Sonoma County CHANGE Program

03/07/2025

Great tips!

Do you have a barn fire plan? It's a great time to prepare! Be sure to create your plan, post it and use Red Flag warnings for practice.

These are some steps to help you prepare:
✔️ Ensure hoses are hooked up at nearby spigot
✔️ Fire alarms placed at both ends of your barn
✔️ Test fire extinguishers and be sure you understand how to deploy them
✔️ Make sure aisles and rafters are clear of ladder fuels
✔️ Hay is stored away from barn as it burns hot & requires more water to extinguish
✔️ Barn door intact to shut barn down such that horses cannot return
✔️ Maintain current electrical wiring and fixtures
✔️ Evacuation plan(s) and emergency contacts are posted
✔️ Defensible space on property to secure animals if evacuation not possible.
✔️ Room for fire rig to enter and turn around

For more information, please visit out website at www.napacart.org

12/24/2024

Merry Christmas from the Sonoma County CHANGE Program!🎄🎄🎄

This is "Argus," CHANGE's very first foster horse. Argus was seized in 2007 from a horrific hoarding situation where he had lived in a 12 x 24 pen for 15 years straight. He was just a weanling when he was locked in. At 15, he was finally free. To date, it's one of the most dramatic rehabs we've ever done.

Argus' foster (and later adoptive) home kept a blog (savingargus.blogspot.com) chronicling his rehabilitation and new life. Here is a poem from the Christmas 2008 blog.

🎄🎄🎄
TWAS the night before Christmas
And all through the barn
Not a creature was stirring
Anywhere on the farm

The stockings were hung
On the stall doors with care
In hopes that Saint Nicholas
Soon would be there

The horses were all snuggled
Into straw-banked beds
While visions of sweet feed
Danced in their heads

And Argus was in his blanket
Chubby Half Pint going bare
Both hoping and wishing
Santa soon would be there

When out in the arena
There arose such a clatter!
They leapt into their paddocks
To see what was the matter!

The moon on the puddles
In the wet winter pasture
Made the night light so blinding
They breathed faster and faster!

When what to their
Brown horsey eyes should appear
But a jolly red sleigh
And eight hungry reindeer

In the driver's seat sat Santa
All dressed up in red
And he winked at the horses
As they spied from their beds

Then something odd happened
The horses grew brave
And Santa addressed them
Which made them quite grave:

"Now Argus! Now Half Pint!
Now Odie and Angel!
Now Ginger and Caleb!
And Ridge in the stable!"

"To your herd mates be kind
And don't waste your hay!
Take care of your riders
And love each new day!"

As dry shavings that before
The wild hurricane fly
When they meet with the winds
Mount to the sky

And suddenly the horses
Who before felt quite shy
Felt themselves flying around
With Santa in the sky!

So around the farm
The horses they flew
They looked down on the home
They loved and they knew

And then, on the house top
They thumped on the roof
And the family inside
Heard the pounding of hooves

"What's that?" they shouted
As they woke from their beds
"We thought we heard horses
Loose overhead!"

So out to the stables
The family they ran
Where they found it quite empty
Save for the horse goat, An'

They peered at the sky
For a sign of the equines
And for a moment, saw Santa
Riding Argus just fine

Then suddenly, and quietly
The horses were there
Munching hay and looking sleepy
As if they had no cares

So the lights were extinguished
The excitement went "p**f"
And the family missed Santa
Spying down from the roof

To each horse, he gave a gift
And when he got to the last
It was Argus, the white one
He'd seen on many a Christmas past

"You're a good horse, dear Argus"
Santa said with a tear,
You have suffered so long
So many a year"

"I promise you will always
Have a loving, peaceful life
With pastures and buddies
An end of all strife"

Argus thought quietly
About all the nights
And the bleak Christmases of waiting
For the arrival of light

This, his second Christmas
Of freedom and cheer
He'd been a real horse, a free horse
For more than a year

Santa sprang to his sleigh
To his team gave a whistle
And winking once more at Argus
He flew away like a missile

The horses heard him exclaim
As he drove out of sight
"Merry Christmas, dear Argus!
And to all --- a good night!"

🎄🎄🎄
THANK YOU to our community for supporting CHANGE so that we can help horses like Argus.

12/03/2024

🐴🐴🐴🐴🐴🐴🐴🐴🐴🐴🐴🐴🐴🐴🐴🐴🐴🐴🐴🐴🐴🐴
On this Giving Tuesday, we are grateful to all who've supported us since our inception in 2007. You've helped us make a remarkable difference for horses in Sonoma County.

Over the course of those 17 years, the costs associated with the care and rehabilitation of the horses in our program have skyrocketed. As all horse owners are most assuredly aware, feed, veterinary and farrier care, board, and everything from fly masks to winter blankets are all far more expensive, especially in the last few years.

We humbly ask, if you are able, to help us continue to provide the crucial safety net for horses seized by Sonoma County Animal Services by donating. Any monetary amount is greatly appreciated
We will also gladly accept donations of items in good working condition. In addition, we are always in need of foster boarding facilities and volunteers who are specifically computer proficient and tech savvy.

Please visit our website for donation options, and to see our two horses currently available for adoption.

https://sonomachangeprogram.com/

❄️☃️Thank you, and Happy Holidays to everyone!❄️☃️

10/27/2024

🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰We were honored recently to be chosen by Ava McCarthy, who is the 2024 Miss Wine Country Rodeo Queen, to represent the Sonoma County CHANGE Program at a fundraiser event earlier this month.🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰

🐴🐴🐴🐴🐴🐴Ava chose us after seeing first hand the metamorphosis of both Tate and Emma earlier this year. Thanks to Ava’s consideration and wonderful representation of CHANGE, and what we do, she collected several monetary donations toward our program.🐴🐴🐴🐴🐴🐴

Every donation, no matter how small, helps us tremendously! We are an all volunteer organization and 100% funded by private donations.

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️Thank you so very much Ava and all who donated! Your support of the CHANGE Program is greatly appreciated!❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

While Tate and Emma found their forever homes, Teddie (before and after pictures below)is still waiting and hoping for a family of her own. Please read more about Teddie on our website:

https://sonomachangeprogram.com/content/teddie.asp

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10/03/2024

✅️OWNER FOUND! HORSES ARE HEADED HOME ❤️✅️
🚩FOUND HORSES🚩
Millbrae Ave x Langner Ave in SW Santa Rosa, at the Kingdom Hall Jehovah's Witness church. The horses are safe and being held by a neighbor.

If these are your horses, please contact Sonoma County Animal Services at 707-565-7100.

08/11/2024

❤️🐴❤️🐴Does everyone remember the two horses abandoned in a horse trailer, during a heat wave, in the Windsor Home Depot parking lot in July of 2019?❤️🐴❤️🐴

Well, Meera is back with the CHANGE program and available for adoption. Her amazing family who adopted her, through no fault of theirs, need to return her to us, and as for all horses who’ve been in our program, we always make sure that they have a lifetime safety net with us.

Meera is a grade grulla mare, approximately 19 years old and about 14’2 hands. She has some scars that appear to be from being roped and tripped, and while she’s still the sweetest and most trusting girl you’d ever want to meet, she’s not rideable due to these injuries. She’s otherwise healthy and happy and would love to become a new member of a loving family who can provide her with a home for life.

More information about Meera can be found on our website:

https://sonomachangeprogram.com/content/meera.asp

07/30/2024

🐴🐴🐴 Teddie is still with us at the CHANGE Program🐴🐴🐴

Teddie now has the distinction of being the longest tenured horse in CHANGE’s history! We don’t entirely understand why that is? She’s sweet & easy, and while she definitely has her fans on this page, she’s not yet been adopted.🧐

Teddie came into our program in April of 2022 terribly underweight and in need of veterinary care to address an eye injury and severe dental problems. She is now totally healed and healthy. Teddie’s a Paso Fino mare, 13’3 hands, and currently 28 years old.

A Quick Summertime Topic: flies

We took some pictures of Teddie today, with and without her fly “clothes”. While everyone has opinions about fly masks, sheets and boots, our foster barn reports that even when it’s hot and flies are at their worst, Teddie, and the other horses on the property, are not witnessed swishing, twitching nor stomping, but immediately do so whenever any of their fly gear is removed for grooming. So, while it can be expensive to purchase, and can be arguably hotter, the horses don’t have irritation/annoyance/midline fly sores, and perhaps less chance of being infected with Pigeon Fever. It is definitely a personal preference though.

If interested in making Teddie a forever part of your family/herd, please do consider adopting Teddie. At her age, she’s available as a companion/non-riding horse only.

https://sonomachangeprogram.com/horses/adoption/

If you have or are a current donor to the Sonoma County CHANGE Program….thank you so very much for supporting us and making the rescue, rehabilitation and support of horses like Teddie possible.

If you’re not in a position to adopt a horse like Teddie, you can still help her with your donations! Any and every amount helps defray the costs of routine veterinary and farrier costs, supplies like winter blankets, fly spray and of course board for foster care, and last but not least….carrots!! Teddie’s favorite thing in the whole world!!

Please check out our website to read more about Teddie, CHANGE’s history and mission. You can also donate through our website: PayPal, Venmo, snail-mail.

https://sonomachangeprogram.com

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❤️❤️more pictures and videos of Teddie in the comments❤️❤️

07/16/2024

06/26/2024

❤️❤️❤️ Our boy Tate is officially available for adoption❤️❤️❤️

Tate’s foster mom Caryn Reade Hoeflein at Sky High Ranch has done an amazing job getting Tate ready for adoption!

🦄He’ll be a wonderful addition to someone’s family!🦄

Please fill out an adoption application here:

https://www.sonomachangeprogram.com/documents/CHANGE-ADOPTION-QUESTIONNAIRE-2018.pdf

06/17/2024

🔥POINT FIRE LIVESTOCK/ANIMAL EVACUATION HELP🔥

If you need help evacuating livestock/animals, call:

Sonoma CART
707-861-0699

NorCal Livestock Evac 707-234-7193

Information provided by the Sonoma County Sheriff.

06/04/2024

🤗Once again, we’re so grateful to Sky High Ranch for your help and expertise!🤗

Tate is approximately 10 years old and we’re confident he’s going to be a wonderful addition to someone’s family!

He will be available for adoption VERY soon, so get your adoption applications in soon!

https://www.sonomachangeprogram.com/documents/CHANGE-ADOPTION-QUESTIONNAIRE-2018.pdf

05/24/2024

We're so proud of Emma!!