Posted by admin on September 14, 2011
It is getting a bit cooler and things are getting more active around Sierra Ranch. We hope to be sending out the newsletter on a more regular basis. Below are some topics that have wieghed on our minds recently and thought you might enjoy reading about.
Wildfires: When Evacuation is Not an Option
Thanks to record summer temperatures and persistent drought, several wildfires have flared in Texas this year, according to information contained on the Texas Forest Service website. Since Sept. 1 the Texas Forest Service has responded to 181 fires. Read More
Senior Horse Care – Keeping Your Senior Horse Healthy and Happy
Senior horse care is a subject near and dear to my heart. My own senior horses, Annapolis and Star, are now 32 and 20 years old respectively–and still going strong.
Read more »
Study: Horses Prefer Nonacidic Water
A team of Canadian researchers recently revealed that horses tend to prefer water with neutral pH levels rather than low pH levels, meaning your picky drinker’s problem could be due to acidic water’s sour taste. Read More
Don’t forget to come see us out at the ranch. We are open Monday thru Thursday and some weekends. Call us to set up a time to meet your next trail horse.
Deb Stowers
Sierra Ranch, LLC
http://sierraranchok.com/
http://sierraranchok.net/
Posted by admin on May 13, 2011
It was suggested that we show off some of the horses that we have for lease at Sierra Ranch, LLC. We begin this with probably one of the horses we know the least about.
To say we have soft hearts for OTTB (Off the Track Thoroughbreds) is kind of an understatement. 
We love what these guys do for their owners and are saddened with the way they are treated after the track.
Imagintor (AKA New Horse or New) filled that bill to the max. One of our friends found him at her barn. The owner wanted a walking horse and when she went to pick up the walking horse the owner “threw in Charlie” with her other horse. Needless to say she was much more wanting the walking horse and paid no attention to “Charlie.” Our friend knew we loved and worked well with OTTB’s and brought him to live with us in July 2009.
Since we had had a bad experience ( I can show the the never healing scar) with a horse named “Charlie” we decided to name him “New Horse” until we could figure out his name. This was during the time that we were starting the other business that now pays for the horses. There just never seemed to be the time to actually try hard to find out who this guy was.
New taught several people how to ride. Attended several trail rides and did wonderfully. Even rode in part of an endurance ride with no problems. Finally we got things somewhat under control and spent the day Saturday before Easter researching who this wonderful horse was. Now understand trying to ID a 20 year old horses tattoo is not fun and New was so not excited about making this an easy process. After a bit of trail riding tranquilizer and a black light we took a picture of the tattoo and tried to enhance it enough to figure it out.
After doing several general searches using some of the numbers and his coloring. Then focusing on the numbers we knew. Then eliminating the mares. (LOL!) We came up with a possible name. Imaginator. And we ordered the winning pictures of his maiden race.
Now am I going to say New is a perfect match for this horse. Maybe not. But he is a winner with several wins and loads of races under his belt, and New surly acts like all the winners we have in the pasture. And what a really cool name: Imaginator. So much better than being called New Horse. LOL!
Imaginator is available for leasing. He likes trail riding and might be open to some other activities. Come out to Sierra Ranch, LLC and meet all the horses. You might just find someone interesting to ride.
We are open Monday thru Thursday and some weekends. Call us to set up a time to meet your next trail horse.
Deb Stowers
Sierra Ranch, LLC
http://sierraranchok.com/
http://sierraranchok.net/
Posted by admin on April 4, 2011
We are getting Sierra Ranch, LLC back and going so you will be seeing more postings here and the newsletter should be going out more regularly. Here is some news that we are getting ready for at the ranch. Tomorow the vet is coming for coggins and shots. Should be a fun day. So glad I will be missing it this year. 
VACCINATION BASICS FOR HORSES
Vaccination used to be simple. You bought a couple of vaccines at the feed store and gave them once a year to your horse. Today there are so many vaccination options that if you still administer vaccines yourself without at least talking to your veterinarian, you might be selling yourself, and your horse, short. Continue reading…
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7 Steps to a Safe Spring Ride
A poet once wrote of the joys of spring and its effect on horsemen. April, he said, broke the drought of March, bathed the roots of plants in “sweet liquor,” and brought green to every field and hollow. And all these pretty changes awakened in the men and women of Canterbury, England a desire to get on their horses and go on a pilgrimage, to seek a little adventure horseback and break the doldrums of winter. | Read |
 BATTLING BOREDOM: STUDY PROVES FOOD-RELATED ITEMS MOST SUCCESSFUL
The old saying goes, “Idle hands are the devil’s tools,” but horse owners know an idle horse’s lips can cause just as much mischief. For many owners it can be a daily challenge to keep curious horses occupied when not being ridden or handled. In her recent study, Grete Helen Meisfjord Jørgensen, PhD, of the Norwegian Institute for Agricultural and Environmental Research, observed horses’ reactions to several types of “enrichment items” and determined that food-related items helped battle boredom best. Continue reading… |
Don’t forget to come see us out at the ranch. We are open Monday thru Thursday and some weekends. Call us to set up a time to meet your next trail horse.
Deb Stowers
Sierra Ranch, LLC
http://sierraranchok.com/
http://sierraranchok.net/
Posted by admin on January 24, 2010
If you live on a ranch you know that things can get a bit on the weird side sometimes. If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook then you know since before Christmas (maybe even Thanksgiving) I have been tormented by a possum. Well now I get to torment it, well them.
Rick laughed because I took pictures, but you need to know the situation, because I need help getting these danged things out!
Now there has been a hole in the heater room since we moved in April 2003. For several years there was a cabinet sitting there blocking the hole. I moved stuff around a couple of years ago and didn’t realize that the hole went in to the heater room. Here is a view of the heater room.
The door to this room always has stuff in front of it since the washer and dryer are just outside of it. We don’t store lots of things in it and I tossed some of them this morning. There was storm windows for the house, drying rack, some tables (that are ruined) and two windows to some truck that have been there since we moved in. Yeah, we are great at collecting things and not so great at tossing. LOL!
The picture above is after cleaning and spraying bleach in the area. We got to smell the bleach through out the house, but that is much better than the poo smell we had been getting a whiff of every now and then. ACK!
Last night Rick heard things moving in the garage. He had not believed me that the critters were in there, until he saw the one last night. We started looking and there were actually two possums. What fun. NOT!
We tried to get them out last night, but they got between the wall and the heater and us nor Bubba could get them to leave. So we left the door open thinking, OK they will leave since they have been found. NOT!
Silly critters did not to appear to be in there this morning. I got the old horse beet pulp soaking and started cleaning out the closet. I finally found something to put between the wall and the chest. I started moving said things above, when stuff moves. Yeah, fun. NOT! I keep pulling things out and get down to the big glass from some truck. The critters are sleeping on a towel back behind the smoked glass. Still not sure how the towel and other nesting stuff got in the room.
The possum were not so happy that I found them. I tried to shoo them out the door. Not thinking about the fact that the escape route that they were used to was the hole I blocked up so freaking well. (Sometimes it doesn’t pay to be smart!) So the smaller one moves and I am thinking “Just please don’t run up my pant leg!” and the silly thing runs into the wall and is clawing in the wall trying to get out. Dang!
The bigger one just sits there. I don’t have any thing that I could loop him with and he is not scooping well with the shovel. So I figure I will leave them alone, go feed the old horses, wait for Rick to get up, and regroup.
I go out to start laundry and finish this thinking the danged things have left. Rick sees the silly critters up in the wall. So we place the auto glass between the heater and the wall. It’s pretty heavy and I don’t think they will move it. We blocked it up against the hole on the inside wall as best we could. I tried to get it tight and broke one pane. Oh well, not like we were ever going to use them. And with the coating it should not totally shatter. We will see.
I sprayed the area down really well with bleach hoping to run them out into the garage, but I think it just made them mad. I heard lots of hissing. LOL!
Later I looked the silly critters are still holed up on the wall, but I don’t think they can get back into the room. I know these guys have been eating the cat food and I think they are moving onto the dog food. So, I may have to get the food source to go away for them to actually leave. I am hoping they don’t have babies, and probably don’t yet, but they so need to leave.
And yes we have the fire power to kill them. And we have numerous ways to kill them, but I can’t do it. Even Rick was touched by their cute faces last night. Between that and running the risk of hitting the heater or TV (if it went through the wall). He is considering using the cross bow. Might sic the girl that feeds on the target. She likes killing small woodland critters, so maybe she could get them out. It’s worth a try.
If anyone has any tips on getting the silly things out of our wall I would be willing to listen. Hate the waiting game, but right now that’s the only way to do it. Hope you have enjoyed life on the ranch. Yes, some days are good ones and you get to ride a race horse. Other days you get to chase possum out of the cat food. All pays the same.
Posted by admin on December 13, 2007
We have not had power since 5AM on Sunday morning. We broke out the generator and have been doing as well as can be expected with a totally electrice house. We have a forced air insert in the fireplace and have been keeping everything pretty toasty. God blessed us with plenty of frigging wood in the yard around the house, let alone down the drive and pasture.
Got up Mon. and normal 5AM to see what was going on. They activated the danged EOC at 5:30 and for some fricking reason expected ME to be there! I called in and told them that I would be at work when I could get out of my drive, and that I needed to get off the danged phone while the limbs were falling on my house! So I wasn’t in the bestest mood when they called at 10AM wanting me to do damage assement! Limbs were still falling. I am jsut thankful that we had some trimmed a couple of months back. It would have been much worse if we had not had that done.
Tues. Rick finally got the drive cleared enought to pass. He siad he flet like a rat in a trap. He would cut one tree free and two more would fall. The picture above is our driveway.Got more gas. Got wood and stuff in place so the kids could keep the fire going while we were gone. I came to work yesterday, but we had no power here and I was wondering why the heck I was not at home. Our silly building has back up power, but we are not the important folks, so I had to go down a floor to read email and such. At least today we have power and heat and internet. We ahve all those things at home, I just seem to be constantly doing things and not having time to check in here.
I have pictures I need to load on the internet somewhere. I think I will add a page to my web site and post the link here.
I still haven’t gone to the EOC. Figured that sending all my employees was enough. Well, best get back to the real job. At least pretending better to doing it. Hope you all are doing great! Sending hugss and hhhhmmmmmsss to those in need.
