Rain pattered on the tarp roofs of the chicken coops as goats bleated and more than 150 hens rolled around in their freshly cleaned homes at Brave Meadows Therapeutic Riding Center on Nov. 22. MerServe volunteers drove 30 minutes to Brave Meadows for a workday at the farm where they cleaned and beautified the riding center and the animals’ living spaces.
MerServe Environmental Service coordinators Madison Williams ‘27 and Eliot Gerwig-Moore ‘27 said they thought Brave Meadows was reminiscent of the farmlands they frequented growing up. The pair oversaw the operation for MerServe on Saturday in Gray, a town just north of Macon.
“You may get your shoes dirty or your pants dirty, but, honestly, it’s very enriching,” Gerwig-Moore said.
Outside one of the coops was Mercer graduate Shannon Patrick ‘96 checking a hen for cankers, a parasitic disease deadly to the birds. After finishing the checkup, Patrick snuggled with the bird before setting her down.
Patrick praised the work of the 18 volunteers from MerServe. The retired schoolteacher said the riding center wouldn’t be the same without help from student volunteers and that she hopes more Mercer students, in addition to those participating in MerServe events, volunteer their time there in the future.
“We are very grateful for all the years of their dedication and coming out and helping us keep this place going,” Patrick said. “We couldn’t do it without them.”
She added that she is “constantly looking for grants and donations to keep it going."
Gerwig-Moore spent the better part of the event with the group scooping manure into wheelbarrows and dumping it into a pile for local farmers to use as fertilizer. Williams and five others painted the fences around the riding center with a protective black coat of paint. The remaining volunteers removed droppings, moldy food and debris from chicken coops on the property as a turkey stood watch around the coops. This close to Thanksgiving, Patrick reminded everyone the turkey would not be offered up on any table the following Thursday.
Riders led horses into the stables while a miniature steer named Zeke head-butted some volunteers. Patrick walked up to Zeke, patting him with a cheery smile and warm greetings for riders and volunteers.
“There’s a whole lot of work. It’s a constant financial burden, but I look back and I think of my love of horses,” Patrick said. “My whole life I loved them.”
Finances at Brave Meadows are an uphill battle, Patrick said, but she reminds herself of her love of teaching and the man that helped inspire Brave Meadows: her uncle Mark, who lived with Down syndrome.
The facility’s therapeutic rides for those with disabilities separates it from other farmlands in the area. Patrick’s clients travel from Eatonton, Macon, Milledgeville, Warner Robins and other towns across Middle Georgia for the farm's services.
Patrick said students can “see who they’re helping” when they volunteer during appointments with clients. Brave Meadows offers horseback riding lessons to anyone, but specializes in lessons for people with disabilities.
“It makes you feel good to help others. They’re out here helping care for the animals, but it’s the bigger purpose of our animal center,” Patrick said. “It means a lot to have Mercer come out and help give back to the community.”
Nathaniel Jordan '29 intends to major in Journalism at Mercer and hopes to work as an investigative journalist. His hobbies include poetry, photography and home cooking, and you can probably find him around Macon shopping or walking through local parks with his wife and son.
