Let 'Em Ride !

Over a dozen lucky kids from the Methow Valley School District spent 5 afternoons at Moccasin Lake Ranch in April and May, honing their horsemanship skills, building self-confidence and making connections with community members. This program, for qualified students, has been funded by the Methow Valley Public School Funding Alliance since September of 2005. Students learn to care for the horses and do ranch chores, while also learning more sophisticated horsemanship skills including how to halter, lead, groom and tack up their horses prior to riding. They are exposed to bareback, English and Western riding, and 'vaulting', balance and gymnastic exercises performed on the back of a moving horse. A collaborative effort by MVRU, the MV schools, Moccasin Lake Ranch and community volunteers is what makes this program work.

Spring Session

Wow, Spring Session has almost come and gone. For 6 weeks we have had dozens of riders of all shapes and sizes walking, trotting, cantering, jumping, cleaning hooves, cleaning tack, vaulting and trail riding. Lots of progress, lots of fun. Great horses, great folks.

Spring Young Riders Clinic

Four young riders from the Methow Valley spent Spring Break honing their equestrian skills at an inspiring eventing clinic in Kennewick . Johnnie Duguay, Jacqueline O'Keefe, Tulie Budiselich and Kameron Smith all began their dressage and jumping training in MVRU horsemanship lessons and now train for the sport of eventing with coach Annie Budiselich at Moccasin Lake Ranch.
Thirteen Young Riders from around the state, ages 10-17, attended the 3 day clinic hosted by Area VII Young Riders at Tulipsprings Eventing Facility. Clinic instructors Lexi Lind of Redmond and Jean Moyer of Fox Island focused on improving dressage and jumping techniques. Annie B was allowed to have some fun, too ...

Spring is HERE ... finally.

Winter has surrendered to spring, bringing warmer days and nights. All the school horse 'team' is now getting tuned up for Spring Session. If you haven't signed up yet, check out the info on the Enrollment page of our website.

We LOVE our Crumb Rubber !

Spring

In October of 2007 Moccasin Lake Ranch purchased and installed 44,000 pounds of crumb rubber footing in the riding arena. This upgrade took place, primarily, for the benefit of our wonderful equine friends and teachers ... think of it as Nikes for horses! The new surface reduces joint stress, extending and improving the useful years of our horses. In additon, we have found that it extends our riding season by about a month in the late fall and allows us to start earlier in the spring. Look at this photo taken on the first day of Spring!

Spring is Coming !!

Welcome to the MVRU Blog! We are excited to use this BLOG to keep everyone up to speed on what's happening at Moccasin Lake Ranch. A few eager, hardy souls have been riding since February first, on those days when the arena is neither a skating rink nor a swimming pool! We are lookiong forward to getting all the horses in shape for spring riding classes. Moccasin Lake Ranch will open for private lessons on March 1st. MVRU Spring Session begins in April. Check the Enrollment page on our website for Spring Session sign-up info.