Computer in our tack room - with our barn chicken! a hen who refuses to go into the chicken coop. She lives in our barn - and apparently helps with computer work too.

There’s a lot happening behind the scenes at Cheyne Ranch. About 100 students each week, horses and other animals to care for, workers and volunteers to schedule, and all the registrations, waivers, invoices, payments, and donations that come with running a nonprofit.

Our programs are often full, with families waiting for openings.

And tucked behind it all is something families might not expect: our own software system, built in-house using a fancy, colorful database called Airtable.

I love how the things we’ve done along the way find their way into what we do next. For Cheyne Ranch, that includes a software background I never imagined would have so much to do with running a barn.

Graci in the cockpit of an airplane - I couldn’t find a digital photo of me in the Air Force - so here is Graci in 2011 :) And no, I definitely did not fly planes in the Air Force, but I still like this photo.

Once upon a time, I was in the Air Force, where I trained as a Spanish linguist. I ended up working for a colonel who served as an Inspector General and built him a Microsoft Access database to get some of his workflow onto a computer. This was around the year 2000, when keeping records on paper was still the norm, so moving them onto a computer was kinda high tech.

After leaving the Air Force, I went to work for a medical software company. From 2002 to 2019, I worked with doctors and nurses, helping set up their data and teaching them to use what were then “new” electronic medical records.

For five of those years, that work included an Access database that captured every detail of labor and delivery for a big urban hospital in Kansas City. Turning those details into statistics made me very familiar with childbirth through thousands of other women’s experiences. A little ironic to have so much pregnancy and birth data in my head, since during that time we adopted all 4 of our children! 😂

When Cheyne Ranch started growing beyond spreadsheets, I looked around for software that could handle what we needed. Nothing seemed to quite fit. So, out came those old database skills, and the building began.

I like to describe Airtable as a digital box of Legos. Over time, those Legos became a palace with rooms and space for everything related to how Cheyne Ranch operates. This is what I affectionately call our “Airtable empire.”

There’s a place for student information, registrations, programs, the lesson calendar, waivers, invoices, and payments. A student’s registration connects to their program, invoice, payments, and remaining balance. Our animals’ care, donors’ gifts, and workers’ and volunteers’ schedules have their own places, too.

And all these rooms connect. Information can be entered in one place and used in several others. Automations help move things along, and when the ranch needs something new, there’s room to build it. The system has grown along with Cheyne Ranch, shaped around how we actually work.

Families mostly see the horses, the students, and the time we spend together. Behind the scenes, these systems help keep the details organized so more of our energy can go toward the people and animals here.

Building all this is what I do for “fun.” After hours, like around midnight. Because who needs hobbies? Oh wait - this is my hobby.

Data entry still tortures me, though, and unfortunately, databases only work if there is data in there to work with. 😂 So there’s always another opportunity to make that part easier.

The latest addition, built with Claude’s help, is a payment staging table. Incoming payments land directly in Airtable, ready for review and recording. The information is already there instead of waiting to be entered from scratch. Hopefully, that means less time catching up on payments and getting accurate invoices out to families sooner!

So when I get into a conversation and say, “I built our software - on Airtable!!” this is what I’m talking about. Years of putting those little digital Legos together to help keep Cheyne Ranch running, from student registrations to animal care and everything in between.

Who knew your friendly neighborhood nonprofit adaptive riding barn had a whole digital palace behind it? 😂

The Airtable Empire Behind Cheyne Ranch

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