Good horses are critical to both the trailride and the cattle operations at the M Diamond. And good horses need and deserve good care. You probably know they need good food and properly fitting tack, but did you know there are equine dentists and chiropractors? When you visit the ranch you may see horses being shod, or having their teeth floated by a dentist, or their backs adjusted by a chiropractor. The vet may be there taking care of a sick horse or for check ups. All of this makes for good, sound horses to enjoy for work and play.

Horses We Have Known and Loved:

Amelia Earheart. She's not a horse. She's not even half a horse (a mule is half horse, half donkey). She's all donkey and gets along great living with Teddy and Elvis and even our latest dogie calf. When you come, ask Kevin if he has her broke to ride.

Blue is not blue, but a pretty yellow palomino. He's a Bar N horse, which means he grew up on the Navajo reservation. See if you can figure out why he's named Blue.

Bo Jangles spent his previous life tending wheat-pasture cattle in eastern New Mexico. He was Kevins dowry. Since he wanted Steph, her Dad made Kevin take Bo Jangles too.

Dub (Double Upper) came from the Lazy E arena in Guthrie, OK. He's a former race horse whos never lost a race...of course he only ran one. He's been a "kid horse for 12 years.

Freeway's tattoo under his mane shows he's a mustang. Once a wild horse, he was adopted through the BLM program. He came to the ranch riding in the back of a pickup truck, not in the usual manner in a horse trailer, so Steph named him Freeway.

Clancy is a blue roan. Roan means that a horse's coat has alternating white hairs and hairs of color. If the color is black, its called a blue roan and there are red roans and bay roans and strawberry roans, but the strawberry roans are sometimes sunfishers. Are you following this? We can explain when you come, and you may also see the foal Clancy's just had this year.

Miss Kitty, a Belgian, had a foal last year. We didn't know she was going to do that when she came to us, but she had a long-legged foal named Roo. We were happy her legs were long and not her ears, because then she would have been a mule and who knows what we would have called her. Roo is spending her childhood in an Oklahoma pasture near Steph's family. She has a pal named Scout with her to keep her company.

Duncan, a Standardbred bay roan, also had a hidden story when he came to the ranch. One of the first things Kevin noticed was that he could trot like crazy, but you couldn't get him to lope (canter). A little detective work uncovered the tattoo inside his upper lip which told us he was a race horse. He won a lot of money as a three year old trotter. Years later he came to us... still a trotter.

Kids love little Teddy Bear Roosevelt, a miniature stallion. At 34 inches tall he's just the right height for them to pet and brush. He pulls a miniature version of our big red hay wagon, to everyone's delight.

At the other end of the size spectrum are Moe and Joe our Belgian draft horse team. They not only are always hitched in the same left/right order, they ride and stand that way too, usually as close together as they can manage. They pull our big red hay wagon at the ranch, in parades and for parties and weddings.

We also have an assortment of half-draft horses which are valued because their size makes them versatile and their nice dispositions make them good for all kinds of riders. Some of their names are Frank and Jesse, Willie and Waylon, and Tank and Gunner.

But the majority of the horses on the M Diamond are Quarter Horses, sometimes called America's horse. While used in all disciplines of horsemanship, they are the horses most associated with Western riding. And all of the tack used at the M Diamond is western style. You will learn a lot about that from Kevin and Stephanie when you come to the ranch.