The City Ranch Inc.

03/23/2025

Preparing for a lovely day.

03/17/2025

We hope that you are all taking equal delight in this day as we are.

03/06/2025

Join The City Ranch Inc. for a Fun-Filled Open House!
Windsor Mill, MD – The City Ranch Inc. invites the community to a special Open House on May 3rd, from 12 PM to 4 PM at 7613 Dogwood Rd., Windsor Mill, MD 21244.

Come experience the magic of horses and learn more about The City Ranch’s mission to bring horsemanship to urban communities. This free, family-friendly event will feature:

🐴 Meet & Greet with our beloved horses
🏇 Lesson & Riding Demonstration
🎠 Hands-on grooming experiences
🎯 Fun games, and prizes
🍔 Refreshments
🎤 Live demonstrations & educational exhibits

Whether you're a horse lover, a first-time rider, or just looking for a fun afternoon with family and friends, there’s something for everyone! Don't miss this chance to connect with nature, meet our team, and discover how The City Ranch is making a difference in the community.

03/01/2025

The City Ranch believes in the nature of horses, the nature of humans, and the tremendous impact respect, empathy, and accountability has on the growth and potential of everyone involved. Versatility, resilience, and kindness - and a recognition of each human's and horse's unique contribution to our community - helps us build a brighter, warmer future one stride at a time.

The foundational learning acquired through horsemanship should not be viewed through a myopic lens of intensive specialization. It is a holistic process that unfolds as we show up - both to riding and in our own lives - as curious students actively engaged in the rhythms and opportunities each and every new day presents for us.

The bowl represents the whole of authentic, horse centered horsemanship. It contains centuries of experience and insights about how we can best train, ride, keep and otherwise use horses without using them up.

Today horsemanship is in a fragmented state like the broken bowl, especially in America. The bowl's larger fragments represent the big disciplines like Hunter Jumpers or eventing, while the smaller pieces represent smaller ones like driving or polo. The shattered "bowl" of horsemanship is a tragedy because it causes substantial suffering for horses. My question is, are we at a Humpty Dumpty moment in history where "All the king's horses and all the king's men can't put Humpty together again."?

The fragmented disciplines are separated from each other and from the whole. The isolation of each discipline is the primary source of the normalized equine abuse seen in several disciplines. This abuse has been normalized because the isolated discipline fragments have created their own "horsemanships" that do not protect horses' wellbeing as the whole of horsemanship once did. Today these flawed fragments of horsemanship exist to fulfill human expectations and desires at the expense of horses.

The separations have also resulted in increased income for the industry players. If you want to switch from Hunters to evening, you will need a new horse, new equipment, new attire, lots of new and different stuff. This was not always the case. Horses under horse centered horsemanship were more versatile through cross training. Equipment was not so specialized. There were some discipline specific requirements before the fragmentation but not to the current specialized degree.

The bottom line is that we are placing unnatural demands on horses that harm their balance, movement, and health. On what planet is a 30 to 40 foot slide part of western reining? But the reining discipline rewards these long slides. The result is that reining horses as young as 4 years old are receiving hock injections, something usually reserved for elderly horses.

Blue tongues and bloody mouths resulting from dressage horses being cranked down into false frames have become a standard in higher level dressage competitions. Rule changes have not been able to stop it. In eventing we see cross country jumps that are unsolvable riddles for horses because the jump designs ignore equine perception. Eventing horses are being injured as a result, but people like these jumps so they stay. And show riders intentionally place their body weight way ahead of their horse's center of balance which makes horses' ability to jump increasingly difficult, dangerous and demanding. These and other "innovations" of horsemanship are ruining horses.

Can the bowl be put back together to reestablish horse centered horsemanship? Can we stop or reduce the injuries and other harm caused by these human focused practices? Or is horsemanship, like Bumpty Dumpty, gone forever? I honestly don't know.

03/01/2025

Lovely day ahead. We are preparing to enjoy this beautiful morning.

02/28/2025

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1AHQAx6Rqh/

CONGRATULATIONS! 👏 11-year-old Kortnee Solomon is making history as one of the youngest to compete in a nationally televised rodeo. A fourth-generation Texas cowgirl, she’s already winning championships and breaking barriers in the rodeo world. 🤠

📸Credit/Kortnee Solomon

02/28/2025

Congrats Mrs. Pennie Brown and thank you for letting us be part of your amazing work in the community.

UPPER MARLBORO, Md. (DC News Now) –“I was hanging out at a club and some Black cowboys probably rode their horses up to that club and an invitation to hang out and party with them happe…

02/25/2025

Everybody welcomes the opportunity to enjoy warm weather.

02/18/2025

Baltimore, we had a great time at the MLK parade. Thank you for having us.

02/14/2025

❤️❤️❤️❤️Happy Valentines Day❤️❤️❤️❤️

02/13/2025

If the Baltimore Oriole can learn to ride then so can you. Call to schedule your appointment today. (410-456-2195)

02/05/2025

Benji and his friends say hello.

02/04/2025

Simple things often encapsulate the most striking beauty. Have a great day everyone.

01/28/2025

Out appreciating this lovely morning.

01/23/2025

We're so excited to see y'all at the World of Pets Expo at the Maryland State Fairgrounds this weekend! The Expo opens up tomorrow and runs through Sunday afternoon. Come chat with us, meet a few of our horses, and enjoy this animal lover's paradise!

01/23/2025

We are one day away.