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I had the pleasure of interviewing one of our longest serving volunteers, Sibylle Wuethrich. Here are her responses to our questions about her life as a volunteer and horse boarder. We are immensely grateful for Sibylle and her wonderful family! 1) When did you first start volunteering at SCCR? Tell us about how you found us and your first impressions. Finding Second Chance Cheekye Ranch was a blessing for us. After losing my wonderful show jumper mare who I had trained and competed with for about a decade back in Europe, I had promised myself to stay away from horses to avoid anymore heartache. I secretly knew that it would only be a matter of time until I would reconnect with those special animals. Then in spring 2017, I found SCCR’s website which started a whole new journey for my family and me. I realized that Second Chance Cheekye Ranch was exactly what I needed to find my way back to horses. The goal of rescuing, rehabilitating, rehoming and putting horses first was very close to my heart. I wanted to be involved so I sent an email to SCCR. Three days later, I was welcomed by the dynamic, competent owner Kris Latham, and I was impressed with this beautiful place. We started mucking the Northside paddock on Saturday mornings and have been doing so ever since.
2) what does SCCR mean to you and your family? My two kids and I joined SCCR almost 6 years ago when they were only 8 and 6 years old so the ranch has become our second home. We have experienced SCCR grow from just a few paddocks to what it is today, a wonderful place for all kinds of rescue equines. Through SCCR we were able to find our two horses, Danny and Felix. Danny came to the ranch as a yearling and I was able to start working with him at an early age. Felix was born at the ranch and my son Jonas and my daughter Eva fell in love with her. Eva saved all her money for 2 years and was able to adopt her. Those two horses and SCCR mean the world to us, and we are immensely grateful to SCCR and Kris for making it possible for people like us to find their best horse buddies.
3) what does volunteering at SCCR look like? We usually arrive at the ranch around 7:30am for our Saturday shift. After saying good morning to the Northside herd we start mucking. There is often some play and grooming between the horses happening and we get to watch the horses enjoying each other. Some horses follow us around trying to get snuggles in. There is always something interesting happening in the herd, and observing them is a great way to learn more about horses. Sometimes it’s easy work with lots of horse interactions and other times it can be tough, especially in winter, but we get through it, do our best for the horses and are happy to have made a little difference it the lives of the rescues. Volunteering is a great way to help SCCR run smoothly. Kris and her team have so much on their plates that volunteers are an essential part of the ranch. Volunteering has been a wonderful way for our family to connect with the animals, the land, other horse lovers and ourselves. There’s never a dull day at the ranch and we love every bit of it.
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