FAQ

You can confirm your booking by filling in our online booking form under “make a booking“ and paying for the invoice we send you as soon as you receive it, or paying for your booking as soon as you confirm that the spot is available.  Our banking details can be found below the booking form.

We have had the opportunity to share our animals with both adults and children with disabilities on many occasions over the past 10 years, and have had the opportunity to see the benefits first hand.

In the United States animal assisted therapy is very popular and now is becoming more and more popular here is Australia.

Horses

A person can put aside his or her own troubles in the immediate job of caring for a horse. Horses are large and strong, which challenges a person to overcome his fear in order to work with the animal. Horses mirror moods, too; they respond negatively to negative emotions, teaching the client that his behaviour can affect others, and making it necessary to modify behaviour in order to work successfully with the animal.

Dogs

Other animal assisted therapies include canine therapy which is the most common and seems to be especially successful with emotionally troubled people (both children and adults). A dog’s ability to empathise and to physically interact often helps emotionally closed people by creating a safe relationship in which they can let their guard down.

Donkeys

Donkeys are sometimes used as well, in programs that are very similar to equine programs. The gentle nature of donkeys, and their smaller stature, makes them less intimidating for children who may be easily scared by a horse.

Cats

Though cats aren’t as easy to include in AAT (animal assisted therapy) programs (mainly because more people are allergic to them), some programs work very well in assisted living and nursing homes. Because cats are calmer, older people are often more comfortable with them than with dogs. Cats are also able to get physically closer to a patient (sitting in her lap, for example) than most dogs, and the closeness can provide added comfort and ease feelings of loneliness in older patients.

Small Animals

Other small animals are often used as well; rabbits, guinea pigs, chick, ducklings, birds, even fish. The smaller animals are great for older patients, or in group homes and other residential settings. The presence of an animal can make a clinical setting feel more like home, and help patients relax.

The emotional effects that therapy animals bring to their patients are even more wide-ranging and important. Therapy animals are proven to reduce stress, loneliness, grief, fear, and pain. They allow patients to focus their attention on something outside of themselves—an especially important part of therapy for the mentally ill, who can have difficulty thinking or talking about nothing but their own problems.

The animals provide a source of entertainment in otherwise drab and impersonal places, and allow for the patients to interact socially in ways they might not have before. For those in counselling, the animals open an emotionally safe avenue of communication between the patient and the therapist.

Therapy animals accept humans for who they are, which consequently increases confidence and self-esteem. For those who have been physically or sexually abused, the animals allow them to learn appropriate, safe, non-threatening touch. For elderly and ill patients, the animals serve to spark old memories, orient people back to reality, and increase their sense of responsibility toward another life. This, in turn, gives people a reason to live. All in all, therapy animals activate many patients’ nurturing sides and give them a focus outside of their particular problems.

Therapy animals positively affect people of all ages. The animals bring a host of emotional and physical benefits to those in hospitals, nursing homes, and other places. Therapy animals are reputed to save many lives, and provide love and kindness to those in life’s final hours.

Please take the time to read this page containing terms and conditions before booking, this will avoid any unwanted misunderstandings.

You must inform all parents of children taking part in the entertainment arranged by you, if their child will be engaging in horse or animal related activities (due to allergies etc).

Horses have a weight restriction of 45kg for rides, and only one child can ride one a pony at one time.

A larger pony may be available if arranged in advance to suit up to 55 kg.

Parents or a designated person is required to fit helmets and lift the children onto the pony.  We can supply an extra helper if required at an additional cost.

Trick horses are only supplied with our Pony Trick Show, Fairy & Unicorn Pony Parties, and Clown & Circus Pony Parties

All cancellations and postponements to be paid in full.

Bookings are only secured and held exclusively for you once full payment or a purchase order is received, and we work on a “first in with their payment” basis.

You must fill in an online “booking form” which can be found on our website home page under “make a booking”  to supply us with your party and booking details, and you must agree to these terms and conditions.

If you make a change to your booking once your booking form is submitted, you must submit a new booking form and make a note on the new form submitted that it has been re-submitted (some exceptions are made if you do not have access to a computer).

Once you return the completed booking form, you acknowledge that you have read, understood and agreed to our terms and conditions and our cancellation policy.

It is up to you our customer to inform yourself of our terms and conditions, which have been made readily available on each relevant page of our website and on our booking form.

It is up to you our customers to have a wet weather plan in place.  We provide limited shelter for our animals, ponies and show.  Some of our horses can wear rubber sole shoes to protect floors and stop them from slipping if they need to come inside your home or hall.

We have our own wet weather gear in the way of boots and Oil Skin jackets and our horses have their own rugs for wet weather riding, so just supply a rain coat for the children to share and a large golf umbrella should save the day.

In torrential rain, where there is no shelter, the pony rides may be not possible, we leave it to our discretion to replace pony rides with another activity, such as games, balloon bending  and/or face painting, and will discuss the options with you on the day.

Our marquees are not suitable shelter in high winds or torrential rain, so an alternative, such as a garage, carport or a large tarp erected by yourself may be necessary.

Entertainment or entertainers may be changed without notice due to ill health or other circumstances out of our control.

We have many entertainers and try and replace sick entertainers with healthy ones, but in the rare event of there being no replacement available, we reserve the right to cancel the entertainment and refund your money.

You must ensure there is adequate parking and access for a vehicle (4 car spots long) if you book multiple horses you need to allow adequate parking for a vehicle towing a horse float “parking”.

You must leave the driveway/front of the premises free for easy packing and unloading to avoid delays.

Our animal transport vehicles require a standard car space with enough room to unload out of the back and side of the van, our horse float (when booking multiple ponies) requires three tandem (one in front of the other, NOT side by side) car parking spot to drive into, as we are unable to reverse park our car and horse floats into tight spots or on main roads.

Due to the length of our vehicle and float, we are unable to reverse into driveways on narrow roads or streets with cars parked opposite your driveway, so please do not park directly opposite your driveway or park your car there until we arrive so that other drivers don’t park there, so we can reverse in and out.

We reserve the right to cancel the party entertainment if there is no adequate access, parking, or inadequate directions are given.

If we are late due to inadequate directions or parking arrangements, the time will not be made up.

We reserve the right to eject a child who has deemed a danger to our animals from the animal nursery, if after numerous attempts to explain adequate behavior around animals, go ignored by the child, and there is no suitable adult available to supervise the child closely within the farm.

You MUST inform us if your child or a child attending the party has special needs so that we can better cater to the child, otherwise, we may think the child is misbehaving and take appropriate action (as above).

You must not assume an email, phone message, or text message as received unless you receive a confirmation from us, and changes to bookings must be made on a fresh booking form.

Please ensure you confirm your party 24 hours before.

We feel the need to specify all of the above to avoid any misunderstandings.

We try and avoid any additional stress caused by misunderstandings, by informing you of all of the above, so you know what is expected from you and what you can expect from us.

We look forward to entertaining at your next party and making it a huge success.

Our testimonials page says a lot about how successful our parties are, and how much our customers enjoy the service they receive.

Susan & Jason

info@animals2u.com.au

0405 002 377

YES

You need to tell us:

If access is difficult

If you have a steep driveway

If the party is being held more than 15 meters from our vehicle

If there are stairs or steps

If we are to set up on a hard surface instead of grass.

If you need us to bring a tarp.

* Please note that additional charges may be applicable for areas which are difficult to access.

By disclosing and ensuring the above points are covered by you, it helps us come better prepared, keeps children and animals safe and helps the party run smoother and on time.

It is imperative that we have somewhere to park our cars and trailers when our animals and ponies visit.

Failure to plan ahead, and leave us a spot in front of your home or venue, to park our car and trailer, can cause unnecessary delays for your party (this time will not be made up) or may even cause us to cancel our visit.

Please ensure you make a note for yourself to cordon off a 3 (three) tandem car spot (in a straight line), the night before, or early in the morning, so we can drive our car and trailer into the parking spot, and there is enough room to straighten the trailer up.

You can use any of the following suggestions to cordon off an area:

1. Wheelie Bins spread apart with an A4 Page with “Animal Farm Parking” printed on it

2. Witches Hats

3. Your own cars, spaced out

4. Old Milk Crates

Even if you have not booked pony rides, we usually have a pony on board for other parties, and please have in mind that some of our visits involve, the unloading of fence panels, animals, horses, seats, bags and cages, and if we need to carry it a long distance we need to employ more staff, which increases the cost to you.

Please let us know in advance if this is the case so we can arrange to have extra staff on the day and quote it out accordingly.

Below is what some of our customers did to save us a parking spot.  It puts a smile on our face and we arrive happier than ever and most importantly start on time.

Yes!  It is a good idea to have soap, water and a towel available for hand washing.

Although we supply antibacterial gel, please supply fresh water in a bucket, soap and paper towels or a towel for your guests to wash and dry their hands after handling animals and before they eat.

With our Animal Farm, we bring over 20 animals along so that there are plenty of animals to pet, nurse, and hand feed on the day.

Our Large Animal Farm has over 30 animals within the enclosure.

Our animals include bunnies, frizzle chicks, Indian runner ducklings, fancy hens, lambs, kid goats, and guinea pigs.

We also have other animals such as puppies, alpacas, and toy ponies from time to time in the nursery.

Our animal visits are very interactive and popular amongst both children and adults.

Party Pets

Our Party Pets cater for smaller parties or functions, at any location either indoor and out doors, rain or shine with no mess or fuss and needs approximately a 3 x 3 meter area, and is best suited to small groups of no more than 15 children, there is no pen with this option, and can be set up in any size area, the size of the area is mainly dictated by the number of children present.

Animal Farm

Our Animal Farm caters for medium to large parties or functions, at any location either indoor and out doors, rain or shine with no mess or fuss and needs approximately a 4 x 4 meter area, and is best suited to medium to large groups of 20 to 50 children, there is a pen set up around the animals, with this option.

Large Animal Farm

Our large animal nursery is an 8 x 8 meter enclosure, and can be set up smaller if required as the panels can be arranged to suit most areas.

The pen can be set up with a centre enclosure, so that the larger animals can be fed without the fear of them jumping or nocking over the children, and small animals are on display for the children to feed and touch in triangular enclosures along the fence line.

This way we ensure that children who have not had much exposure to animals in the past, don’t suddenly find themselves surrounded by animals and get frightened.  We like to ease the youngsters into the animal handling experience, so that they are happy to stay.

This nursery is better suited to fetes, fairs, and public animal farms.

We are located in Bagshot, Bendigo VIC.

We come to you, and we service most areas in and around Melbourne and Bendigo.

Our prices start from $1210 including GST and up to 4 hours of return travel from our location to you is included free of charge.

Additional charges will apply if you are over 4 hours return from us.

E-mail us to get an exact quote or to check if we service your area.

info@animals2u.com.au

We ensure that your home, venue or pre-school is left just as we found it.

If you have soft fall or paved surfaces, we can supply a large tarp if you let us know in advance.

We do not use hay as we have found in the past that it gets blown around in the wind, and ends up everywhere.

We use a light cover of wood shavings over our own tarp or we just use an old towel to absorb any liquids.

No mess or Fuss!