August 2026 Update
There is always so much news to share!
The first few days of August were amazing. HOTY ended, our huge volunteer day happened, and we got an arena fence!!
This past week, we have spent the past week getting ready for our students to return.
It is HOT. It is August. We are rinsing the horses who do not sweat as well at least once a day, and every afternoon we are mixing up what I can only assume are very delicious horse concoctions of beet pulp, mash, electrolytes, and whatever else each horse needs to stay hydrated and comfortable.
Now classes are about to start, Honey needs some extra care, and there are a few really exciting things coming up.
So here is a little Cheyne Ranch catch-up.
🤠🐴🔥 HOTY HAS ENDED! 🔥🐴🤠
HOTY is officially over, and I am still taking in what this community did for our horses.
Together, you cast 694 votes and raised about $3,500 for the care of the Cheyne Ranch horses.
People chose teams, recruited friends and family, followed the leaderboard, made surprise comebacks, and kept voting right up until the end.
And our very first Cheyne Ranch Horse of the Year is...
🏆💛 EMOJI! 💛🏆
Emoji finished with 149 votes, followed by Lujen with 128 and Arrow with 112.
One of my favorite things about looking through the final numbers was seeing how many different people supported individual horses. Twilight actually had the largest number of unique online voters, followed closely by Emoji and Arrow. There were big gifts, lots of $5 and $10 votes, people who supported more than one horse, and people who recruited their own friends and family to join their team.
I also want to recognize our top five HOTY contributors: Vicki McGrath, Leigh Tepper, Heather Mitchell, Rebecca Ning, and Kelly Mawhinney. Together, these five supporters contributed more than half of everything raised through HOTY.
Thank you to every person who voted, shared, cheered, followed along, or became a little more attached to one of these horses over the summer.
This was our first HOTY. I have a feeling it will not be our last. 💛
See the final HOTY results and photos:
https://cheyneranch.com/blog/202683
🧡 Forty-Two People Built Something Together
The same day HOTY ended, something else pretty extraordinary was happening here.
Twelve Team Depot volunteers from our local Oviedo Home Depot came to Cheyne Ranch and spent the day building approximately 250 feet of four-board fencing around our new arena. The approximately $4,500 in fencing materials were made possible through a grant from The Home Depot Foundation.
And while they were digging post holes, lifting heavy boards, measuring, leveling, adjusting, troubleshooting, and somehow continuing to work through an August day in Florida, about thirty people from Cheyne Ranch were working all around them.
Our volunteers cared for every animal, cleaned the barn from top to bottom, painted twenty ground poles for the new arena, carried supplies, helped our guests, kept cold water and cooling towels available, and found one useful job after another.
A day that big also takes a surprising amount of food and hydration, and several people generously stepped in to help us take care of everyone who was working. Coach Kelly Live sponsored breakfast, Valerie and Skip Kohlmyer sponsored lunch, Erica Hall, LMHC sponsored snacks and treats, and MaryBeth McAdam sponsored drinks and hydration supplies. Because of them, more than forty volunteers had food, cold drinks, and a chance to recharge throughout a very hot, very long day.
There were 42 of us here.
Team Depot built the fence that surrounds our new arena.
Our Cheyne Ranch volunteers cared for everything that gives that arena its purpose.
And several wonderful people made sure all of us were fed and hydrated while we did it.
I am just beside myself with gratitude.
One of my favorite parts is that our security camera caught the entire arena project from beginning to end, so we now have a one-minute time-lapse of the day. Watching that fence appear in sixty seconds after knowing how many hours of hard physical work went into it is pretty incredible.
See the time-lapse, photos, and the whole story: https://cheyneranch.com/hd
🐴 Fall 1 Starts MONDAY!
After our little August summer break, regular Cheyne Ranch programs begin again this Monday, August 17!
Our riding lesson schedule is FULL! If you had a spot last spring and we talked about your student continuing this Fall, please still reach out.
We do still have a few openings in Wednesday and Friday Nature Club, along with a few PALS spots on Monday and Wednesday evenings.
📅 Important Fall 1 + Fall 2 Dates
Fall 1 begins: Monday, August 17
Fall 1 ends: Saturday, Oct 10
Fall Break: Sunday, Oct 11 - Sun Oct 18
Fall 2 begins: Monday, October 19
Thanksgiving Break: Nov 23 - 28
Fall 2 ends: Saturday, Dec 19
Current students keep their reserved lesson/PALS/Nature Club spot for both Fall 1 into Fall 2 unless you let us know you need a change.
Full calendar + details:
https://cheyneranch.com/blog/26fall1
🤍 An Important Update on Honey
Our incredible Honey is going to be taking some time off.
Honey has developed laminitis, sometimes called founder, which is a painful condition affecting the sensitive tissues inside her front hooves. She will likely be out of riding and regular program work for at least several months while we help her feet heal.
One interesting thing about horses is that grass and some types of hay can contain a surprising amount of sugar. Most horses handle those sugars just fine, but some horses, like Honey, have a harder time processing them. When that happens, it can cause painful inflammation inside the hooves, especially in the front feet.
So right now, part of taking good care of Honey means being very careful about sugar in her diet.
Which brings us to the most important Honey rule:
NO TREATS FOR HONEY! 🤍🐴
No carrots, apples, horse cookies, handfuls of grass, or other treats unless a Cheyne Ranch staff member specifically says it is okay.
Even when she looks at you like she has never eaten a single meal in her entire life. 😆
You may also see Honey wearing a grazing muzzle. It may look a little strange if you have never seen one before, but it lets her spend time outside while limiting how much grass she can eat. We will be teaching our students what it is, why she wears it, and how it helps protect her feet. Limiting pasture and dietary sugars is a standard part of managing horses at risk for metabolic laminitis.
Our wonderful sports medicine vet, Dr. Brooke Richards, is helping us take very good care of Honey.
For now, loving Honey means helping us protect her from foods her body cannot handle well.
So please remember: NO TREATS! 🤍
If Honey has a special place in your heart and you would like to help with her care while she recovers, we are always grateful. Give here
🌱 A Reminder as We Begin a New Session: Faster Is Not Our Goal
The beginning of a new session feels like a good time to come back to something we talk about often at Cheyne Ranch.
Faster is not our goal.
It is natural to think about progress in riding lessons as the next riding skill. When will my child trot? When will they ride independently? When will they move to another horse?
Those things can absolutely be exciting.
But the work we are doing here is bigger than moving as quickly as possible through riding milestones. Our mission is animal care and connection, and riding is only one of the ways we practice that. We are also watching students become safer around horses, communicate more clearly, remember routines, take responsibility, tolerate frustration, work through something difficult, notice what an animal is communicating, help another student, and gradually realize how much they are capable of doing.
Sometimes those changes happen while sitting on a horse.
A lot of them happen with two feet on the ground.
As we begin another eight weeks together, that is the kind of progress we will be looking for.
Read more about what progress looks like at Cheyne Ranch:
https://cheyneranch.com/blog/202661
🎸 Rockin' for Autism Awareness
And we have something really fun coming up!
Thank you to Matt and Larissa Morgan, Cheyne Ranch has been selected as one of the beneficiaries of Rockin' for Autism Awareness, happening Sunday, September 27 at The Barn in Sanford. The event will include live music, raffles, a silent auction, food, and an afternoon centered around autism awareness and community.
A portion of the proceeds will support scholarships for Cheyne Ranch students, helping more families access our programs. We will also be there with a Cheyne Ranch table, some of our volunteers, and an opportunity to share what we do with people who may not know us yet.
Doors open at noon, and we would LOVE to see some familiar Cheyne Ranch faces there. 💛🐴🎸
Tickets and full event details:
https://cheyneranch.com/raa
August has already been full, and we are only halfway through it.
Thank you for cheering for our horses, showing up to work, trusting us with your students, helping us care for Honey, and being part of this community in so many different ways.
I am very grateful for all of it.
See you at the barn. 💛🐴
🐴 CHEYNE RANCH, INC. 🌟
Teaching Animal Care & Connection
📬 1963 Genova Drive, Oviedo, FL 32765
📞 Call/Text: (407) 205-7744 | 📧 Email | 🌐 Website | 📘Facebook | 📸 Instagram
💙 Cheyne Ranch is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Consider donating: chra.us/give
Our mission: We teach animal care and connection in a safe, inclusive, and accessible community where people of all abilities grow in confidence, develop life skills, and form meaningful relationships.
