquestrianSingles issued the following press release explaining who they are and their involvement with this project.
EquestrianSingles.com is proud to announce support for the BLM and their Wild Horse & Burro Adoption program. With over 50,000 members and remarkable membership growth each week, EquestrianSingles.com will notify members when there is an adoption in their area. EquestrianSingles.com hopes to drive potential adopters to the BLM’s official website.
In addition, EquestrianSingles.com is the official sponsor of the new Texas Wild Horse Learning Center, a subsidiary of LRTC, a wild horse mentor group. EquestrianSingles.com instantly raised the initial funds needed to purchase panels for the Learning Center to shelter their first horses. EquestrianSingles.com will also contribute a monthly donation toward feed for the center’s horses.
In September 2001, EquestrianSingles.com made its debut as the first website of its kind. In just over 3 years of operation, the site remains the industry leader, garnering over 1.6 million hits a day, 11 million page views per month, and 300,000+ unique visitors a month.
What began as a simple idea to connect singles that shared a common love for horses, has turned into a one-of-a- kind, close-knit community that has become a center for horse owners around the world. Featured on radio and television, and in prestigious publications such as Entrepreneur Magazine and The Austin Business Journal, EquestrianSingles.com is a tremendous success. More than just matchmaking, the site’s online community caters to horse enthusiasts around the world for special events, recreational trail rides, friendships, or romance. The active Chat Rooms are filled with interesting individuals from around the world who share an interest for horses.
Jan Mirkin and Marcia Zwilling, the owners behind EquestrianSingles.com, are two exceptional women with impressive backgrounds in both music and television.
Their mutual love of horses brought them together at a local stable in Austin, Texas, where they became friends, bought their first horses just days apart, and soon created the idea for EquestrianSingles.com.
“People who were once isolated and alone in rural communities, now have a sanctuary from their loneliness,” says Mirkin. Zwilling agrees. “We have created a ‘community center’ for the equestrian industry and hope to make a real difference in people’s lives and efforts like the BLM Wild Horse and Burro Adoption program.
In addition to thousands of success stories and marriages, EquestrianSingles.com has also become an emergency communication center. Their message boards recently helped coordinate horse evacuations during the California wild fires, and organized relief and rescue efforts for this year’s devastating hurricanes and floods.
Before moving to Texas, Zwilling began her career as a songwriter, co-writing “Once in a Lifetime,” recorded by both Patty Loveless and Bonnie Raitt. After moving into the television industry, she ran Steve Martin’s production company, where she developed a television series for George Burns. Five years later, she began a stint as Vice President of Current Programming for Lorimar Television, the producers of such hit shows like Dallas, Knots Landing and Full House. One of the shows Zwilling supervised was Paradise, a western series starring Lee Horsley. It instantly ignited her passion for horses again. Horsley was an avid horseman, and recognized Marcia’s love of horses. He told the show’s wrangler to ‘get that girl a horse to ride’! Within 3 years, Zwilling moved to Texas, bought her first horse, and changed her life dramatically. After one trail ride through the Texas Hill Country, there was no turning back.” Today, Zwilling calls Austin home, and splits her time between EquestrianSingles.com, and working as a freelance writer in Austin and Los Angeles.
Jan Mirkin moved to Texas from Washington, D.C. After graduating from the Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos, Mirkin relocated to Austin. She began working in the music business running an independent record label, booking tours, and managing bands including noted artist, Ian Moore. Several years later, Mirkin started her own company, Mirkin Management, and successfully negotiated contracts with major record companies. In addition, Jan continued to secure talent, and toured with the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, ZZ Top, and various other artists. In 1998, ASCAP recruited her to represent the Texas ASCAP office to secure and build membership as a creative service. Jan recently phased out of artist management but remains very active in the music business. Currently she is the Director of Artist Relations for recording label, Digital Musicworks International and is the Texas representative for ASCAP. In addition to working in the music industry and owning EquestrianSingles.com, Mirkin also serves on the board for both the Grammy’s and Austin Music Foundation.
Last year, Mirkin and Zwilling developed their second equestrian community, EquestrianFriends.com, which appeals to all horse enthusiasts, not just singles. EquestrianFriends.com has the same friendly, community-like atmosphere, where people interested in horses can chat, post a classifieds ad to tell others about their business or service, find riding buddies or roping partners, and continue to discover great places to ride.
The involvement of EquestrianSingles.com demonstrates how public-private partnerships, even those involving cyber businesses, can help address issues that have not been satisfactorily resolved solely by givernment agencies and non profit groups. We hope this is just the first of many such public benefit relationships.
You can view TEAM-LRTC activities at Red Rock by clicking
here.
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