10 Year Anniversary

And this year's winner for our most lovable and popular guest is.....(drum roll)...Paula Disney. She's been coming here year for year for 10 years and is practically part of our team here at Echo Valley. We really all had a great time with you!
But our new guests are just as important as our repeat guests and it seems like Europe has developed a taste for our ranch. I think my favorite thing about working at EVR is that opportunity of meeting so many diverse people from different countries. Speaking of which here is the (r-l.) Duncan Family, Mr. Cliff, the Horner Family men and our Falconer Brian. He's blowing a little whistle to signal for the bird to come in....and here he comes.

So after lunch it's time to get back on those horses and work off all of Chef Kim's delightful food.

Alright, 1..2..3..cheese! Thanks Horner Family for posing for that wonderful family portrait. Speaking of which, let me take a moment just to tell everyone that whenever I take your picture, please feel free to approach me if you'd like copies, it doesn't cost anything. I would love for people to take those memories home with them.

And here comes trouble, another red head like me! That's Anna with Bubbles and her brother Henry with Nin. And let me tell you, watching these 2 in their lessons was so much fun...but I'll get to that later.

On my way to the arena I saw John Duncan and his daughters Elizabeth and Madeleine playing cards on the lawn. And you can see our puppy Joy all cuddled up to them too.

So in the arena we've got Bud Kanke with the best and most original hat I've seen so far at the ranch. Now Bud is a fairly laid back guy and so Ernie kept falling asleep in the ring. But let me tell you, I went off to photograph some more guests and when I came back both rider and horse were fully awake and going at a much faster pace.

I love watching lessons with kids (in particular funny ones like Henry and Anna). The activities the wranglers have them do are to build confidence but sometimes...they just look silly. Looks like Henry's about to take flight with Nin!









So throughout the lesson these 2 siblings were just full of giggles and saying the funniest things to their horses.

In the same week we also had 2 avid mountain bikers Christine and Rob Barker who had been here the previous year with their bikes frozen to their car. With warmer temperatures now, they were out biking every day and Christine decided to take advantage of some barrel racing lessons given by wrangler Kayleigh (pictured on right).

And there was a great deal of improvement from one lesson to the next. She was trotting around the barrels with our only barrel-racing horse here Bubbles.




The Duncan Family are all round animal lovers. So if they're not playing in the grass with the puppies, they're out on horseback.













Looks like a Norman Rockwell picture with the family altogether around the tractor. Sometimes you'll see me coming up to ask to take you family picture. And then when you get home you'll find it smiling back at you in the mail. Just a nice little souvenir to remind you of your time at Echo Valley.