Happy 3rd Birthday Grace!!!

(I just LOVE this picture!!!!!)

Grace celebrated her third birthday with us at the 181 Ranch, and what a great time it was!!! We had about 15 kids running around, parents, BBQ, Cupcakes, football on the lounge TV, lead line rides, coloring, pin the tail on the donkey, and even a hay ride!! It was quite a good time!! The two hours sure wend by quick and everyone seemed to have a wondeful day, especially the birthday girl!! It was a pleasure hosting Grace’s third birthday, and we hope to see everyone again soon!

 

 

Happy Birthday Jenny!!!!

Happy Birthday to Jenny!!! Thank you for choosing the 181 Ranch to celebrate your birthday!! We had a wonderful time hosting you and your friends! We hope you enjoyed yourselves as well!!!

Jenny had a small party for just a few close friends…we had a lead line ride, western coloring pages, horse shoes, washer toss, mini ponies, and even a hay ride!!!  What a great time!!!  Happy Birthday Jenny!!!

Free Kittens!!!!

Our precious little barn cat has had some kittens!!!!! They are absolutely adorable!!!  Even though we would love to keep them all, we don’t really have room!  They are being cared for daily by our human hands and are in good health.  They are free to a good home!! Let us know if you are interested or would like to come see them!!!

Welcome Hailey!

The 181 Ranch was very excited to welcome Hailey (and her mom Kristen!) to come and visit.  Hailey got to meet Rooster and go for a quick ride.  She is quite the natural!  After a quick ride she helped unsaddle, bathe, and put Rooster up for the night.  I see a lot of potential in Hailey and hope that we get to see you all again soon!! Thanks for coming to visit the 181 Ranch!

Good times at the 181!

 

This blog post is a week or so late, but… rather late than never!!!  A few Sundays ago we got everyone together at the ranch!  We swam, laid in the sun, and enjoyed some of Mark’s AMAZING hamburgers!! After dinner, TJ, Lori, and Joe went to go milk the dairy cow, and the rest of us of course went fishing!!  I think everyone at least caught something!!!  It’s great to get everyone together like that, even if it is only every once in a while.  I didn’t get many pictures of the evening, just mostly fishing photos of us all showing off our catches!!  And of course, the horses that were turned out in the pasture were very curious to see what we were doing!! 

I also snagged a few photos of our new additions to the 181 Ranch.  They have received many different names, including “Thelma and Louise” and “Ham and Bacon”.  These two pigs wandered up to the barn a few weeks ago one early morning.  Joe St. John had been out riding Doc (see the sale page for information about Doc!), and was just finishing up and relaxing, when — behold! — two pigs appear.  With efforts from most of the ranch staff, they wrangled the pigs and quickly found a home for them in one of our stalls.  Efforts have been exhausted in the hopes of trying to find where these two oinkers came from…  if anyone is missing pigs, let us know!!! Otherwise, we are just working on fattening them up for some tasty treats this winter  

 Enjoy   And give us a call if you’d like to come out for a trail ride or lesson!!

Bullett–The Giant Puppy Dog

Last week out at the ranch, I had my camera on me and went to the pasture to snap  photos! There is nothing like a sunset in the country, especailly when there are some beautiful horses in view!  This photo journey was essentially an epic failure.  Bullett, one of my favorite horses, just HAS to come up to you when you go out in the pasture.  He truly is like a giant puppy!  He follows you around, nibbles, and just wants to give all sorts of lovin’!  Plus he is quite curious about the camera.  I ended up with some pretty entertaining photos that I thought I would share.  Maybe one or two good ones of the sunset.  Sigh — but I sure love that horse!

Diem, Mylani, and Auburn

Yesterday we had the pleasure of welcoming Diem, Mylani, and Aubrun out to the 181 Ranch. 

Diem and her daughter Mylani had never been on  horses before…so we were excited to get to introduce them to the experience!  Diem got to ride Sugar, and Mylani rode Rooster! You would have thought that they were seasoned professionals!  Auburn, who rode Doc, had gone to a horse camp once before and appeared to have a great handle on her horse.  We did a 30 minute session in the arena so everyone could get comfortable and used to the feeling of controlling their horse.   I was impressed at how well they all did!! After our arena ride, I took rooster and Auburn and I took a nice little trail ride! It started to rain a bit, but Rooster and Doc are troopers and kept on going!!  I enjoyed getting to meet the three of you and can’t wait for you to come ride again soon!!!

Love from my camp kids!

They were so wonderful!

I got a beautiful picture frame, an awesome coloring of a horse (which is on my fridge at home!) and a gift card to Teavana!!   What a fun group of kids.  Thank you guys so so so much! You have brightened up my world a bit!!

(please ignore that we had been swimming, and i was swimming in my clothes!)

Camp 181- Basic Horsemanship (days 3 and 4)

Days 3 and 4 at Camp 181 were a great time!!!  On day 3, we got the horses all saddled and ready so that the kids would get plenty of riding time!!!  In the arena, everyone recapped what they had learned the day before.  We tuned up our turning skills and queuing, practiced weaving in and out of some cones, all the while practicing great posture! Everyone did a spectacular job.   With Jessica’s help – everyone was able to trot their horse.  Everyone did some great trotting circles around the arena, and was even able to trot some on their own too!  After out “trotting” lesson, we set up the cones again for a horsemanship pattern.  The horsemanship pattern really tested everyone’s ability for walking, stopping, turning, backing, and really making their horse obey.  I was so impressed with how well everyone did!!!  Everyone has some great show potential!!!  We finished up and unsaddled, then went to go make our home-made horse treats!!!  We used molasses, sugar, flour, and some “horse goodies” (apples, carrots, peppermints).  Although our treats didn’t exactly turn out the way we had hoped, it was still a good time!!!  Day three ended with some swimming of course!

Day four, everyone showed up and practiced their grooming skills they learned on day two.  Everyone had to get the dirt and hay off their horses, and untangle their manes and tails.  We saddled up and went for our adventure in the pasture.  We rode all around the land behind the ranch.  It was a really really hot day! But everyone did so great, even the horses!  Once we came back from our trail ride, we unsaddled and gave everyone a bath (the horses that is!).  It was snack time again ….  AND time for the 181 Summer Camp EXAM!!!!! AHHHHH!!!!   The exam reviewed EVERYTHING we had learned during the week.  Everyone did a spectacular job and answered all the questions right.  After they finished their exams, everyone was presented with their Achievement Certificate and a 181 Ranch t-shirt!! The day finished off with, you guessed it, SWIMMING!

I want to tell all the kids how proud I am of them! You are did spectacular and handled your horses very well.  I’m also so so so thankful for my wonderful gift!!  The cute little coloring page is already hanging on my fridge!! I look forward to seeing you all again in the future!!!

Thanks for coming to Camp 181!!!!

Camp 181- Basic Horsemanship (days 1 and 2)

The 181 ranch has had a FABULOUS time with our half day basic horsemanship camp.  It has been great having Jordyn, Sydney, Emily, Brinkley, and Conner out at the ranch!!! We have learned all sorts of fun facts about horses.  On day one, we talked about the ways to identify a horse… from their color all the way down to markings on their face and legs.  We went and met Jazz and Debbie, our two mini ponies, and then we met the big horses!!!  Everyone got introduced to “their” horses for the week.  Emily is paired with Rooster, Jordyn has Sugar, Brinkley is riding Doc, Conner has Tater and Sydney is with Bullet.  We finished the day off with snacks and swimming!

This morning, everyone showed up and we learned horse grooming skills with Doc and Rooster.  Then we saddled all the horses and mounted up for our first ride!! Everyone did a fantastic job of handling their horses!! I was truly impressed.  We learned how to cue the horses for walking, turning, stopping, and backing.  We practiced these skills to prepare for tomorrow’s horsemanship tests, and hopefully some trotting!!  We finished off of course, with snacks and swimming! Keep up the good work kids!! The rest of the week looks fun!