You can paint a horse at The Shady Oaks Farm in Atascadero 

Growing up in Vermont, Chelsea Montgomery started riding horses when she was 5 years old.

"That was just it for me," Montgomery said. "You know, they say you either have horse DNA or you don't. I do."

Montgomery has more than just horse DNA—she loves all animals. She's taught kids to ride horses, worked at vets offices, and run a horse boarding ranch in her life. And now, her spot in Atascadero, The Shady Oaks Farm, has horses, miniature horses, goats, alpacas, and more. Since 2021, Shady Oaks has invited the public in to share that love through goat and horse tours and a new kind of artistic endeavor: The Art of the Horse.

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• Photo Courtesy Of Chelsea Montgomery
• PAINT ON Sip and paint hits a little different at The Shady Oaks Farm in Atascadero, where a horse is your canvas.

"Use the horse as your canvas," Montgomery said.

You can literally paint a horse at The Shady Oaks Farm.

Her daughter came up with the activity one day as they were driving home from Fresno, where they'd gone to look at a miniature horse. Montgomery was originally going to offer miniature horse driving at the farm, but it didn't quite work out.

"The miniature horse that we bought decided she didn't want to be driven," Montgomery said with a laugh. "She crashed a couple of times."

As they were coming back from a failed attempt at purchasing another mini, they brainstormed other ideas that the public might enjoy participating in. Her daughter suggested that people could paint their horses.

"I literally said, 'That's the stupidest idea I've ever heard of,'" she said. "I told my friends about it, and they thought it was brilliant."

Turns out, everybody likes it, even the horses. Montgomery compared it to having a facial, where the clay mask gets painted onto your face. It's soothing and soft, and the horses often fall asleep as people paint them.

Usually, depending on the size of the group of painters, each horse accommodates four people. Shady Oaks can host kids and family paint events as well as paint and sip get-togethers, where a group of friends brings their own wine, and she provides the hypoallergenic paint, horses, and snacks.

"For many people, it's intimidating to have such a large, blank canvas," she said. "You come, we meet all the horse, and there's some people that a full-sized horse is really scary. So we use the miniature horses for them, and also the kids."

In addition to three miniature horses and a handful of Iberian horses, Shady Oaks is also home to more than 22 goats. They get milked daily and are the Get Your Goat Tour stars. Both the horse and goat tours are hands on, where you can learn more about the animals and meet them.

The Shady Oaks Farm doubles as a spot for goat and horse breeding, with the goats getting bred once a year and the horses much less often. She said one of her horses might get bred every couple of years.

Montgomery purchased the property in 2018, after she and her husband divorced and they sold their horse boarding facility and ranch. She said she made an attempt to live in town with her kids, two dogs, and two cats but didn't last very long. They missed the open space and being surrounded by horses, goats, and more.

"I don't know how to function without them," Montgomery said. "There's something so cyclical, there's a cadence and rhythm to your life when you have animals, especially livestock, that depend on you."

She added that she couldn't have pursued her dream of having the farm without her mother, Marguerite Lyons, who passed away in 2019. Lyons was a local artist, so it's fitting that her love for art lives on at Shady Oaks with The Art of a Horse.

"It's kind of an homage," she said. "It kind of brings full circle to my family to bring my mom, art back into [our] lives."

Check out the theshadyoaksfarm.com to book a tour, and visit the farm on Instagram @theshadyoaksfarm. The Shady Oaks Farm is offering 20 percent off to customers who make an Art of the Horse booking before the end July. The event can be for any time, it just needs to be booked in July.

Fast fact

• Mathnasium of Atascadero is open for business, serving children ages 2 to 12 and focusing solely on math with the belief that virtually any child can exceed in mathematics. The Mathnasium is currently hiring math instructors for the summer and fall. The Mathnasium Method, implemented at more than 1,115 Mathnasium centers worldwide, provides each child with a customized learning plan and personalized instruction in a way that makes sense to them. Every child is assessed to pinpoint their strengths and weaknesses, and the results provide the foundation for their personalized learning plan. To learn more, call Michael Rosen at (805) 471-6108 or drop into the center at 7041 El Camino Real. Δ

Reach Editor Camillia Lanham at [email protected].