Clover Brooke Farm

What will I experience

Walking alongside a donkey offers a unique path to calm and clarity. Their unhurried pace and quiet presence naturally slow your body, quiet your mind, and regulate your breath, reducing stress and inviting a sense of peace. Simply being with them, without any need to explain or perform, provides a surprising feeling of relief, grounding, and emotional focus.

Benefits of this experience

Walking with a donkey slows your body, quiets your mind, and regulates your breath. Their steady pace and silent presence reduce stress and invite calm. Simply being alongside them—without needing to explain or perform—can offer a surprising sense of relief, grounding, and emotional clarity.

Incorporation in daily life

You can incorporate this sense of calm into your daily life. Try taking unhurried walks without your phone, consciously noticing your surroundings, and breathing with awareness. You don't need a companion to feel accompanied—just the simple habit of slowing down and paying attention.

About the destination

Clover Brooke Farm, located in Hyde Park, NY, is a testament to what flourishes when care, learning, and family come together with the land. What started in 2007 with two goats, Clover and Daisy, and a young daughter helping with chores, has blossomed into a working fiber and therapy animal farm, shaped by love, effort, and intention.

Founded by Andrea Parent-Tibbetts and Michael Tibbetts, both lifelong educators, the farm is built on a belief in shared experience. From clearing overgrown fields and rebuilding barns to raising sheep, fiber goats, llamas, alpacas, and honeybees, the farm has grown through hands-on learning and community effort. Their animals are more than livestock—they're companions, teachers, and even therapy partners. In fact, some of their llamas were among the first certified therapy animals on the East Coast.

Since opening to the public in 2019, Clover Brooke Farm has offered thoughtfully curated experiences, from donkey walks to fiber arts workshops. These programs are designed to reconnect visitors with the living sources of food, fabric, and friendship. This isn't agritourism in a commercial sense—it’s an invitation to remember a way of life where people gathered not just to consume but to contribute. It's a place where learning happens by doing and joy comes from rhythm, relationship, and real work.

Set in the beautiful Hudson Valley, the farm encourages you to walk slowly, listen fully, and learn by being close—to the land, the animals, and yourself.

Ancient texts and treatises:

Ancient text name: Rig Veda (Approx. 1500–1200 BCE)

• Context: One of the oldest known Vedic scriptures, containing hymns on cosmology, nature, and human life.
• Mention of connecting with animals: Numerous hymns (e.g., 1.164, 10.142) revere animals—cows, horses, birds—as embodiments of cosmic order (ṛta). Living with animals was seen as part of living in harmony with the universe. Such reverence fostered peacefulness, contentment, and an attentive, non-dominating relationship with the world—a foundational aspect of mindfulness.

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Modern scientific researches:

Title: Farm animal‑assisted intervention: relationship between work and contact with farm animals and change in depression, anxiety, and self‑efficacy among persons with clinical depression

• Author(s): Ingeborg Pedersen et al.
• Date of Publishing: August 2011
• Abstract: Fourteen adults with clinical depression participated in a 12‑week intervention involving twice-weekly sessions working with and caring for dairy cattle. Participants engaged in farm tasks and animal contact. Results showed decreased anxiety and depressive symptoms and increased self-efficacy. The combination of work and animal interaction promoted mindfulness, emotional regulation, and resilience through steady engagement with animals in a natural setting.
• ‍Link to Paper