Tuffy, the only horse registered in public school, had a storied career travelling to various schools spreading literacy through the southeast region of the US. According to his owner, Kyle Holley, Tuffy graduated and is moving back to his home in East Milton where he’ll be working with cattle. In telling this part of Tuffy’s story now, Holley said he wanted to give thanks to the community.
Holley said it was while he was the chairman of the Santa Rosa County Education Foundation when he came up with using his American Quarter Horse, Tuffy, to encourage literacy. Holley said he enrolled Tuffy into East Milton Elementary School as a first grader in 2004 under the premise all living things have a place and so Tuffy deserved an education.
“It’s not my fault if I’m a different species,” Holley said.
Becky Hayes, equine instructor at Hayes Ranch was Tuffy’s trainer. She said, “He fit right in. He loved the schools and was well-suited for it. When we went to school, he let (the students) pet him.” She noted not many children in some of the schools Tuffy visited got such an opportunity. “I think he liked his job.”
Holley noted in visiting with 200,000 plus children, there were no negative incidents, which he attributed to Tuffy’s temperament and Hayes’ training.
Tuffy’s purpose began as a “character development delivery system focusing on six points: respect, responsibility, trustworthiness, caring, fairness, and citizenship,” Holley said. What started as a lesson plan and baseball cards featuring Tuffy with pertinent information eventually became a book depicting Tuffy’s story from birth on a farm to going to school. Holley said, “(It was) so engaging once we started doing this. It was a great tool. Teachers, students, parents, everybody wanted more, then all that energy delivered a story book.”
Holley wrote the first version but after some criticism he received help from Leslie Kaufmann Pitts. “She was a fifth grade teacher who loves kids.” He described Pitts as also a poet. “The credit goes to her for making the story rhyme.”
Specifically, the book was geared toward recognizing dialogue in text. Holley said since students are familiar with the dialogue of teachers and parents Having Tuffy in a school environment would hopefully transition readers into understanding more examples of dialogue. He also noted the book uses photos instead of illustrations to further enhance storytelling between parent and child.
Holley said he figured the program would last a year but had no idea it would stretch out to ten. He said Tuffy visited with students all over Florida as well as Texas, up into Tennessee and elsewhere. He specifically wanted to thank the Amarillo School District, where the program was critically tested.
Reader Shannon Murphy said Tuffy has been a part of her family’s lives since 2004. Her son, Isaac Miller, she said is now 21 years old and graduated from high school in 2013, but he had to go to the October Santa Rosa Fall Festival hosted by the Families First Network to see the horse. He attended EastMiltonElementary School when Tuffy enrolled. At the festival, Murphy said she encouraged Holley to let people know what’s going on with Tuffy now. “Everybody needs closure. Everybody needs to know he was successful and they can be, too.”
Murphy said her children were fascinated by Tuffy being a horse. “(It was a) big deal. He read and went to school,” she said. Though she couldn’t directly correlate Tuffy and her children’s interest in reading, she said, “I think he gave them something positive to look at. My kids read all the time…As a parent, it made my heart smile.”
Tuffy also became a symbol of pride. Murphy said for her children he was a source of pride since he came from their school. “He not only represented reading but East Milton.” She said while the area may be known for its poverty, “East Milton is more than that. If you need something, they will help. You always know someone wherever you go.”
Kathy Purden, current SCREF executive director, said Tuffy also brought attention to the teacher grant program, a State of Florida initiative where funds raised in the local community for the grant would be matched by the state. She said before Tuffy went out in the community, the teacher grant program had little public awareness. Now, she said, as Tuffy goes to work, the materials he helped teachers procure for their classrooms are still in use to this day.
One of the stories Holley told was from a visit to a Navarre school. He said Tuffy interacted with a deaf girl with whom Holley had no idea had never spoken after the school’s best efforts. He said when she began to vocalize with Tuffy, her teachers began to cry because nothing had worked so far. Holley said the horse had a strong enough appeal, “almost out of the mainstream,” to elicit speech.
Holley said the book also was well aided in adult literacy.
Holley said as Tuffy’s popularity grew, his story progressed, graduating from one grade to the next. A local phone company put Tuffy on the cover of an issue and therefore found his way into 220,000 households in northwest Florida.
“We thought that was enough for second grade, but how do we get him to third? We needed a goal.”
Tuffy’s moves to third, fourth, and fifth grade were all government related. Holley said Tuffy graduated to third grade when Florida Agriculture and Consumer Services Commissioner Charles H. Bronson invited Tuffy to the state capitol, to fourth when Governor Scott’s wife asked Tuffy to tour with the Just Read Florida program, and to fifth when she asked him back to the capitol.
Holley has not ruled out a second book. He said he would like it to feature Tuffy at work and “a balanced perspective on the value of natural resources in Florida.”
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Tuffy goes to work