San Lucas Ranch branding

Our annual branding was held this past weekend following a generations-old tradition. We branded and vaccinated over 100 head of calves with a great crew of ranching folks from local ranches, Idaho and Oklahoma. Everybody went through the process successfully; no accidents, and the visitors we invited, including the newcomers, were all treated to an educational morning. By 2 o’clock we all were gathered around the shop area where tables were set up for the sumptuous luncheon provided by Del Clement.

As usual, the meal was a huge hit, offering beef, pork, chicken, green salad, broccoli salad, beans, rice, fruit salad with amaretto cream dressing and cake. Drinks were set in huge water troughs full of ice to quench everyone’s particular thirst. While eating and visiting, we showed videos of the past year’s futurities, which was fun because both of the horse trainers who showed the Holy Cow! Performance Horse entries were present.

 

It was also fun because the vets who helped those horses when they were born – or their mothers before them – also were present and got to see the results of their terrific work.

By mid-afternoon, all but ranch personnel had visited the barns and pastures to see the mares and foals of 2006 and 2007. When they were finished, they came by to say their farewells and went on their way.

The cows and calves had all been reunited, so all was quiet except for the occasional sound of an airplane landing at Santa Ynez airport. It was a very successful day for all, and another annual event was concluded.

 

Hes Instantlystylish

One of the newer traditions of the annual branding is to invite the horse trainers that I employ to train the foals I produce every year. I ask them to come to the branding a couple of days early to take a first-hand look at this year’s crop of 2-year-olds who are now old enough to go to a trainer to begin their education in whatever discipline to which the trainers think they are suited.

The bloodlines for these foals could be either cutting, reined cow horse or reining, but there is considerable crossover between them. Conformation, looks or bloodlines could be the determining factor, and just as in human children, the same parents can produce completely dissimilar offspring.

We spent last Friday going through the 2-year-olds and also looking at the yearlings that will be available for selection next year. After they made their selections, I asked both of them to make a list of which ones they wanted in order of preference. If there were conflicts, I was sure we could come to some friendly agreement. I have to say that it is a tremendous compliment to have these two world-class trainers even come and look.

 

Before they left, I was in possession of a list of who wanted what, and it was then up to us to get those horses to their respective “schools,” one in Idaho and the other in Oklahoma. It is very sad to send them so far away that I can’t see them regularly and watch them grow up and become, hopefully, show horses of great quality. I realize that it is all part of the business of proving the mares, their mothers, as “producers,” meaning that they have passed on their winning genes to their offspring. That is not always a given. There are many world-renowned stallions and mares that never had a foal who won anything.

The whole thing is a huge risk from day one, but when it works it is extremely rewarding.

My heart bursts with pride when a foal out of one of my mares does well at the shows, and a lot of the credit goes to the trainers who deal with the very different personalities of the horses to teach them what they need to know for them to be competitive.

 

While the trainers were here, I was hoping for them to see the first 2008 foal, which was due last Wednesday. Of course, that was not to happen until Saturday evening, after everyone was gone! It was a special birth to me, as all are, because both mom and foal were fine – but also because the little colt’s sire, Playin Stylish, had passed away last year. I can’t tell you what color he is because, right now, he is a dun-colored guy, but since his mother is a buckskin and she puts a pretty big stamp on her foals, it is not impossible that under all that light brown fuzz there are some black areas. He does have at least one white stocking on a hind leg, and he has a darker strip on the middle of his back, so he may turn out to be a line-back dun.

It’s anybody’s guess at this point. Horses can change color as they grow up, and some breeds do that in a big way, like Lipizzaners, which start out coal black and turn white as they age.

In fact, we had a filly we had to re-register last year because she was a sorrel when she was born and for some months afterwards. Somewhere around eight months she started growing a very white mane and tail and her body color changed to a honey-colored palomino. As her mother was a palomino, this was not a complete surprise, but it did require reporting to the American Quarter Horse Association to keep their records accurate.

 

So the spring foaling season is here and we have the first one safely on the ground. We will notify the owner of the stallion, who will send us the breeder’s certificate so that we can register the colt. In the meantime, we will need to pick out two names for the little guy: first a barn name, which is what we will actually call him; and second his registered name, which will identify him to the outside world. There is a list of registered names which have already been used and cannot be used again, and I have not checked yet to see if the name I am thinking about is available, but I do have a couple in mind.

Horses’ names, at least in the worlds that my horses move in, are interesting. Usually, one tries to include some part of the sire’s and dam’s names so that people will know something about their breeding just from the name.

 

Of course, one focuses on the more famous parts of the breeding line to make the foal seem more important in the midst of the thousands that are produced each year. There are also those breeders, such as I, who try to create some name which not only includes the sire’s and dam’s names but also is something memorable and, hopefully, cute. For example, last year I had a mare competing named “Kiss My Shiny Lips.” Her sire was Shining Spark and her dam was Lipschic, a Smart Chic Olena mare. I’m afraid her trainer got a lot of ribbing about the name, but I can guarantee that nobody forgot the name or the horse. So, I’m thinking that “Hes Instantlystylish” might be just the name for this youngster, if it is available, as his sire was Playin Stylish and his dam is Instant Paloma, an SR Instant Choice mare.

 

Citizens and the law

I don’t know how we got to this point, but it is no figment of the imagination that, more and more, everyday citizens have to take to the legal system to make the public agencies follow the law. I am constantly baffled by the outrageous attacks on citizens who pay the salaries of these so-called “public servants” who wantonly spin blatant falsehoods into the public sector and then collect money from the same public to pay for programs based on such stories.

A case in point, actually four cases, only two of which have been resolved, is the recent effort I have been pursuing in court regarding steelhead in Upper Hilton Creek. Some years ago, some enterprising person dug up an observation by an individual in the early ’40s of lots of presumed steelhead in the Santa Ynez River. From that casual report came an entire program based on the supposition that there were lots of steelhead stranded in every creek and in the river, prevented by the building of Cachuma Dam from returning to their native spawning grounds at the headwaters of the Santa Ynez River. From there ensued a multi-year, multi-million dollar program to “restore” the “historic” steelhead runs to the river. Federal, state and local agencies all got involved in proposing how to accomplish this, all admitting that since the majority of the property involved was privately owned, the majority of the “rescue” would depend on the largess of the owners. A few people, including myself, were initially interested in participating until a couple of things happened that seemed to me not to be in the interest of the fish themselves but definitely would bring about an end to the existence of San Lucas Ranch. First, I allowed a group of biologists to examine the fish in a pond in the river on the ranch. While they were electro fishing they zapped one fish.

It died and they all laughed about it.

 

It seemed to me that this was not designed to “save” fish but was more entertainment for them. I sent them on their way and refused any further attempts (except for one other time, which also was a mistake) to access the ranch for “studies.”

Because Hilton Creek became a major focus of their program, in my opinion because part of it was owned by the federal government and because it was the last creek before the dam, I took an immediate interest in what they were planning. I participated in all of their meetings that I was able to find out about. You need to understand that when Cachuma Dam was being planned, the land was condemned from San Lucas Ranch and my father spent nine years in federal court trying to not lose the entire ranch. One of the big sticking points was the boundary line between us and the Bureau of Reclamation, which now operates the dam, and it was decided by the court that the water in Hilton Creek, such as it was, was very important to our operation. That means that the issue of Hilton Creek already had been what they call adjudicated, and courts don’t like to second guess other courts unless it is an appeal.

 

A couple of years ago I started hearing these folks talking about how they were going to possibly take my water and didn’t care if I had a replacement. Well, that didn’t sit too well with me, so I went to court.

When the group of five water districts operating under the name Cachuma Operations and Management Board made a Negative Declaration, stating that there would be no negative impact of their proposed projects, I had to sue to preserve the ranch’s water supply. I won, and COMB was required to produce an Environmental Impact Report. Throughout the EIR process, I wrote letters, attended meetings, including one with a representative of National Marine Fisheries Service, all the while exclaiming concern over the fate of fish being artificially enticed into areas which normally are dry during some part of the year, even during wet years, and are dry most of the year in normal and dry years. Somehow, it didn’t make sense to me that we should further endanger these fish, if that was truly their status as opposed to just being at the farthest south point of their normal habitat.

My observations from more than 50 years of living right on the river was disregarded entirely, so I went to court again.

The judgment was issued this past week, and I am very happy.

 

The court agreed that there was no evidence whatsoever to show that there was suitable habitat in Upper Hilton Creek to support steelhead, and that no one, including COMB, could use the EIR to say otherwise. In addition, the judge stated that there was no mention in the EIR of impacts to land use, which should be examined.

Although the decision made no one the prevailing party, meaning we all had to pay our own legal costs, I felt vindicated in that, contrary to COMB’s conclusions, there was no evidence to support their claims – which was my point all along.