"What Kind of Horses...........

...............do you have at your ranch?"

It's a question that I get asked all the time when I tell people that I train horses and run a horse ranch.  My answer is usually, "Yes!" - or something equally generic.  Meaning that, even though I jumped thoroughbreds for almost 20 years, and bred Lipizzan and Lipizzan Crosses for another 10 years, I've never been breed specific  - we are very eclectic as far as horse breeds go at Blue Fountain Farm.   

"Jozsef"  (aka "Siglavy XI-6") -seen above - imported from Hungary as a 4 yr old, rare, Black Lipizzan stallion - is now an 18 yr old, retired gelding (I still think of him as my Black Stallion), who enjoys life in the pasture with his TB buddy, "Calvin" (see post "How to Eat a Thistle").  During his breeding days Jozsef met his fair share of all sorts of women - he had a Mustang bride who produced a lovely Grulla colored filly, (like  herself) - this is "Sierra" and her Jozsef daughter, "Suena".......

 

- as well as a Medicine Hat Paint mare who always produced color - "Kachina" and her son "Ka Ching!".........

Jozsef had many, many brides and many babies in his 10 years of breeding, and all have gone on their way to wonderful homes, but we still have the product of one of his last foal crops here  - one of 6 crosses we did with a wonderful Trakehner mare called "Oprah".  Meet "Soulstice" as a baby with his mother..........

and today as a 6 yr old Dressage horse owned by Sam Newell.........

We still have some other Lipizzans here as well - and one of them proves what a small world it really is - meet Leo, a beautiful and talented 11 yr old Lipizzan gelding owned by Laurie Finta -

The small world coincidence is that he and Jozsef have the same mother in Hungary, and we didn't know it until we bought Leo a few months ago!  Their mother was 25 when she had Leo!

And then there's "Rhea", of "Rhea and " 'Lil Beaver".  Rhea is a 33 yr old Lipizzan mare who has been here with "The Beav" - a 39 yr old POA (Pony of the Americas) for many, many years.  They are inseparable, and give great joy to all of us who love to see their antics (which could fill a book!)  

So far I've touched on our Lipizzan, or Lipizzan cross friends, but wait - there's more!  From "Lil Beaver" to the other end of the spectrum, we have "Maverick" - a Belgian/Quarter Horse cross gelding.  He may "only" be about 16.3H, but he sure has a bigger presence!!

Maverick is owned by Laura and Eric, and, believe it or not, is working on his dressage - he's very well balanced for a "big dog!".  He's quite the looker with his blue and brown eyes...... 

For more big horses we have our two Friesians, Draco, owned by Victoria Johnston, and, Amadeus - who is one of my sons.  Everyone loves these Fairy Tale boys - they are both very, very sweet.............  here's Draco with Victoria...........

.....and Amadeus  - strutting his stuff.

Another big boy, and this breed is usually not large, is "Morocco" the Morgan.  Morocco is a 17H Morgan!  Not only is he gorgeous, he is as sweet as they come, and very, very smooth to ride........

More typical of the Morgan breed size, is "Buddy" - he's about 14.3 - 15 hands.   Buddy is a real trooper - he's 25 yrs old, and has survived 2 colic surgeries (one just last year) and a fractured hock several years ago.  He is now a valuable team member of Saddle Pals - the therapeutic riding program that meets here on Mondays.

We have several other "smaller" horses - including our Golden Ponies the Haflingers.  There's "Ash" - one of my reliable school horses -

and "Winnie"  - a trusty Saddle Pals mount.........

And, let's not forget the adorable "Chelsea", also a Saddle Pals family member, and the  mount for our young (3 yrs old) student, "Aurora".........how cute are they??

From Austria (the original home of the Haflinger horse) to Spain - we have our Andalusian crosses.  "Mikey" (owned by Fran Brodel) is an Andalusian/Morgan cross.............he's kind of like everyone's little brother - cute as the dickens, and always wanting to know what's going on ............

........ and "Elliot" - Pat Holtan's Andalusian/TB cross gelding - who's becoming an outstanding dressage horse............

 

Two horses who have also been together for quite awhile now are "Sax", the paint gelding owned by Rose Massara, and "Snuggles",  a PMU gelding owned by Claudia Jones........

We also have a couple of Arabians here at the ranch - there's "Taz", a trail horse gone dressage, owned by Gale Lear...............

and "Khaz" (no relation to "Taz") owned by Jan Reed.  Khaz is a people loving, busy-body who is always looking for some kind of trouble to get into............ but we love him!

This is but a taste of types of horses we have here - I haven't gone into the quarter horses, thoroughbreds, warmbloods, mustangs, and more that are all here now, let alone the horses who have been here in the past.  That will take another post.  Suffice it to say that we love all our horses, big and small, purebred and Heinz 57, old and young.  Each one is special in it's own way, to it's own person - or to each other..........  like Jozsef and Calvin........    

Animals Around the Ranch

Blue Fountain Farm is, of course, primarily a horse ranch, but I realized awhile back, (while taking a walk around here with my camera one day), that there are so many more animals than just horses here.  So, I've compiled a little photo journal of the denizens of this 40 acre piece of land.  Some are "pets", some are migratory visitors, some were here way before we developed this land as a ranch - but all of them are a part of our lives in one way or another.

There's good ol' Jake - the reliable ranch dog - who's one in a long line of big dogs who have lived here over the years..... 

........and his good buddy, Dude, who is as old as the ranch - he's 18 years old, and still ticking (or should I say licking??)

Sweet little Lisel was a feral kitten, but, as you can see, she's not wild anymore - she loves to be loved.......

Her brother, Lance, is a real looker, but likes to keep his distance.......

Her royal princess, Alexandria, is the house cat, and she thinks she's way to pretty to go outdoors with the working cats........

Then we have JoeLlama - described as an exceptional llama by Mario the vet......

And our two goats, Lil Bea and Jasmine.......

There are 4 sheep residing at the ranch (there were 17 at one time!), here's young "Sprite"........

...........and goofy looking "Violet".

This cow actually lives next door, but I couldn't resist her looks - I call her "Panda"........

And we have a lot of little Cotton Tail bunny rabbits - this one strayed from it's nest, so we loved on it for awhile, then put it back.........

Now, I won't even go into all the birds that come through here, but there are a few I want to include here.  The first is a new arrival to this area - a Collared Dove.  It hangs out with the Mourning Doves, and makes a very distinctive, and beautiful call..............

Out on the back deck of the house we have a few hummingbird feeders, which are frequented all day long by as many as 12 of these little marvels at one time............

One day, during shedding season, the sparrows went to town with the horse and dog hair strewn about the ground........ 

Later, after a wind storm, we found this very delicate nest on the ground, and I put it back in a tree .............

Another morning, looking out the back of the house, I saw this mama Blackbird taking care of her two almost grown youngsters.......

Recently, out in the front of the house in the Cat-tails of the pond, I came upon three little fledgling black birds.  

Unfortunately, their parents saw me coming, and did not like me being there AT ALL.  Dad sounded the alarm...........

Then took to the air..........

........and while I was ducking for cover I snapped a shot of Jake almost getting bombed..........

In my very first post in April I introduced everyone to Phred and Phrank Pheasant.  Well, they are still around, and Phrank makes regular rounds - 5:30 every morning and 7:30 every night - in the back of the house.  He's so funny - when he crows for the girls, he nearly knocks himself over backwards!

I was sitting in my office (which overlooks the pond) one morning, and two male mallards landed.  Luckily I had my camera on the desk, so I was able to snap a couple of shots through the window before they took off.

They didn't seem to bother the resident bullfrogs......

Say hello to "Fatty" the koi, in our other body of water, the fountain.  This is how he greets you - he's always hungry........

He's good at blowing bubbles, too.....

When he's done eating and blowing bubbles, he goes off to play with the other kids...........

If you don't like reptiles, skip over the next two photos - the first one is a lizard doing push-ups on the back deck............

and, finally, we have a 4' long gopher snake I saw one day while gardening out in the back - sure wish he could get all the gophers that keep getting into my garden!!!

I'll finish this photo journey of the animals of Blue Fountain Farm with a non animal animal - Benchley, the horse bench next to the pond.  I'm sure glad I don't have to take care of all of these animals!!