This week actor and producer Mark Wahlberg and his beautiful family came for a private tour of our main property and learned the stories of all our animals, hugged cows, gave tummy rubs to the pigs, held chickens, and had a great time!

We also had linebacker Chris Gocong from the Cleveland Browns and his lovely wife Mandy who came for a private tour of our teddy bear cows on our second property. They hugged, brushed and loved all 40 cows and fell in love with them.

We have three different kinds of private tours; Our VIP tour with the founder on our main property, where you can meet all our animals, hear their stories, feed horses, hug cows, give tummy rubs to the pigs and so much more! Our teddy bear tour of the cows, on our other property which is not open to the public, where you can hug and brush 40 cows and hear their stories. And our horse lovers tour where you can brush our horses, feed them carrots, hear their stories and take them for a nature walk. All three tours are fantastically fun, given to people from all over the world, and we would love to have you here for one, or all three! Contact our office at info@gentlebarn.org or (661) 252-2440 to book your Gentle Barn private tour today!

We have established a brand new volunteer intake, interview and training process and this week we had our very first horse orientation graduates. We are so excited to have them here and proud of all that they learned! They are now officially part of our horse grooming and walking team and we are grateful! If you would like to be a Gentle Barn cow hugger, horse groomer, Sunday docent or upper barnyard buddy spending time with our animals, contact us and we will get you started! Click here to download the volunteer paperwork.

The 6 goats are doing fantastic! They are getting braver, more trusting and comfortable with us being around them. Reina is the most scared and damaged and we are working very hard to win her trust. When she first came here she would not eat or lay down when we were around, and would watch our every move. Now she will eat happily and lay down and close her eyes in the sun when we are only 5 feet away! That is major progress and we are proud of her. We will keep working until we can pet and hug her and the pain no longer lives inside of her!

We want to thank Lena who saw our story on The Ellen Show in Germany a year ago and has been saving money ever since so she could come to America and volunteer with us. She has been with us for almost a month volunteering and we have all fallen love with her! We wish we could keep her, but sadly she is returning home on Saturday. She has helped us so much and we will miss her! Lena was so inspired by the animals that she has embraced a plant-based diet and will hopefully be able to come back and volunteer with us again soon!

To make a donation towards animal care, and to support work of The Gentle Barn please click here.