About Spencer Family Ranch

 

 Several years ago my wife and I (Mona & Mark Spencer) started dreaming of a ranch.  A place we could share our passion for mules and horses.  We started looking all over Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee for the right place. Well, to make a long story short, we ended up staying right at home.

 With my son Steven as well as help from other family members, bothers, son-in-law, and the occasional friend or two, we started to mold our dream ranch out of nothing. We still have a long way to go, but have made significant progress. We recently built a 130x80 barn with an indoor arena and ten stalls. It has all the bells and whistles that we wanted from what we have seen in hundreds of other barns. Most of the lumber used inside of the barn was produced from trees on our own property.

 Some time ago, Mona and I were coming home one night and she said to me, "Honey what do you think about being a Foster Parent?". I replied, "Are you nuts?". About a week later I went to the mail box and a package was there from children services. I called her at work and said, "HONEY is there something we need to talk about?". She replied, "nope we already did".

 Well, guess who won that discussion... It wasn't me! Since that "discussion" we have fostered over fifty kids to date. During that time span of a little over ten years, my family and I started a horse program for a Girl Scout council. We have learned how to deal with all types of kids. We have found that horses play a huge roll in breaking barriers in people. The child that first got on kicking and screaming was almost always the last one that wanted off. We've seen the smiles and heard the laughter of kids that initially wouldn't speak to us.

 Taking the experience and knowledge from running this program in cooperation with the passion we have for horses, we feel that our dream ranch provides a great mix for adults and children. We do our very best to accommodate everyone's needs when it comes to learning to ride so that everyone can benefit and learn from our services.

 Training horses at our place is a family thing it seems like. Everyone has a hand in it, Steven and his wife Hannah work real well together. Steven likes the riding part and Hannah does a great job on the ground.

Shelly has lite hands and is good at teaching spins and turns. She also mothers the herd.

 Amanda is training her own herd at this time (kids) . When they are trained I will get her back full time and she can and will ride the legs off of them.

 Tyler is the youngest of the Spencer tribe, he came late in our life. He loves to work with them on the ground and talks them to death, horses, people, who ever and what ever will listen.

 Mona and I are at the point in our life that we love trail riding and get aways. We both love working together on project mules and horses. If I say its ready, Mona will saddle up and smile (she is to trusting). In all the years we have worked together we have developed a trust between each other, which is a good mix in training.  Watching our kids and extended family work horses and teaching what they know to the kids and adults that pass through our barn doors means more to us than we could have ever imagined.

 Lue, a friend of ours, got us started in mules years ago and he said, "What makes a good riding animal is riding hundreds of miles on them. Well, a short cut to this method is hills - it's a lot less mileage but produces the same results."  Lue knows how to get the most out of his mules and horses, he is an old school trainer and cowboy that loved to win. A day dosen't pass that I don't use something that this man taught me. I think it is his falt, that my family developed our passion for mules and horses. 

 We use many methods shown to us from Steve Edwards of Queen Valley Ranch in Arizona and have had a great deal of success with it. Steve can make a mule or horse do almost anything. Check out his web site www.queenvalleymuleranch.com.

 We use our horses in lessons for several months and use them with several different age levels before they come up for sale. We are very honest about each animal that we sell. We will inform the buyer, of both their good and bad characteristics.

 When it comes down to it, everything could end tomorrow . Mona and I would still be happy. Our daughter, Amanda, gave birth to twins' Lillian and Wyatt in June 2007! Oh but she wasn't done yet, lets say the girls are over taking the boys. Natalie was born in August 2008.  Our other daughter Crystal gave birth to a girl in May 2007, Azura.  Cryastal is currently expecting another girl later this year!  And in September 2008 our daughter, Victoria gave birth to a girl, Neveah.

 I thank our Lord everyday for the family and friends that Mona and I have. The Lord has blessed us for over the thirty years that we have been married. Together with the Lord, Mona and I have made it over many hurdles in life.

 Mona and I would love for you to come and see us. Give us a call or drop us an e-mail and we will help you any way we can. We love what we do and we learn something everyday. The one thing we have learned over and over again ,is that not all horses, mules, or people are the same - and that's OK.

Sincerely,

Mark Spencer