These are our main riding horses. They are also the ones we use to be herd leaders. When we wean, we put some older horses in to keep the babies calm and continue teaching them how to behave. This continues throughout their formative years and we get some really friendly, well-behaved horses. Cactus, Dandy, and Shilo are in the weanling pasture, Luke and Rooster in the yearling pasture, and Jewel and Raton with the 2-3 year olds.

Cactus is an old guy that my husband raised from a baby. He's had several jobs over the years and has partially retired to the occasional trail ride and as a babysitter to the weanlings.

Luke is another old gelding that has done several jobs over the years. He's got arthritis now so is only used when a young inexperienced rider needs a reliable mount. He's also a wonderful babysitter for the younger horses.

Jewel is a young mare that we started training a couple of years ago. She's got enough miles now that she's getting pretty solid as a trail horse. Now I plan to take her to some off the ranch activities and possibly some shows.

Rooster is a middle aged gelding that's been a nice trail mount. He's a little lame so we don't ride him as much as before but we're hoping to get him in shape for the summer.

Raton is my husband's latest training project. He's a nice young gelding with a little over 30 rides now. He's a real smooth ride and should make a wonderful pleasure horse eventually.