Chez Chevaux

07/10/2024

Do you live near the Lake Tye Park? Be on the lookout for us as we partner up with Newport Academy to parade through the neighborhood to collect food bank donations! This Thursday July 11th!

07/04/2024

We would love to see all of our Adopters, fosters, donors and supporters, Volunteers, apprentices, clients, and community members tomorrow at the big potluck style BBQ! We're kicking things off at 3! See you all there!

06/29/2024

Last weekend, several of our partner programs students participated in the 4-H summer show. These dedicated students have been incredible to watch as they learn and grow- all from the partnership that comes with Rescue!

06/13/2024

We have exciting news! A lovely artist by the name of Carol Hansson reached out to us and offered to run a fundraiser via her art! She makes beautiful hand stamped dog tags and bridle tags! Click the special order list below to be sure your sale is counted towards the fundraiser!

https://asyouwishcustomdesigns.com/shop/ols/products/chez-chevaux

You can also find her social media here:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AsUWishCustomDesigns

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/asyouwishstampeddesigns/

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/

Thank you, Carol, truly, for thinking of us! 💚 We feel so lucky to be chosen!

06/12/2024

Our friend Espeon is ready for her new home! She will need to be spayed per our adoption contract and will need shots. She is not thought to be currently pregnant. Espeon could be a good barn cat, but we suspect with time and patience would prefer to be an indoor princess. She's already got the hang of using her litter box!

Espeon is one of many feral cats that come through our area, and we do our best to either TNR or adopt them out. Small adoption fee applies!

06/11/2024

Yesterday, as one summer began, another ended. Summer Season, the second horse ever to be rescued here, passed away. He was the gentlest giant, and we'd like to think the beautiful sunbow we saw yesterday was his road home. Summer had a rough start to life, as a premarin baby, but thrived under our founders care for many years. He was a true oversized puppy dog, dropping his nose to the ground so the littles could reach him for leading, brushing, and bridling, but he reeeeeally hated baths! Summer was part of our lesson program, and then retired to live his best life with his buddies. Rest easy big guy, your quiet, gentle presence will be sorely missed by all of us here.

05/28/2024

Sad news this weekend. Our beloved gentle giant, Mr.Darcy flew over the rainbow bridge following a twisted gut colic episode. This is not the outcome we wanted for him, and we deeply grieve the giant hole he has left in our hearts and program.

And, since our wonderful vet came to attend Darcy, we made the difficult decision to let our sweet golden boy Shorty go at the same time. Unfortunately there was nothing left to try to save his feet and he was tired and told us he was ready.

This double whammy has left our staff and volunteers heartsore and sad. But we are forever grateful that we were able to love them both for as long as we did. Fly free boys, run wild together whole and healed.

04/28/2024

Join us to celebrate one of our founders tomorrow for his birthday! BBQ kicks off at 3, bring whatever you want to throw on the grill or a side, potluck style! New community and old welcome!

04/24/2024

It's time for summer camp! Join us!

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/kWTusQLEGFy8JFUf/?mibextid=xfxF2i

04/20/2024

It's finally here! More info and sign up on our website!

04/14/2024

Adoption days are our favorite days! Congratulations to Em and Nadira for the fastest foster fail we've ever had!

02/14/2024

Baby's first clip! Cadence got clipped for the first time today and was very brave about it!

02/14/2024

Spring break camp registration is open! Link in the comments

02/13/2024

Ladybug was a very good girl taking one of our lesson kiddos on their very first trail ride!

02/12/2024

Spring break camp registration is now open! Follow the link on the flyer or in the comments to get signed up for a week of fun at the farm!

01/21/2024

While the ice and snow have been beautiful, they have put a major cramp in our style, and created several major safety and maintenance issues. We have also had to almost double the amount of hay the horses have been getting to keep them warm enough to make it through the insane cold. The snow and ice also means we have not been able to have lessons and bring in our usual income.

Our resources are running low, like many rescues in the area. If you are able to donate, even $5 or $10 is super helpful! Our goal is to raise $500!

The best way to donate is directly to our paypal
or you can find it by the associated email, [email protected]

01/13/2024

Shorty was very jealous that the other horses were being fed first!

01/12/2024

Every once in a while we post about our sister program: Golden Owl Riding School. Golden Owl was founded on the idea that horses are for everyone, and that all horses have value and something to teach us, including rescues! Golden Owl partnered up with Chez Chevaux and all of their profits are donated to us to keep the lights on and hay bins full! Several of our rescue animals who have been deemed kid safe have joined their lesson program, and will stay until they get adopted! Mr.Darcy, Levi, Callie, and Cadence are all doing 4H this year with our students!

01/11/2024

This is Summer, a member of our sanctuary herd. He was a Premarin baby- his mom was forced to have babies over and over to produce the hormones needed to produce medicine. He was taken from her very young, and brought to live at Chez Cheveux. He was hand-raised by the founders, who cared for him and trained him over the years into a solid dressage competitor. Summer is a super easy going boy, and really easy to get along with which makes him perfect for his current job: hanging out in retirement and being loved on by all who come to visit!

01/03/2024

Our sister program will be offering summer camp onsite this year! We can't wait!!

Big news! We are a GO for summer camp this year! We will be doing eight full weeks, with multiple offerings each week! Dates and details coming soon. For the first time ever, we will also be offering Spring Break camp! Stay tuned for sign up information! There's even going to be a cowboy campout! We will also be accepting applications for 14+ year olds to learn to be counselors in training (CITs)!

01/03/2024

One of our apprentices loves to take pictures of all of the horses. I asked them to send me some cute photos of the horses and this was by far the best. Our wonderful Dolly giving us her show-stopping smile. Share some of your best pony smiles with us!

01/02/2024

One year ago today Zorafina was given a human of her very own- Katt, one of our apprentices! Katt has been spending time slowly bringing her along and putting a full re-start on her. We’re so excited to see what this team will do together in the future!

01/01/2024

Happy new year from all of us at Chez Chevaux!

12/25/2023

Congratulations to Gemma, who got a pony for Christmas! Gemma has been leasing Chutney for two years, so when they asked to make the leap to ownership of course we said YES! We love you and can't wait to see what kind of shenanigans this cute team gets up to! (Here is Chutney doing her very best reindeer impression!)

12/19/2023

I've struggled with how to write this post all day. How can I write something that conveys both deep gratitude for the incredible people that came to help, and deep grief for life lost.

I will start at the beginning- with fear. We do night checks at about midnight, and Saturday night was no different. Everyone was quietly munching away contently when we left. We arrived a bit later than usual Sunday morning, and one of our students was already there. I finished a last few bites of breakfast while Wolf took my student to collect the eggs. I was finishing up and putting my boots on when my student came running to get me and told me that Wolf (my partner, for those who don't know us, both in life and in business) needed me urgently We ran back to the barn, where I discovered what was so urgent. Flynn, one of our newest residents, had somehow gotten himself cast. For those that don't know horses, that means he laid down in a way he could not get back up. In this case, his back legs were stuck up on the wall. We managed to open the door out to the attached paddock to give us more working room and get his legs down from being up so high, but that was all we could do independently. He was exhausted and could not stand on his own. So, we gave him a couple syringes of molasses for sugar and energy, some pain meds, and called in the cavalry.

Our vet, Dr. Ewing, was called. Unfortunately, he was enmeshed in another emergency. At the time, he thought it would only be a couple hours until he was able to get to us, but eventually we learned he could not make it out to us at all. We continued calling vets throughout this process, and eventually Rainland Veterinary Services came to our rescue. But I'm getting ahead of myself. In the meantime, that meant no vet. With a broken down tractor (the wheel fell off) and no other options, we called WASART.

WASART is a nonprofit rescue organization that helps large animals that get stuck in predicaments. Several months ago, for example, they were able to rescue a horse out on a trail that had fallen through a rotten trail bridge. With their training, experience, and big equipment, we knew they were the right team to get Flynn help, if anyone could. They responded right away, and the first of their teammates arrived 30 minutes later. They did an assessment of the situation, and rallied the rest of their troops (many of whom were actually at a training and had to disassemble the tripod to get it to us). An hour or so later, they had arrived and put together a plan.

While they set up, we removed the front and divider walls in Flynns stall, to create more working space. Once we had done that, the plan was to wait for the vet, give Flynn some sedation, flip him over laterally into a skid, pull the skid out to the driveway where we had more working space, then hoist him upright using the tripod.

That was an excellent plan, but we waited for several hours with no response from our vet or the others we tried. So eventually we decided to do it without sedation as Flynn had been utterly cooperative with everything we had tried up to that point.

And things went swimmingly! They got him helmeted for safety and flipped over onto the skid sled safely, then pulled out to the tripod. He tested there for a while while they got him hooked up to the tripod, and then pulled him up so he was sitting sternal and upright.

At that point, he started eating, and we became hopeful. WASRT's crew tried multiple times to get him upright, but he just didn't have the strength to stand on his own. Rainland called at this point, and said they would have a vet in the way soon. We will also be eternally thankful for Rainland and their vet crew for showing up in our hour of need!

Eventually we concluded that he just didn't have the energy. He was stable, eating, and a vet was en route, so WASART propped him up the best they could, packed up, and headed out to get warm. I will forever be grateful for the sheer determination and effort of the WASART crew. They were kind, professional, and worked to problem solve every bump in the road. We hope to work with them in the future to offer a place to train.

Once the vet arrived, they completed a thorough examination. We spent a long time talking about treatment options and debating strategies. But we could see that Flynn was fading and was tired. He shoved the hay bales propping him up over and laid down flat again, and we knew it was time. With heavy hearts and with many hugs and tears, we gave the vet the go ahead to give him the Last Act of Kindness. Flynn passed peacefully surrounded by love at about 9:00 in the evening.

I have included photos in order of the events, with captions to document and help educate. If you are so moved to help with the vet costs for Flynn or any of our other rescues, you can donate directly to our PayPal at:
ChezChevaux/

As for the Humans, Wolf and I will be ok. Sad, but ok. This is the hard part of rescue work, but we accept it as part of it. Gratitude also goes out to all the other people who showed up to help- our apprentices and staff, and neighbors.

12/17/2023

We need your help! Poor Flynn, the newest rescue, is having a terrible, horrible, no good very bad day. Sometime during the night, Flynn laid down and got his back legs stuck on the wall so he is trapped and cannot get up. This is called getting Cast. The rescue team is en route to help get him up, but he will need to be seen by a vet, which is going to get spendy. Please donate if you can to the PayPal listed below, and if you can't share this post far and wide!

PayPal
ChezChevaux

08/15/2023

Horse savvy people with their own land/barns- If you're local (Monroe) and have room to foster short term while we fix fences that were broken and had to be dismantled, please reach out and let me know. We had a disaster here that I'll be posting about shortly but trying to avoid a secondary one.

07/24/2023

We have the most incredible news to share! Marmalade and Ben have found their forever family....together! We love when two go together! Can't wait to see what their futures hold!

05/13/2023

This is not the post I wanted to make today. We don't like to share the sad parts of rescue with you all, but this felt too important not to share.

Shining Armor, affectionately known as Shine, was given the last act of kindness and passed peacefully over the rainbow bridge yesterday afternoon.

He came in with his mama and another mom/foal pair from a feedlot. While his mama has good breeding, he was the result of studs carelessly being turned out with mares. His poor conformation (facial deformities, overall conformation) and dropped fetlocks (DSLD, early diagnosis) were causing him a significant amount of pain. He hadn’t grown much and was considered a Failure to Thrive case. These diagnoses combined meant his quality of life would have only gotten worse, so we chose to let him go.

He was absolutely a barn favorite. He was so kind and social from the day we got him, even while the other 3 hackneys were feral. Rescue is hard, we see a lot of tough cases but he was a gem. We will miss our snuggly little ray of sunshine dearly, but know in our hearts it was the kinder thing to do.

While he was with us, Shine had a great team of professionals helping him be as comfortable as possible and a whole cheer squad of clients, volunteers, and apprentices rooting for him. So many people love you little guy, forever and for always. Shine was buried on the property, right next to a big shady tree. Rest easy baby ❤️

04/14/2023

Great news! We are partnering with Jennifer Kapelos to provide Eagala style therapy sessions a
Here! Here's what she had to say about herself:

I have a master's in psychology and a Doctoral in Health Administration. I also completed a master's in counseling. My Doctoral Dissertation was on Animal Assisted Therapy. I have a lifetime of horse experience as my mother rode pregnant and strapped me on when I was a few months old. I rode by myself at age two the easy farm horses. I trained for Olympics in high school and green broke racehorses. I am certified Eagala Equine-Assistant and Mental Health. When using Eagala the theory requires only groundwork for therapy to work. I have been trained and using Eagala for five years now. I started working in the field of mental health in 1993 and started using animals at that time. I have worked in group homes, prison, hospital, offices and done activity therapy. I have worked with most diagnoses doing both individual and groups. I use Solution Focused, mindfulness, and motivational interview techniques. I believe the client knows what is best for them and the horses help to guide them through their processing.

Welcome to the team!