FF FAQ
Forever Foundation FAQ
Answers
What does it mean to be a member of the Forever Foundation? Are there or requirements or paperwork to complete?
Being a member of the Forever Foundation means your organization is committed to training your equines to better prepare them for adoption. Participating organizations are part of a network or rescues across the country, that work together to provide consistent training method and efficiently track the progress of their team and equines.
There are four levels of members in the program:
Core
- These organizations have access to volunteer safety videos and equine evaluation.
- Once you complete an 'Equine Evaluation, you can access the next level.
Ground
- These organizations have access to all of the ground training topics and can participate in the 60 day challenges for added awards.
- Once you complete a 60 Day Challenge, you are eligible to attend the Ground Training Clinic and can access the riding level.
- Ground Level organizations are eligible to participate in the Adoption Showcase
Riding
- These organizations have access to all training levels of the program
- Once you have completed a 60 Day Challenge, you are eligible to attend the Riding Training Clinic
- Riding Level organizations are eligible to participate in the Adoption Showcase
Mentor
- These have shown exemplary participation in the program, including attending at least one training clinic every year.
- Mentor organizations have access to all training levels of the program
- Have access to the Adopter Network and Adopter Resources
HOW TO BEGIN
To create an account for your organization, visit:
Forever Foundation Registration
Once you have done this, the organization director can then add the horses under the organization's care, as well as the members of their team. From here, directors can assign skill appropriate lessons and topics to these members to help prepare them as they prepare the horses they are working with for adoption.
Once your team and horses have been added and they begin progressing through the topics and challenges, the director can then take advantage of the tracking and reporting features available to them.
Any of your information or data is not shared with third parties, and only used improve the program effectiveness.
Scholarship to participate in the Forever Foundation is provide by The Humane Society of the United States.
Once you register your organization at the link above, you'll be sent a few emails to help you get setup, but we're also more than happy to set up a zoom call to fast track the process for you. Just email learning@plan4progress to schedule a time.
How often and in what way do we “check in” with you throughout the challenge?
The way you complete the Adoption Challenges is by uploading a photo/video of each training milestone as the horse you are working with progresses toward adoption.
The challenges are self-paced, so you can do them anytime throughout the year. Start when you need, catch-up when you need.
The main goal is to prepare your horses for adoption by October (or sooner of course).
To help you self-pace and reward your efforts, there are additional rewards from March-August for completing certain training milestones by certain dates.
March | Challenger Verification
- This is designed to get the different members of your team on-board and familiar with watching the videos and adding photos/videos to complete the challenges.
- Again, this can be done at anytime, but in March we are rewarding the first 50 to complete the challenge with a special T-Shirt!
April | Initial Evaluation
- Complete an evaluation of the horse(s) you wish to prepare for the Adoption Showcase
- Again, this can be done at anytime.
- This is also a requirement to participate in the Adoption Showcase.
May-June | 60 Day Challenge
- Depending on you and the horse's skill sets, you can choose from any of the three challenges to participate in. Do 1 or do them all.
- Every week we draw from those who have completed a challenge for an opportunity to win equipment for your organization.
- At the end of the challenge, we draw from those who have completed ALL of the tasks in the challenge to award them a travel stipend to attend the November training clinic.
July-August | 60 Day Challenge (Round 2)
- An opportunity to advance to the next challenge with the same horse, or add a new horse to the same challenge.
**60 Day Challenge Options**
- Ground Challenge
- Advanced Ground Challenge
- Riding Challenge
September | Prepare for the Showcase
Once you've completed an initial evaluation and at least one 60 Day Challenge, you'll be eligible to submit photos and a video of your horse's skill sets to the Adoption Showcase in the various divisions. You'll have September for additional time to prepare these.
October | Adoption Showcase
This will be an online event to showcase all the trainer and horse teams that have been working to prepare for adoption. There will be divisions for both Adoptable and Adopted horses in the following divisions:
- Ground
- Riding
- All Around
- Freestyle
- Companion
November | Training Clinic in Clovis, NM
10-11 : Ground Clinic
12-13: Riding Clinic
14: Mentor Summit
COMPLETING TRAINING CHALLENGES
Once you've created an account and added your director has added horses for your to participate with, you'll use the different 'Purposes' to advance through the lessons and challenges, adding a picture/video and rating each time you complete a training milestone.
 Completing Training Challenge Tasks
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What if a horse becomes unsound during the challenge?
If a horse you are working with becomes unsound during their preparation for adoption, don't worry, you can always pick up with where they left off once the horse is physically able to begin training.
If the soundness is determined to be a long-term issue, causing the horse to need a companion-type placement, they can still participate in the Adoption Showcase in the 'Companion' division.
Companion horses still need to have basic skills to help them succeed in their adoptive homes - especially skills like trailer loading, farrier, and veterinary care.
You will know best what your horses's abilities and limitations are, so we encourage you to develop a plan to continue to your Companion horse's training toward adoption within those. The goal is to help horses develop the skills they need for their future adopters, all while they are under the care of an organization that can provide them the support they need to maintain optimum health throughout rehabilitation and training.
What if a horse is adopted during the challenge?
Wonderful!
Adoption is the goal, and if a horse you are working with is adopted during the challenge, we want you to get credit for this and keep going!
- When an equine is adopted during a challenge, you'll still earn points for your team for the challenges you completed with that horse.
- The adopter will get record of everything their horse can do, and they can continue on with their development themselves!
- You and the horse will still be able to be featured during the Adoption Showcase in the "Adopted" category.
Remember, you can participate in the challenges with multiple horses and you can start at anytime, so we encourage you to bring your skills to another horse and help them find a great adopter too!
Director | Assign Remove Purpose
To Assign or Remove a Purpose for a User, click on 'Director Links' in the upper right hand corner of your account.
Then select Assign/Remove Purpose. From here you can select which user and which purpose(s) and which horse(s) to assign.
To remove a purpose, first select the user. Then the site will populate the assigned 'Purposes' for that user, from which you can select which one to remove.
This video will show you how to locate these features:
Then select Assign/Remove Purpose. From here you can select which user and which purpose(s) and which horse(s) to assign.
To remove a purpose, first select the user. Then the site will populate the assigned 'Purposes' for that user, from which you can select which one to remove.
This video will show you how to locate these features:
Skill Colors
The training color varies for each organization, but most of them use the traffic light colors.
Check with your director to confirm, as these are general guidelines.
For Horses:
These are examples of how the colors are applied.
Remember, you will need to interact only with the horses you have been given permission for.
Red = Advanced (Stop, make sure you have permission for this horse as it may have exhibited dangerous behaviors)
Yellow = Intermediate (Proceed with caution when working with this horse, it may not be far along in it's training)
Green = Beginner (Horse is compatible with most trainers/volunteers/adopters and is most likely further along in training)
Gray = Unknown (This horses's skill is unknown or has not been assigned)
These are examples of how the colors are applied.
Remember, you will need to interact only with the horses you have been given permission for.
Red = Advanced (Stop, make sure you have permission for this horse as it may have exhibited dangerous behaviors)
Yellow = Intermediate (Proceed with caution when working with this horse, it may not be far along in it's training)
Green = Beginner (Horse is compatible with most trainers/volunteers/adopters and is most likely further along in training)
Gray = Unknown (This horses's skill is unknown or has not been assigned)
 Horse Skill Color |
For Team Members:
Again, check with your director to confirm, but team member skill color usually matches the horse's skill color they are assigned to.
Red = Advanced (These members may be paired with all colors)
Yellow = Intermediate (These members may be paired with yellow, blue, green)
Green = Beginner (These members may be paired with blue or green colors)
Gray = Unknown (This member's skill is unknown or has not been assigned)
Again, check with your director to confirm, but team member skill color usually matches the horse's skill color they are assigned to.
Red = Advanced (These members may be paired with all colors)
Yellow = Intermediate (These members may be paired with yellow, blue, green)
Green = Beginner (These members may be paired with blue or green colors)
Gray = Unknown (This member's skill is unknown or has not been assigned)
 Tracking Members |
For Assigning Challenge Skills:
When you complete a challenge with a horse, you do not have to assign a color to rate their skill, but the option is there.
For example...if you worked on catching with a horse and you couldn't touch them at all in a small area, you might indicate this as a red skill level. As the horse's ability to complete the skill with confidence and softness, the color would progress from yellow to green.
Red = Dangerous (This skill has been evaluated as dangerous for the horse and/or handler)
Yellow = Intermediate (This skill has been evaluated as complete, but needs improvement)
Green = Beginner (This skill can be easily completed by different handlers of all skill levels)
Gray = Unknown (This skill has not been evaluated and is unknown)
When you complete a challenge with a horse, you do not have to assign a color to rate their skill, but the option is there.
For example...if you worked on catching with a horse and you couldn't touch them at all in a small area, you might indicate this as a red skill level. As the horse's ability to complete the skill with confidence and softness, the color would progress from yellow to green.
Red = Dangerous (This skill has been evaluated as dangerous for the horse and/or handler)
Yellow = Intermediate (This skill has been evaluated as complete, but needs improvement)
Green = Beginner (This skill can be easily completed by different handlers of all skill levels)
Gray = Unknown (This skill has not been evaluated and is unknown)
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 Horse Progress Colors
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