Who knew?
This passion quickly grew and we named our operation after them - Woody, Etoile, Silhouette, and COmpany (I knew more were coming!). Ten years later those three are still here with the rest of the herd on our 63 acre ranch in Northern California.
Our original goal was a herd of 30-35 minis. We've surpassed that with the herd average fluctuating between 55-70 so, in 2009, we took a hard look and re-evaluated our goals and direction. The decision to severely reduce our herd to a manageable number was made. The goal is 20-25 minis.
It's been heartbreaking letting some of them go, but it needs to be done. The goal was never to be a huge breeder, as we believe in quality over quantity!
BREEDING
As for our breeding goals - we follow the established breed standards along with our own personal goals of -
- excellent conformation
- graceful athletic ability
- soundness of body and mind
- show stopping presence
- intelligence
- health and heartiness
- wonderful personality
We've worked hard since 1999 to achieve these goals. As we do not show on a regular basis, we select horses from proven breeding stock from National Champion bloodlines (many of which can be seen on the reference horse page). We are proud of our herd and the consistent high quality foals produced year after year.
Having seen and experienced the 'horse trader' types that are in every horse breed, we do offer our guarantee to our buyers.
This is our business and we treat it as such, BUT the welfare of our Minis is of the utmost concern to us. A perfect pet home for our Minis is better than a life being illtreated or uncared! So we work with buyers to make sure they're getting exactly what they want, as we feel this will more likely assure our Minis a lifetime home.
A number of our Minis are 'lifers' here and our policy is to retire our older breeding stock into our retirement herd and/or a great retirement home setting. Our oldest are Maria and Callita in their mid 20's Both still cycling and could be bred, but we've chosen not to as each has contributed enough genetic material (IMHO!!) to the Mini breed and have earned the right to a peaceful stress free retirement.
SALES
We generally have minis available for sale year-round, but many of our horses are never offered publicly for sale. Our sales list is here, and we do try to keep it updated regularly.
If you're looking for a specific type of mini or bloodline, if we do not have it, we'd be happy to point you in that direction if we can.
WHO WE ARE
Michelle is the everything - she's the horse person - owner/slave to the Minis! (Yes, she actually does know all the horses names, pedigrees and how they're all related - a question that she gets asked by everyone that comes out here!).
Anya is away at college, but pitches in when she's home, suffering through the farrier and vet visits as well as helping feed and groom as necessary.
Scott is the all-around ranch helper/horse whisperer. He works with the Minis daily, taking them on long walks as well as some 1v1 with those in need! He also does most of the heavy lifting and repairing!
LOCATION
We are located in Northern California on the 63 acres on the historic Bigelow Hills, overlooking the town of Winters.
Located off of Highway 505 between I-80 and I-5 west of Sacramento/Davis, we are
- 40 minutes west of Sacramento
- 1.5 hours north of San Francisco
- 3 hours from Reno
- 4.5 hours from the Oregon Stateline
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