How does the whole mobile barnyard thing actually work?
It's quite simple, you tell us where you'd like us to set up and we come to you! We bring a truck and trailer with all of our critters and equipment in it. Show us the location you'd like us to set up in, and we start unpacking! It takes about 30 minutes to get everyone unpacked and unloaded, but we don't take that time away from your interaction time with the animals. If you book for 2 hours, we show up 30 minutes early to set up and spend the full 2 hours entertaining guests. When your time has expired, we quietly pack up, clean up and leave the rest of the party up to you.
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How do I book?
Call, email, Facebook message...any of these are acceptable methods to contact us. You pick a date and time, we confirm the details and then we ask for a 50% deposit to hold the date for you. Super simple!
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How do I pay you?
A deposit can be made via cash, e-Transfer, cheque, even paypal. If you want to pay with a credit card, just let us know and we'll bring our system for that too! The remainder of a payment is due upon our arrival at the event. For that, we do ask for cash, credit or e-Transfer. We always get so busy having fun at events that it's easy to forget!
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Can I pick the animals I want to have come?
We are more than happy to do our best to accommodate special requests! While we can't always meet every wish, we do our best. Sometimes weather, season and personality of the critters dictates what we're able to do.
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What happens if it rains?
Ah the weather. In moderate weather we have canopies for the critters, in severe weather we'd have to judge each situation on an individual basis. There's no set rule for this, we're happy to chat and see what we can mutually decide on.
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What are my responsibilities when you're at my party?
Show us where to set up and you can sit back and relax! We bring everything we need (and extra!) and we clean up before we go. Your responsibility is to watch the smiles on their faces and enjoy yourself!
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What areas do you service?
We try to keep our events within an hour's travel of Woodstock. Woostock, London, Kitchener, Waterloo, Guelph, Hamilton and areas. To be fair to our animals, we want to make sure they're comfortable and happy too. As much as we'd like to be able to drive hours for an event, we aren't comfortable asking our critters to make that trip.
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My date is booked, what can we do?
We always try to offer options, we do our best to accommodate requests. We have some parties booked months in advance, some last minute bookings too. It's always best to book as far in advance as you can to make sure we have your date available.
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Why won't you book multiple shows in one day?
We love our animals, they love doing events, and we want to keep it that way. Our animals don't pay our bills, we have jobs for that. Most of our horses are rescues or were at-risk before coming home to us, some of them have higher needs than others. Any profits from events go right back into the care and upkeep of our animals. By limiting the number of parties, we limit the stress on them. We love them, we'd like to keep them around for a long long time.
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Can I expect to see the same animals next season?
Absolutely! The animals we have are family. We don't offload them at the end of a season because it's cheaper than feeding them over the winter. We've made a commitment to their care and safety, we take that promise very seriously. We love these critters, petting zoo or not, we'd still have them.
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Are you insured?
While our goal is always to provide a safe and fun environment for guests, we also need to protect ourselves too. We certainly have insurance, and while we hope to never need it, it's there just in case.
Are your animals safe?
The animals are hand picked for each event. They love their jobs, and we make sure to keep them and our guests safe. Every event is well supervised by experienced staff; our family attends each time, our critters know us and we know them best. Our crew is always up to date on vaccinations, it's the law. We take safety as a top priority each time we head to an event, we want EVERYONE to have a positive experience.
How many staff attend each event?
We aim to have three staff at every event, regardless of the event size or type. This ensures adequate supervision with all guests and animals. What's the fun when little friends can't reach the animals to pet them? We make sure the critters are accessible and comfortable. With 3 staff, we're able to watch each enclosure carefully.
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How safe are your pony rides?
We take safety very seriously. We have decades of horse experience, teaching, riding, assisting. Every pony ride has two staff members present for the actual ride; one leads the pony, the other acts as a sidewalker and keeps pace beside the rider and is able to assist immediately should it be required. We also provide helmets. Our critters are safe, we've worked with them to ensure they've been exposed to all sorts of situations...but we're always prepared just in case. Our ponies ADORE children, they enjoy their work. Just watch them some time, you'll see it too!
