privacy
Privacy policy
Last updated: 29 September 2026
This policy explains what personal information the International Chaar Appaloosa Horse Association collects when you visit chaar-appaloosa.org, sign up to our newsletter, donate, buy from our shop, or join one of our trips, and what we do with it. We've tried to keep it short and plain. If anything is unclear, write to us at contact@chaar-appaloosa.org.
Who we are
The International Chaar Appaloosa Horse Association is a non-profit association registered in France (registration no. W353023160), at 61 Beauséjour, 35250 Saint-Sulpice-la-Forêt, France. We are responsible for your personal information (the "data controller"). Our day-to-day work with the horses happens at Chaar Ranch in Kyrgyzstan, run by our partner organisation, the Chaar Appaloosa Foundation (public association ОО «Чаар Аппалуза», Bishkek).
What we collect and why
| When you... | What we collect | What we use it for | Our legal basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sign up to our newsletter or to watch "True Appaloosa" | Your email address, and your name if you give it | To send you the film link and our newsletter | Your consent. You can unsubscribe at any time with the link in every email. |
| Donate or become a monthly supporter | Name, email, postal address, amount and date of your gift. Card details are handled by the payment provider, never by us. | To process your gift, send a thank-you and, for French taxpayers, a tax receipt (reçu fiscal) | Our agreement with you, and our legal duty to keep accounting and tax records |
| Join Own a Foal | As for donations, plus the details of your commitment | To manage your four-year commitment and keep you updated on the programme | Our agreement with you |
| Buy from our shop | Name, email, delivery and billing address, phone number if given, and what you ordered | To take payment, make and ship your order, and handle returns | Our agreement with you, and our legal duty to keep accounting records |
| Contact us through a form, email or WhatsApp | Whatever you choose to tell us | To reply to you | Our legitimate interest in answering your questions |
| Apply for the Expedition, Spirit of Kyrgyzstan or the Volunteer programme | Name, contact details, nationality, emergency contact, riding experience, insurance details | To assess your application, organise the trip and keep you safe while you're with us | Our agreement with you |
| Fill in a pre-trip safety questionnaire | Health and fitness information relevant to riding and remote travel | So our team knows about anything that affects your safety, and can act in an emergency | Your explicit consent, which you give on the questionnaire. You can withdraw it, but we may then be unable to confirm your place. |
| Enter a giveaway | Your email address and entry details | To run the draw and contact the winner | Your consent |
| Browse the site | Pages viewed, device and browser type, approximate location, and how you arrived | To understand how the site is used and improve it | Our legitimate interest, for basic statistics |
| Accept marketing cookies | What you view and buy on the site, linked to Meta (Facebook and Instagram) | To measure our ads and show our posts and products to people likely to be interested | Your consent through our cookie banner |
We don't sell your personal information, and we never ask children to give us their details. Our trips are for people aged 16 and over, and anyone under 18 needs a parent or guardian's written agreement.
Who we share it with
We only share your information with the organisations that help us do the things above, and only what they need.
| Who | Why | Where they're based |
|---|---|---|
| Squarespace | Hosts our website, shop, forms, newsletter and site statistics | USA |
| Stripe, PayPal or Squarespace Payments | Process card and PayPal payments | USA and EU |
| HelloAsso | Processes donations from French taxpayers and issues tax receipts | France |
| Printful | Makes and ships shop orders | USA and EU |
| Meta (Facebook and Instagram) | Our Instagram and Facebook shop, and measuring our ads, only if you accept marketing cookies | USA and Ireland |
| Vimeo and YouTube | Play the videos embedded on our site | USA |
| Our email (Gmail) and spam protection on our forms (reCAPTCHA) | USA | |
| Chaar Appaloosa Foundation, our partner (public association ОО «Чаар Аппалуза») | Runs Chaar Ranch and our trips on the ground, so needs participants' names, emergency contacts, and relevant health and insurance details | Kyrgyzstan |
| Authorities | Only where the law requires it, such as tax authorities | France |
Sending information outside Europe
Some of these services are based outside the European Union, mainly in the USA. Where that happens, they protect your information under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework or the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses.
If you join one of our trips, we share the details needed to run it safely with our team in Kyrgyzstan. Kyrgyzstan isn't recognised by the EU as having equivalent data protection, so we only share what's needed to organise your trip and keep you safe, and we do it because it's necessary to provide the trip you've booked with us. Health information is only shared with your explicit consent.
Cookies
When you first visit, a banner asks which cookies you accept. Cookies needed for the site to work (for example your shopping basket) are always on. Statistics and marketing cookies, including the Meta pixel, only run if you say yes. You can change your cookie choice at any time from this page, which is linked at the bottom of every page of the site.
How long we keep it
| Information | How long |
|---|---|
| Newsletter sign-ups | Until you unsubscribe, or 3 years after you last opened an email or contacted us |
| Donations, tax receipts and shop orders | As long as French accounting and tax rules require, up to 10 years |
| Own a Foal commitments | For the length of the commitment, then as for donations |
| Messages to us | Up to 3 years after our last exchange |
| Trip applications and bookings | Up to 3 years after the trip, in case of an insurance claim or dispute |
| Health information from safety questionnaires | Deleted 6 months after the trip ends, unless it's needed for an accident or insurance claim |
| Marketing cookies | No longer than 13 months; we ask again after 6 months |
Your rights
You can ask us at any time to:
- see the personal information we hold about you
- correct it if it's wrong
- delete it
- stop or limit how we use it, or object to us using it
- give you a copy in a format you can take elsewhere
- withdraw your consent, where we rely on it (this doesn't affect anything we did before)
To do any of these, email contact@chaar-appaloosa.org. We'll reply within one month. To stop getting our newsletter, just click "unsubscribe" at the bottom of any email.
If you're not happy with how we've handled your information, please tell us first so we can put it right. You also have the right to complain to the CNIL, the French data protection authority, or to the authority in the country where you live.
Changes to this policy
If we change how we use your information, we'll update this page and the date at the top. If the change is significant, we'll tell newsletter subscribers by email.
Contact us
International Chaar Appaloosa Horse Association
Email: contact@chaar-appaloosa.org
Privacy contact: Nicolas Poirier, President