The Ward River Ranch, located in Kingsburg, California, held their Annual Open House and Stallion preview this year on Sunday, January 17th, 2010, from 11 A.M until 4 P.M, and the turnout for the event was, once again, amazing.  The Ward Ranch Open House is held each year in January and offers mare owners a chance to preview some of the finest stallions in the country.  It offers them a chance to see the stallions up close, to stroke their manes, scratch their necks and walk from stall to stall taking an “up close look” at each stallion.  Mare owners can view performance videos set up on laptop computers just outside each of stallion’s stalls, and pick up full color brochures to take with them, complete with pedigree, performance and offspring information.

The Ward Ranch breeding facility is run by Dar Hanson and Lisa Ferreira and their hard work and commitment to professionalism is immediately apparent when you walk up to one of their Open Houses and take a look around.  The walkways, the breeding shed, the grounds, the stalls, and the stallions that are housed in those stalls, are immaculate.  The tables and chairs that are set up for lunch, are adorned with white table cloths and western décor complete with chips and salsa on each table.  The flower pots all over the grounds are full of gorgeous flowers, and the lawns are green and freshly mowed.  There are people everywhere, standing in line for the complimentary BBQ lunch, with a fantastic barbequed Tri-tip, barbequed to perfection, once again, by Dar’s father, Leonard Hanson, and served with beans, rice, rolls, salad and lots of cookies.  There are sodas, water and beer on ice at all times, as well as coffee and hot chocolate, tea and juice.  The food and beverage preparation, as well as the serving, was done by Shirl Hanson, Stacy Hanson, Betty Dennis and Judy Kaiser, and they did a fantastic job, as always, with a smile.  There were people seated at the tables eating and visiting, standing in the alleyways of the stallion barns talking to stallion owners, trainers, representatives, and of course, Dar and Lisa.  There are people on the grass surrounding a stallion when it has been pulled out, for that once in a lifetime opportunity to see a stallion of this magnitude up close, and hear some of the finest trainers and horsemen in the business answer questions about a stallion’s performance, and his offspring.  Folks are filling out raffle ticket stubs for the drawing, browsing through vendor booths and standing around talking, most with a beverage in hand.  There are cars and pickups lining the driveway on both sides, from the road to the entrance of the Open House.  Vendors have their booths and tables set up to answer questions and give out literature, and this year, those vendors included Intervet, Mark VanBlankenstein Insurance Services, the National Stock Horse Association, and Fahoum Fabrications.  Everyone who attended the Open House this year had an opportunity to fill out a ticket to enter a drawing for $250 off breeding services at The Ward Ranch.  Dar Hanson’s little girl, Shay Hanson drew the winning ticket at the end of the day and Bill Parker of Springville, California was the lucky winner drawn.

The Ward River Ranch is a full Service breeding facility standing some of the best performance bred stallions in the business, combining legendary pedigrees with today’s Champion bloodlines for the winning combinations of the future.  This year, with 5 new stallions added to their stallion line up, The Ward Ranch’s 2010 Stallion Roster includes, Major Sno Chex, Mister Smart Remedy, Rene Dan Jet, Self Shine, Silver Gun, Smart Lil Highbrow, Smart Little Pepinic, Smart Steady Date, That CD Rocks, Topsails Rien Maker and Wranglers Starlight.

The Ward Ranch Open House was, once again, a huge success.  The complimentary BBQ lunch was served all day long and everyone worked hard to make sure the crowd had plenty to eat and drink.  They kept the food coming and the beverages flowing and the tables and chairs stayed full of folks enjoying their meal and visiting for most of the day.  Even a small down pour of rain, late in the afternoon, didn’t seem to put much of a damper on anything, everyone just pitched in to help get the tables, chairs and vendor booths under the cover of the barns and then went right back to visiting and eating and even, quite possibly, enjoying the rain.