Farm History
Rolling Thunder Ranch was formerly known as
Willow Wind Farms and was located in Dapple Valley, Ohio, where we had lived for many years. When the presidents of our former home left, most of
the members, including myself, moved out here to Hidden Valley,
Minnesota following Nat -- Dream Painter.
With forty-one horses, four donkeys, two mules, eight dogs,
and eleven cats (full information here),
I moved everyone to the 120 acres of our land. It took nearly seven months
of preparation to hold moving sales, pack our belongings,
and decide which horses would be left behind. In the end, I put to sleep a 27-year old Andalusian mare named Amiga because she had cancer, and a 28-year old Paso Fino gelding named Gallant Northstar, and sold Paint stallion and mare Pennies and Dimes and London Exchange to qh_person. These four, however, were quickly replaced with "rescue" horses from other people that would have otherwise been left behind: Flame Bar
Mack, Chieftain, Steel Magnolia, Strawberry Fields, and Mountain
Fire.Finally, on April 1st, 2002, we were ready.
75% of the horses were trekked by a professional company;
the remaining 16 (mostly stallions) were loaded into every available stall
in our 2 trailers. The cats and dogs were squeezed into every available corner of the trucks, and the three-day interstate trip began. Nights were spent in state parks, so that the horses could be picketed at night, to stretch their legs a bit. At last, we arrived at our ranch. It had a house and nothing else...so the horses were pasture-boarded
and construction on the barns and fences began immediately.
The main barn had 12 stalls on either side of the center row, and
two wings on the right side with 7 stalls on each side:
52 stalls total. An office, a tack room, and a feed room
stood at the back of the barn. The name "Rolling Thunder Ranch" was named in honor of our Thunder Ridge mustangs.
I took over the pet vet, and set about establishing
my new life in Hidden Valley. The first foals born to our ranch came on June 18th, 2002:
The VERY first was Briar Patch, piebald tobiano Mustang colt, born to Briar Rose by Mountain Rainmaker
The others born shortly afterwards were:
Flame Warrior, red roan tovero Mustang colt, out of Black Fire by Thunder Warrior
Starset Onyx, smoky black Tennesee Walker colt, born to Clouds of Fire (real mother, Clipped Gold) out of Look to the Stars
Kachina, bay tobiano Mustang filly, out of Last Princess by Mountain Rainmaker
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