An Afternoon at the Ranch

Last Saturday, our family had the opportunity to tour a local ranch! A couple at our church owns a Quarter Horse ranch in our town. They breed and train Reigning Quarter Horses. The owner is actually the top reigner in the world!

The lady giving us a tour used to work at the ranch, her husband is one of the trainers at the ranch, and they also go to our church!

The ranch is fairly small at 28 acres. They have about 55 horses, but most of them are kept in stalls, not in a pasture (often at the request of their owners.) Most of the horses are very valuable, some of them being worth $400,000+!

We started off by going to see one of the mares and foals. This was actually a surrogate mother. In the world of Quarter Horse breeding, a lot of artificial insemination and embryo transfer occurs. It was interesting to learn about.

This little filly was quite curious about my camera. J

Then we toured the barns. They were quite large and nice! Next we went to saddle up Miss A’s horse. Shiner is a 9-year-old Quarter Horse that is just a pet for her, but still a great horse!

Some of us kids got to ride her in the outdoor arena. It had been several years since we had been on a horse, so it was different but lots of fun!

After spending the afternoon outside, ice cream sounded really good. So we stopped at DQ for a treat on our way home. J

It was a wonderful way to spend the afternoon!