…..through first ride and onward, nothing is more important to us. We believe in the usefulness of any horse and we don’t believe in sacrificing the horse for personal gain.
We also believe our reputable cow bloodlines, combined with sound horsemanship practices is a winning combination for producing willing prospects that can excel in their chosen discipline; Cutting, cow horse, reining, rodeo or ranch work~a horse from Coyote Ridge Ranch can get it done. Not in the market for a performance prospect? Not a problem! Our horses will also make fantastic pleasure and trail horses.
I (Sabrina) grew up just outside the bright lights and concrete of Winnipeg, Manitoba. I was always the horse crazy gal and forever bugging my parents for a horse. Horse ownership at that time wasn’t an option, but thankfully, riding camps and lessons were.
Summers spent at Triple Oak Ranch and Lake Audy Guest Ranch turned into dressage and jumping lessons with Doug Britton, long time friend Tina Schoenbach and Betty-Ann McPhedran.
After moving to western Manitoba, the English saddle was hung up in favour of riding, spinning and sliding reining horses with Guy Robertson while studying Agribusiness at Assiniboine College in Brandon, Manitoba.
Clayton grew up on the family farm by Foxwarren, Manitoba. Horses were not a part of every day life on the farm, save for one ornery pony. Clayton’s love for horses and the desire to work with them started when he was in his 20s and has grown ever since taking him all over Manitoba and eastern Saskatchewan on trail rides, round ups, brandings and clinics. Clayton is a journeyman millwright (industrial mechanic) by day and all cowboy at heart!
We met at a trail ride and history is still unfolding! Our son Chay was born in 2005, the same year we moved to the current location of Coyote Ridge Ranch.
From here, we started building a herd, showing and selling our good prospects. When Guy Robertson moved away, I decided it was high time to try the one discipline that had always fascinated me, CUTTING! And I was not disappointed, it was (and is) incredible! For this experience, we have Cain and Roberta Quam to thank!
And so started the love for the horse with natural instinct to work a cow. With the 2006 purchase of Lenas Cuttin Smart, we’ve spent the past 15 years building a herd of mares with the pedigree, conformation and disposition to produce exceptional arena horses and handy ranch horses. While we are very happy with where we’re at with our breeding program, there is always room for improvement and strive for that in the future.
I can’t write an “About Us” page without visiting about horsemanship. We value traditional Vaquero horsemanship as brought forth to the world by; Bill and Tom Dorrance, Ray Hunt, Buck Brannaman, and most influentially to us, by our friend and mentor, the late Peter Campbell, and his widow Kitrina (Trina) Morris.
Clayton’s journey of horsemanship started in 2001 at a Peter Campbell clinic hosted, at the time, by his friend Richard. My journey started a bit later after auditing Peter’s clinics in 2004 and 2005 and participating in 2006 and onward. We attended as many clinics with Peter as we could, including hosting and co-hosting numerous Canadian clinics until his passing in 2017. Where one door closes, another always opens and we are grateful to continue our journey in horsemanship with Trina. While we always intrinsically knew the horsemanship is important, Trina has really opened our eyes to the limitless practical uses and applications for it. Learn more about Trina at TrinaMorrisHorsemanship.com
In addition to clinics (there’s no such thing as too much learning!), you can also find us at local events, barrel jackpots, cuttings, ranch horse events, brandings and round-ups. We like to enjoy our horses. We may have day time office jobs, but cowboying is what we would much rather be doing.
Office jobs and horses aside, another love of mine is photography. I’m not a trained photographer, I don’t call myself a photographer, but I LOVE to take pictures, especially of, you guessed it! HORSES!
Thanks for taking the time to check us out! We hope to see you down the road….feel free to drop us an email or give us a call to visit about a Coyote Ridge horse as your next equine partner.
~Sabrina, Clayton & Chay
