Short of a miracle - which in an ideal world might be the offer of a paddock and stable or new funding - a mental health programme in Whangarei is likely to lose its healing powers within a week.
The Horses for Healing Trust (H4H) will make the hard decision on Friday on whether to shut the stable door on a programme that has seen many people benefit from spending time around horses through one-on-one tutoring.
Board member and facilitator Cathy McColl said Friday's crucial meeting will probably decide "not if but when" the scheme will end. Like many other charitable and community organisations, H4H's funds have run dry in a harsh financial climate.
In the six years since it was started, Horses for Healing had received funding from a range of sources such as Lotto, ASB Trust, Sky City and the Oxford Trust. - "Sometimes for hundreds of dollars, sometimes for thousands, enough to keep us going," Ms McColl said.
But the three H4H facilitators have recently been carrying some of the costs themselves.