Heaven Can Wait - Equine Sanctuary for Healing and Learning |
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LATEST NEWS SUBSCRIBEVOLUNTEERWe are always looking for energetic people to help us with feeding, grooming, etc.» Volunteer Now  BECOME A FAN Heaven Can Wait Latest NewsBe sure to stay current with our monthly newsletter.
Thoroughbred Classic Horse Show
The Thoroughbred Classic Horse Show is proud to announce that our full website is live! Please check it out at www.thoroughbredclassic.org. We are asking for your help to spread the word about the horse show. The first show will be held April 20-21, 2013 at Mission Viejo Riding Park in San Juan Capistrano. We will be offering Hunters, Jumpers, Dressage, Combined Tests, Western, Showmanship, and a couple of fun classes, too! There is something for everyone—from professionals to weekend warriors! We want people to come out, celebrate the athleticism, versatility and spirit of retired racing Thoroughbreds. We want them to become part of the "The Thoroughbred Movement!" The festivities will include an Exhibitor's Welcome Dinner and Hunter Derby/Jumper Stakes VIP Luncheon with Silent Auction. Please help drive traffic to our FB Page. Also, encourage registering for more information on our website. We will be sending out emails to the contacts that you have helped to provide us with. Please post to your Facebook, on your websites, and send out an email to your supporters letting them know about this CARMA event which will help support all aftercare partners. Let them know that they will be expecting communication from the TCHS as a supporter of your specific organization. Click here for the flyer of the announcement form that you can email out. Also attached are images specifically sized for FB. Please let us know if you need a banner created for your site and what size specifications you will need. Thank you for helping to work together to make this a success. Warmly, Nicole Schwartz Event Director Thoroughbred Classic Horse Show Phone: 818.456.9184 Where: Mission Viejo Riding Park in San Juan Capistrano Date: 2013-04-20 Phone Number: 818.456.9184 Who will care for horses while the rescue owner battles breast cancer? 'Heaven' needs helpBY NICK POWELL
Sitting in a chair, with medical-grade poisons coursing through her body, Susan Schwartz was scared—but not for herself. In the dazed agony of her first chemotherapy session, she kept returning to the same question: How am I going to care for my horses? As the founder and operator of Heaven Can Wait Equine Sanctuary for Healing and Learning, Schwartz manages the daily corralling, feeding, and cleaning of 27 horses. Some were once abandoned and starving. Others were racehorses too old to be useful, and some simply belonged to people who could no longer afford to feed and care for the animals. All were headed toward slaughter or rot until Schwartz gave the horses a home, a place where they could spend their last days happily munching hay and running as a herd over 14 acres of grassy hills in the outskirts of San Miguel. The facility opened in 2002 with three horses and grew rapidly. Read the entire article at newtimesslo.com Date: 2012-12-19 I have found, or should say they found me, wonderful caretakers to take care of the equines and keep HCW running smoothly during the journey I am undertaking. They are a couple with their own RV mind you, who recently moved to the area and heard of my needs. She is a nurse, yeah for me, and has vast, vast knowledge of horses. The husband is going to Seminary School, but he too has vast knowledge of ranch work. They have 2 teenage kids who are home schooled and they will be moving onto the property shortly after Xmas (the are currently housesitting for a friend). It is an answer to my prayers and is a great situation for them as well. It was a wonderful Christmas present for both Mark and I. I owe my husband much gratitude for his help and hard work during a tough time…..he is not a horse person nor does he care much for manual labor, but he has taken on all that responsibility and still makes his weekly trips to his office in Southern California. Yes, he is a good man. I hate tax season when he is gone for 3 months, but at least we both know I and all the critters will be well taken care of during his absence. As I mentioned in my last e-mail, nothing is changing at HCW. The groups who want to visit should plan to do so and all the programs will continue. You will all like Rhea and she, like me, will still need volunteers to help her. So Volunteers, you are sorely needed and will learn as much, probably more, from Rhea as you would from me. So girl scout troops who were going to visit and got rained out…….please reschedule. You are more than welcome and on my good days I will participate in events as much as I can. I thank you all for your good wishes as to my health, your help in trying to fill my need for 24/7 help and for your continued support. I will keep everyone informed as things happen here and, as I mentioned before, unless I find a new newsletter editor, our Facebook page will continue to be the source for pictures. I wish I was a better photographer….I miss so many photo opps. There is much comedy around here watching the ponies take on all the big Thoroughbreds. I swear the ponies look in a mirror every morning and see themselves as Draft Horses. More to follow…..wanted to get this out quickly to all of you who have been so wonderful and worried. Susan Date: 2012-12-17 The Pewter Gift Horse Open Studio Sale The Pewter Gift Horse Hand Crafted Jewelry, Gifts and Accessories
Date: 2012-12-15 Address: 4475 Traffic Way, Atascadero Heaven Can Wait Wins Top-Rated Award from GreatNonprofits
Thanks to all of your amazing reviews Heaven Can Wait as been selected as the 2012 Top-Rated Award from GreatNonprofits! Check out your great stories: View the certificare: Thank You So Much! Date: 2012-11-02 KSBY News - The bonds of friendship: one more reason why Heaven Can Wait HCW was featured on KSBY's evening news on Friday. Please watch and share this touching segment. Click here to view the video segment. Date: 2012-09-15 First and foremost, I wish to thank my wonderful friends and volunteers, Jason and Rachel and their 3 wonderful kids, for caring so much about HCW that they submitted an e-mail to KSBY worthy of catching someone’s eye in the news department. The result of that wonderful gesture was a news piece done on a Tuesday when the young adults from the Independent Skills Program of Paso Robles Unified School District come to Heaven Can Wait for their weekly time with the equines. For those of you who might have missed the news last Friday evening, the link to the segment is http://www.ksby.com/news/the-bonds-of-friendship-one-more-reason-why-heaven-can-wait/ I am hopeful that this exposure will help keep HCW open for these kids and all the others, children and adults alike, who come here to visit their equine friends and learn a few things here and there not only about horses, but themselves as well. I also wish to give big thanks to Valerie Harris and the CA16 Chapter of the National Barrel Horse Association for putting on a wonderful show at the Benefit Barrel Race held for Heaven Can Wait on September 9, 2012. Those horses flew around the barrels and having never really watched a barrel race from beginning to end, I was quite impressed with the quality of the riders and their horses. Wow, some were really fast. My congratulations to the winners and my humble thanks to all of you for participating in the event and sharing the proceeds with our equines who are so deserving. Thank you, too, for planning the Benefit Silent Auction for us at the California NBHA State Championship Finals in Tulare on October 7, 2012. Your group is absolutely awesome. On a sad note, Rolo was sent to heaven on Friday, September 7. He was a truly remarkable horse who arrived here about 7 years ago with the worst case of navicular disease any veterinarian had ever seen. The fact that he stayed comfortable and with us for so long was due in large part to his unbelievable will to live a life he probably never knew in his past. His therapeutic shoeing was changed many times over the course of time because of the changes created by the disease itself. One would watch in wonder as he trotted off each time he was reshod. The farriers and, of course, the veterinarian behind all the creative ways to keep him comfortable, would stand in awe to watch him move around ever so gallantly and with such inner strength and fortitude. We knew he was never totally pain free, but his attitude always made one think he was, until that Friday. He was truly amazing and ever so stoic. He will be missed by many. Well, since I have a whole bunch to do yet before the day is over, I will end this masterpiece of a “newsletter” with good thoughts that all is well with everyone and that you are planning a visit to HCW in the near future. Susan Schwartz Date: 2012-09-14 Your National Barrel Horse Association is holding a Silent Auction to he held at the California NBHA State Championship Finals at Tulare County Fairgrounds in Tulare, CA. Date: 10/07/2012
Where: Tulare County Fairgrounds Date: 2012-09-12 Address: 215 Martin Luther King, Jr. Ave Phone Number: 805.235.6943 District CA16 is producing a BENEFIT RACE for our NBHA CA STATE CHAMPIONSHIP FINALS CHARITY on September 9th. The race will be held just north of Paso Robles at RANCHO DEL SALINAS located at 5378 Monterey Road, Paso Robles, CA.
Where: RANCHO DEL SALINAS Date: 2012-09-09 Address: 5378 Monterey Road Adventures with Horses Program
Date: 2012-08-11 Medicine Horses - Experiences with Wellbeing "I recently moved to Atascadero from Orange County, I had my therapist in the Orange County Vet Center which is over 260 miles away refer me to Heaven Can Wait; they told me of Susan who was trying to get a program together to help Military Veterans and suggested that I should try her out; I am glad I did. Testimonial from Del F. Keep your eye out for the latest issue of Equine Enthusiast, also featuring HCW and Medicine Horse Warrior Horse. Date: 2012-04-17 Join us for a fun filled morning of meeting, greeting, grooming and walking horses, donkeys and mini's, and watching or joining round pen activities. We will also be learning about horse manners, body language and safety skills. Date: 2012-04-07 This is an excerpt from a letter from Karen Cathcart. Karen and her daughter visited with the SLO County Mommies group on Saturday, February 18. She was so thrilled and impressed by her daughter’s response to the equines, that she has become an avid supporter. She wrote the following letter in our support and is sending it to a variety of organizations, encouraging their involvement with and support of Heaven Can Wait.
We have spent years in attachment therapy and occupational therapy. While these therapies are very valuable, I was shocked at how valuable our outing to the Heaven Can Wait Horse Sanctuary was for me and my daughter. In one morning, we accomplished what we would have in months of conventional therapy. Date: 2012-03-20 A Special Message From Susan Schwartz Dear HCW Supporter:
I am daily amazed at the response our programs are getting from the community. More and more groups arrive for tours and from those tours, families and individuals return to participate in the programs. We had a significant visit in February from the “SLO County Mommies,” resulting in one mother commenting on the profound effect the visit had on her daughter. This family is now returning on a regular basis. You’ll read her letter in this month’s newsletter.
Special Announcement! This coming Friday, March 23, a group of mental health professionals are being trained in the Medicine Horse Warrior Horse program. We are thrilled beyond belief about their enthusiasm in promoting this program and bringing veterans. Medicine Horse Warrior Horse has generated interest from veterans and therapists in other states, in Alberta, Canada, and as far away as YellowKnife in Canada’s Northwest Territory.
Our newsletter has gone from a few pages to nine pages to cover all of the news about our activities. All this activity is certainly an indication of our success. Success, however, is a double-edged sword. As I watch a long-held dream become reality…the dream of offering learning, hope, and a place of sanctuary to the many, many children and adults in our community who are challenged by life circumstances…I am even more aware of how important our programs are and how important it is to keep our equines healthy so they can help those who are coming through our gates.
As of the end of February, we are only at 8% of our income goal for 2012. We needed to be at 16%. By the end of March (about two weeks), we need to be at 24%. Our program growth is much faster than we anticipated. The recent spurt in growth is fueled by budget cuts to school and community programs. The children and adults who have relied on these school and community programs have no place else to go except to Heaven Can Wait. We are the only equine facility offering our special one-of-a-kind version of equine-facilitated wellbeing!
Our programs are more than simply brushing a horse or taking one for a walk. Those who participate in our programs learn critical life skills for improving communication skills, setting and respecting personal boundaries, building confidence, self-understanding, and an improved sense of self-worth.
Unfortunately, because our programs are growing so fast and so suddenly, we are speeding upon the “point of no return.” This is the point at which we will no longer be able to support our programs with the manpower and dollars we have. Just for the Tuesday Someone To Smile For group of 10 to 12 young people, we use three to four volunteers in addition to the teacher and her assistant. We are going to need at least 10 new volunteers, trained to assist with Medicine Horse Warrior Horse, and more to help with the growing visitors, tours, and participants in our other programs. The cost for us to meet our growing program needs and to be able to continue to operate them have already outstripped our current abilities.
Make no mistake…we still have the capability to meet the new program needs … we are under the threat of losing the ability! This ability is sustainable by more volunteers to learn to help with the programs, serve as docents for visitors and tours, to provide critical professional skills and creative solutions, and more $$$$$!
Just as you have all helped the equines survive and thrive over the years, you are in a special position to make a profound difference in the lives children and adults who are challenged by life’s circumstances, the specter of disease, and the physical and emotional ravages of war. Your contributions now guarantee that our equines are able to help children and adults in need to survive and thrive.
Thank you for caring, Susan Date: 2012-03-20 Medicine Horse Warrior Horse is an equine facilitated workshop to help you develop personal touchstones for coping with grief, fear, depression, stress, trauma, and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Through guided meditation, and group and individual activities with horses and donkeys, you learn how emotions, such as anger, fear, and grief have become part of your body-memory, and techniques for helping you move towards wellbeing. As you practice the techniques during the workshop you encounter very real experiences in personal understanding, strength, peacefulness and serenity that you can carry forward into daily life. Date: 2011-09-26 Sample healthy and delicious appetizers provided by The Wellness Kitchen and sip wine poured by Clayhouse Winery. Listen to live music with Nashville recording artist and local singer/songwriter Amy Estrada.
Date: 2011-09-22 She Needs Your Help!  Date: 2011-08-16 There is much to say to bring everyone up to date about what is going on at Heaven Can Wait. Our little mother and son mini-team, Chili and Ortega, have joined Snickers with the same affliction—laminitis (founder). As you know, there is no way to know for sure why it happens as it is caused by many different things. Now there are six little front feet that need x-rays every three to four months and trims every 3 weeks. Consider yourselves fortunate if you have never had to deal with this problem—it is very expensive and HCW needs help to pay these upcoming bills. Please read the August Newsletter As some of you may already know, I had to use some of HCW’s limited funds for air time on KPRL to ask for donations. Yes. HCW is facing some economic challenge Yes. I am really scared for the first time in nine years. Unexpected increase in hay prices, three new rescues, unexpectedly bringing home three foster horses due to insufficient care (all six of these horses needing immediate veterinary attention), plus other medical emergencies have stretched our budget very thin, despite your very generous support. As of this month, HCW has about $3,000 in our bank account. The good news is that because of your support and some grants we have enough hay for most of the rest of this year. The bad news is that we still need five months supply of the senior feed that makes up the largest part of the diet for some of our senior rescues, plus funds for routine and emergency veterinary and farrier care, supplements and necessary equine incidentals, and medical supplies. We need an additional $15,000 to make it through the end of this year! Your donation of any amount goes a long way towards helping us meet this goal. With mixed emotions, I must announce that Debbie Beamis has resigned from the Board of Directors due to other commitments. Debbie’s contributions have been invaluable. Most recently, she compiled an Excel list of all of Heaven Can Wait’s contributors and supporters. This list is an important asset to Heaven Can Wait because it is integral to Heaven Can Wait’s business and survival as a nonprofit that depends on all of your contributions and support. Because of Debbie’s efforts in compiling this list, we are able to keep in closer contact with all of our supporters. Thank you Debbie for your service on the Board of Directors, and most recently for your dedicated work on our contributors list! You will be missed. Thanks to all of you who dined at Chili’s! You appetites earned Heaven Can Wait a $100 donation—30 of our hungry supporters spent more than $600 to feed our rescued horses and donkeys and themselves. Good food! Good people! Thanks to Amtrak and the Paso Robles Main Street Association, HCW had a presence at this year’s Lavender Festival. It was an unexpected windfall so we had to scramble, but we were there. Thanks to everyone who stopped by the booth! We’ll see you soon! Susan
Date: 2011-08-09 Does Your Child Love Horses? Date: 2011-07-16 Heaven Can Wait was in the New Times As you may or may not know, Heaven Can Wait was in the New Times again this week; well Pair O’Docs was anyway. I am including the link to the article. http://www.newtimesslo.com/news/6282/grandson-of-a-king/ We really do desperately need help! Date: 2011-07-07 Restaurant Chili`s Cares Donation Day Pick up your coupon(s) to enjoy a delicious meal and drinks at Chili’s restaurant, in the OSH shopping center on Theater Drive in Paso Robles and present it on Tuesday, June 28th. Chili’s is donating 15% of the entire bill to HCW. Coupons available at the Open House, the Sanctuary, Consignage (1041 Paso Robles Street, Paso), Pillow Talk (1210 Park Street, Paso) or by calling 805/712-3109. Click here to download and print the coupons. They do not need to be in color so can be printed from anyone’s computer. Please distribute them to one and all. Thank you, Chili’s! What a gracious gift to the equines. Where: OSH shopping center on Theater Drive Date: 2011-06-28 FREE admission! Plenty of free parking including handicap parking. June will be here before we know it! Mark the day on your calendars and be our guest for lots of tasty free food and local wine, music, local vendors, craft and massage demonstrations, raffle prizes, and more! Date: 2011-06-12 Time: 11:00 am Address: 6275 Cerros Pioneros Way
Heaven Can Wait 5th Annual Open House
Heaven Can Wait 5th Annual Open House The line-up of entertainers, vendors, unique raffle and silent auction , demos, wine pouring by San Marcos Creek Vineyard and food for this great event now includes: David Manion and Jack Morrow (live music), Derek Hood (magician), Freckles the Clown (Christina Reid – facepainting and kids fun), Amy Foster (massage), Jackie Iddings (Wind Rider Therapies Myofascial Release); Peggy Talkovic with Scentsy, Mark Cruzen with Steel Design by Cruzen, Heather Young and Dove Chocolates, Second Chance at Love Humane Society; raffle prizes including Sea Venture Resort, Sycamore Mineral Springs, steel horse sculpture by Mark Cruzen, original painting of HCW rescues by Terri Quinn-Faucette, cigar lover’s gift basket, Vista del Rey Vineyards, Amy Foster Massage, food by Chris’s Smokehouse, finger food from Dining with Andre; demos and samples of therapeutic massage, Scentsy flameless scent systems and more.
If so, Heaven Can Wait Equine Sanctuary for Healing and Learning Where: Heaven Can Wait Date: 2011-03-12 Time: 9:30 Address: 6275 Cerros Pioneros Way Hurry! Buy Your HCW 2011 Calendar Order your copy of the The Heaven Can Wait 2011 Calendar. These beautifully photographed Calendars make perfect last minute gifts (especially if you add something from the store where you get them). They are only Date: 2011-02-04 "DREAM" On that sunny Monday morning an urgent call summoned HCW's veterinarian for Dream. His condition urged options be carefully explored and weighed as the process of diagnostic tests stretched out. Flickering promises played erratically on emotions as heavy doses of rubs, scratches, and caresses were doled out. Stark reality landed, nothing could reverse the emerged diagnosis. Teetering emotions plummeted into grief's abyss. As the 20 years of having Dream had drifted by the evoked image of owning a live carousel horse became more distinct. This quality mingled with his desire for human attention and strokes evoked a magical magnetism that attracted roaming eyes around like bees to honey. He basked in feeling special under attentions as individuals reaped the same feelings in return. Over the years he racked up more fans than I can count. I kid you not! Back in 1991 Dream was carefully selected as a 3-year-old. His beauty was such that he would keep my Mom's eyes off my horses (this had been a problem until Dream!). In addition, I knew his pedigree spelled out a disposition that with training should keep my Mom safe. He outdid both jobs and gave so much more than expected working his charm the whole time! Last July HCW graciously agreed to accept him as my Mom at age 79 could no longer keep him. Dream quickly embedded himself into their hearts. He excelled in that calling as well, over and above anyone's expectations. God only knows why he was not allowed to continue his special retirement role that he filled so very well. Life is truly a miraculous thing and death is incomprehensibly final. There are never enough nor adequate ways to say a 'forever goodbye'. Not long after purchasing Dream I consistently derived the sense that he would have liked the ability to be a literal 'pocket pony' enabling him to be consistently close to the humans he loved. Now he is a true pocket pony, tucked for life and living in very special pockets of all those hearts he enchanted. Date: 2011-01-30 To all our friends and supporters, old and new - the January newsletter will be in your emailbox soon, we promise. 2010 went out on a painful note, even after HCW won the $100 Sweepstakes Award with Mark K's ferris wheel design lighted float in the Paso Robles Christmas Parade, and 2011 came stumbling in with more sad news. Then came the heavy rains sluicing through the Sanctuary, requiring a carefully choreographed schedule of turnouts so that all the residents could stretch their legs yet remain as safe as possible with the muddy conditions. Date: 2011-01-07 This year has been difficult for everyone, including your friends at Heaven Can Wait – but it has also shown us a way to take our work in a new and inspiring direction, focusing on bringing equines and people in our community together for healing and learning. This is a great step forward in our mission. But we need your help now, more than ever. At this special season, we ask you to remember the horses and donkeys with your tax deductible donation – help us keep our promise to them and to the people whose lives they improve every day. Blessings and Warmest Holiday Wishes for Health and Happiness to everyone, from all of us at Heaven Can Wait Equine Sanctuary for Healing and Learning. Date: 2010-12-20 HCW wins the $100 Sweepstakes Award with Mark K's ferris wheel design lighted float in the Paso Robles Annual Lighted Christmas Parade. Date: 2010-12-07 Lighted Christmas Parade - Paso Robles Paso Robles holds the annual Lighted Christmas Parade through downtown on December 4. Starting at 7 PM, a series of almost 70 brightly decorated floats from many organizations, clubs and businesses will make their joyous way from the start of the parade at 10th and Spring Streets to the end at 9th and Park Streets. HCW volunteer Mark K is creating another great float this year (his float for us in 2009 won the Santa’s Award). Come watch the fun and cheer HCW on. Parade goes “rain or shine.” Date: 2010-12-04 Time: 7PM New! The Heaven Can Wait 2011 Calendar  Order your copy of the The Heaven Can Wait 2011 Calendar. These beautifully photographed Calendars make perfect last minute gifts (especially if you add something from the store where you get them). They are only Date: 2010-12-01
T-shirts are available at HCW or order online (we can deliver locally or arrange mailing). They are $15 each, short sleeved with vibrant turquoise and teal logo on a sand colored background. Whenever you get a T-shirt, it benefits the horses and donkeys.
Date: 2010-12-01 Happy Thanksgiving to all our friends! Ever since she began rescuing equines, Susan Schwartz has wanted to bring horses and donkeys together with adults and children. Everyone can benefit -- as many studies and successful therapeutic programs have proved over the years. HCW is now set up for just the kind of human services programs Susan has been dreaming of all this time. Now that we have reached the limit of how many animals we can take in, we are redirecting ourselves to focus on the important work of helping people and equines heal and learn together. Our website, our brochure, our newsletter will all have a new look. We have programs for almost everyone - the newest is called "So Your Child Wants a Horse" and is designed as a family workshop to prepare everyone involved for happy horse or donkeykeeping. Also offered: HoPE (Horse Power for Everyone) geared toward cancer patients and survivors, The Word Herd created to give kids a place to read aloud to non-judgmental horses, and special needs sessions where folk enjoy horse-assisted therapeutic activities and learn about equines at their own pace. There's even a place in the Sanctuary called The Nest where artist and writing supplies, books and magazines and music, places to sit and draw and write and read are always available and visitors are encouraged to express themselves creatively. We need the help of our friends now more than ever - and there are easy ways to do that and still make a big impact for us. Like becoming an Angel for Equines for only $10 a month. Join this special club and get a club card, discounts on HCW merchandise, invitations to Angels Only events, personalized tours and special mailings. Purchase our 2011 Calendar for yourself and friends. It's only $15 and we pay the tax. Consign your unwanted furnishings at Consignage (1041 Paso Robles Street, Paso Robles) on behalf of HCW. Sell Avon for up to 4 weeks with 25% of your sales benefiting HCW. Donate your unwanted vehicle to Cars4Causes on behalf of HCW. And always, we thank you for all you do... Ramey Zamora Date: 2010-11-24
HCW Now Closed on Sundays
A day of rest – we all deserve one, and some of us need one just to keep on going...Beginning November 1st, Heaven Can Wait Equine Sanctuary for Healing and Learning will be closed to the public on Sundays. We are more involved than ever before in so many projects and efforts that one day must be set aside so HCW is ready to receive and host visitors and program participants.
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Susan Schwartz was diagnosed with cancer in November and spent the next month frantically searching for someone who could help run her horse shelter while she undergoes treatment. A caretaker recently stepped up to the task but wishes to remain anonymous.
inside a covered area, has materials for 
We have plenty of our handsome HCW T-shirts available in all sizes from Small to XXXL. A generous donation toward their printing means a larger portion of the proceeds from sale of these shirts can now go to the Sanctuary.