Maple Valley Ranch

10/31/2024

Pumpkins are a great natural dewormer and fancy treat for our bison and cows. We are fortunate to have the Howling Pumpkin down the road from us and once the October season is over, we raid their fields for treats for the big guys. There were so many great carving pumpkins that we felt bad tossing them all to the bison! We hope everyone has a safe and candy filled Halloween night 🎃

10/26/2024

Beginning, middle, and the end product. Each year we make an improvement to the farm to better our facility and customer experience. This year the project was adding an automatic waterer to the final pasture up front. Thankful for all those that helped with this getting this project completed while we still had nice weather!

09/28/2024

Sunset lessons are beautiful

09/19/2024

Well, today was an exciting day. To start off we would like to mention that both horses are completely fine. When hauling Zane and Forrest to Ga***rd this evening, Natalie had an unfortunate blowout on the horse trailer. Thankfully, she was able to get it switched out with the spare tire and back on the road within 15 minutes. The safe tire change and quickness in which it was done would not have been possible without the state cops who were generous enough to drive over and help block traffic as Natalie was on the expressway when it blew and needing to change it.

08/25/2024

A week after fair and we are finally all settled back down and going over all the pictures. Unfortunately, the camera we were using had the memory card malfunction therefore we only have pictures from Saturday. However, the previous post shares the post from the photographer that was on site taking lovely pictures of the horse shows and the girls on Wednesday. We would like to give a huge shout out once more to Renee for organizing an amazing fair week and the Ogemaw County Fairgrounds for a great facility. A huge shout out also goes to all the parents that offered assistance with horses, pictures, food, and more. We would not be able to do all that we do without your support. This fair year was a great one and we're excited for how next year's fair will be!

08/25/2024

This lovely photographer was at the fairgrounds last week and got some amazing pictures of Abby and Alli on Wednesday as well as snapping a photo of us during our tack change on Saturday. The pictures are beautiful, and we hope to see her at more shows in the future!

The last fair of the year is officially done! All photos are edited and uploaded!
https://theroudyredhead.pixieset.com/ogemawcountyfair/

08/18/2024

Yesterday was the open show at ogemaw fairgrounds with 4 of our students. Our students did amazing with Olivia grabbing a 3rd and 4th placing, Payton a 3rd, and Aubrie a 1st 2nd and a reserve champion placing! We want to also give a big shout out to Aelyn as not only did she show Zane on Saturday, during the week she had her sheep Simba and her bunnies (where she placed reserve champion) showing in the 4H program so she had a very busy week! We are so incredibly proud of all the riders this fair season and thankful to Renee for hosting another great year for fair in the horse department. It’s been a long week which means time for everyone to relax and we’ll get pictures posted and sent out throughout this coming week for everyone!

08/15/2024

There will be many pictures to go through and edit this weekend, but here are just a couple taken on phones from the show today. Both girls did amazing placing third and fourth in showmanship with Forest out of seven kids and Abby even taking home a first place in her trail class with Zane. We are very proud of how the girls did today and can’t wait to see more girls show on Saturday. 

08/13/2024

Stalls are decorated and we’ve already seen some familiar faces! Our first two girls show Zane and Forest tomorrow and we can’t wait to see how they do

08/10/2024

This past Thursday we had 3 students, and 1 trainer attend another Twilight show at Otsego County Fairgrounds. Overall; we got a first, a variety of seconds, a third, a couple fourths, and a sixth. But no matter the placings, everyone had fun and that is what matters the most.

As always, the show was put on beautifully and we can't wait to attend their next show (September 19th) in the fall with a different batch of students. Thank you for putting on an amazing show.

Next stop is Ogemaw County fair with a total of 6 students showing! We will have two showing in the youth horse show on Wednesday and 4 showing in the open horse show on Saturday. We hope to see some familiar faces throughout the week.

08/02/2024

There has been some pretty intense heat the last couple weeks resulting in both horses and trainers just heat exhausted and over it. Therefore, we decided to get everybody the week off and do a water day instead.
A couple hours later we had 900 water balloons on the ground, everyone was soaking wet, tummy’s filled with ice cream and pizza, and smiles on faces everywhere. Safe to say today was a good hit and we hope everyone enjoyed the fun. 

07/12/2024

Yesterday we attended our first show of the season and it went beautifully. Zane and Olivia participated in the English Equitation and English pleasure classes placing 2nd and then 3rd. We also had one of our older students assist at the show to help make sure things went smoothly and it was a great time for everyone. The ostego county fair grounds in Ga***rd hosted a wonderful twilight horse show and we can’t wait to take more of our students to their facility. The next show will be August 8th and we are hoping to have 3 riders attending!

07/10/2024

Over the weekend we had 3 little critters join our ranch family. Names are still to be determined

06/24/2024

For lessons this week it was too hot for riding so we offered two barn sessions instead. For these session we had one that covering different types of equipment and how to clean/care for them. The second session was our veterinary day where we covered some horse first aid and listening to different organs. Overall this week was a success and even without having a riding lesson the kids enjoyed them selves and hanging out with each other

05/19/2024

The last lesson of the day today was 3 of our girls who will be showing with us this year getting in some practice and just enjoying the day playing games together. These are just 3 of the many riders that have excelled so far in our program and we love watching them as they advance even further in the equestrian sport

05/18/2024

This month we purchased our lovely picnic table from our neighbor and we could not be happier with it. Can’t wait to purchase more to put around both arenas!

05/03/2024

It’s that time of year again, we need to make room for cleaning out the pastures which means that we have past years compost to get rid of! Some of the benefits of manure compost for gardens and trees include it being an organic plant food meaning it increases fertility, water-holding capacity, bulk density and the biological properties of the soil. We offer at $50 a truck bed load or if you have a dump trailer, we will fill it for $100

04/26/2024

Best friends come in all sizes