By Arden Foster on March 8th, 2019
Often when you drive up to the ranch, the first horses to greet you are the ones by the main gate. These are the mares and foals, and sometimes our Quarter Horse stallion Shiners Zan Parr, or Silver, as we call him. We are proud to breed some of our own horses on the ranch, and David and Jane have enriched the herd immensely with these wonderful horses! We only breed about five mares a year, so we usually have 2-4 foals the following summer – the gestation period is eleven months. We give them a few years to grow up and just be horses before David starts them riding. All this takes time, and since our ranch remuda is about 140 horses, they aren’t all ranch raised by any means, but over the years we’ve integrated quite a few RTR born, raised and trained horses.
A list paints a picture of how many there truly are in the herd! Below you’ll see their names, with the year of foaling, color, and Dam (Mother) x Sire (Father). Maybe some of you have ridden one of them while you were here, or new guests can look forward to possibly riding one. There is nothing quite like it!
Chugwater – 2002 – black gelding, (*outside stallion x Cheyenne)
Floyd - 2003 - solid dun paint gelding (Docs Golden Matador x Reos Girl)
Story – 2004 – liver chestnut mare (*outside stallion x Cheyenne)
Redstone – 2005 – red run mare (*outside stallion x Reo)
Kaycee – 2005 – dun paint mare (*outside stallion x Cheyenne)
Hawk -- 2005 -- buckskin paint (Docs Golden Matador "Buck" x *outside mare)
Dixie – 2006 – bay paint mare (Hawk x Story)
Makoa – 2006 – flea bitten grey gelding (Silver x Spruce)
Gannett – 2007 – dunalino mare (Silver x Cheyenne)
Gentry – 2007 – smutty buckskin gelding (Silver X Iris)
May – 2008 – palomino mare (Silver x June)
Fergus – 2009 – buckskin roan gelding (Silver x Falina)
Molly – 2009 – palomino mare (Silver x June)
Payton – 2009 – smutty buckskin gelding (Silver X Lily)
Sioux City Sue – 2009 – buckskin mare (Silver x Myra)
Prima – 2010 – red roan mare (*outside stallion x Cheyenne)
Pinata – 2011 – silver buckskin mare (Silver x Layla)
Liberty – 2011 – palomino mare (Silver x Annie Oakley)
Louie L’ Amour – 2013 – buckskin dun gelding (Silver x Lariat)
Mariah – 2014 – palomino mare (Silver x Layla)
Magnolia – 2014 – palomino mare (Silver x Tulip)
LeDoux – 2014 – buckskin dun gelding (Silver x Kaycee)
Malone – 2016 – palomino gelding (Silver x Annie Oakley)
Lucas McCain– 2016 – dunalino gelding (Silver x Lariat)
As you can see, we have been running this breeding program for a number of years. These horses have become an integral part of the herd at RTR, and some of the younger ones at the bottom of the list are up and coming. We hope they will live up to the legacy of the horses before them, and continue to help guests have a fantastic horseback experience at the ranch.