Our Horse Story

How in the world did a couple of city slickers end up moving to a ranch, owning 5 horses, and boarding another in just a little over 4 years? It all started with a question asked by Ken’s life coach when Ken wanted to achieve a volunteer goal, “What did you enjoy doing as a kid?” Ken’s dad raised Morgan horses and one of them was Ken’s. His dad sold Pinery property back in the day and Ken’s job was to take care of the livery horses and lead trail rides for potential property owner’s children. When the work was done, Ken would take his horse, Misty, and his dog on rides exploring the area. When Ken turned 16, his focus turned to teenage boy things and he drifted away from his horse.

The result of the question asked by Ken’s coach needed to involve horses. Through our church, we found out about a non-profit adaptive riding center that needed volunteers. It should be noted that I had very little exposure to horses other than my daughter’s summer camp riding and vaulting lessons. Ken asked me one Saturday morning if I wanted to go with him to attend a volunteer orientation. I said, “sure,” which he really didn’t expect. The rest is history. We head and side walked during lessons and we each had our favorite horses. Princess Piper was Ken’s and Blue was mine (both happen to be Morgans).

Piper developed a condition called Kissing Spines which made a saddle and rider quite uncomfortable for her and she needed to be retired. I didn’t hesitate and asked if we could adopt her. I had absolutely no idea what it took to take care of a horse. We were able to find a place to board her and on April 1st, 2020, she became ours. It turns out that she is related to one of the Morgans that Ken’s dad raised. We boarded her for a year and a half and saw her almost every day (only cyclone bomb snow kept us from her for 2 days). We fed the other 9 or so horses and cleaned 3 times a week to offset the cost of her board. In the process, the horses taught me a lot. I started reading all I could about horses and began my journey to become a certified Masterson Method® practitioner.

On the way to see Piper, I started asking Ken questions like, “When we get a ranch, do you want a pickup truck?” Notice that I didn’t ask “if.” We started looking for horse properties but were not all that serious because we just built our “forever home” close to downtown Parker. We stumbled upon our current home, had a tour, and made an offer on the spot. The barn is very close to the house and I’d be able to see Piper from my bedroom window. Knowing we would need to have a companion for Piper, we had the fortune of being gifted Elliot. Piper and Elliot came home together and immediately bonded. We named our place Grant Ranch Equine Rescue and Rehabilitation, and shortly thereafter took on our first rehab horse, Annie, who was from the same adaptive riding center as Piper. Annie was able to return to work after a few months.

We were asked to help evaluate a horse that was being offered to this adaptive riding center. This horse, who we named Misty after Ken’s first horse, had severe laminitis due to an improper diet and we were a part of her rehabilitation. She improved dramatically and came to Grant Ranch to meet Annie. Misty and Annie went together to the adaptive riding center and we came home with the old guy Blue who was being retired after 15 years of service. Annie wasn’t able to continue working and Misty was still prone to laminitis causing her to be retired as well. We told Misty she would always have a home with us and she became ours and now Annie is ours as well.
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We decided to extend our 3-stall barn by 2 stalls when there was a need to board a horse being retired (Guinness was a weekly bodywork client for me and I grew very fond of him). We were very fortunate that the horses all accepted each other as a herd – they all get along quite well. Our world revolves around these horses and we consider ourselves blessed. It’s a total labor of love and we couldn’t ask for a better life. Who knew?