Giant Birds and Tiny Horses

Jill's Journal: Many of the farms in the Santa Ynez Valley welcome visitors and tourists, which is simply bliss for our farm-loving, animal-loving little girls. And while they certainly enjoyed feeding the ostriches and emus at Ostrich Land, Erika, Madelyn, and Victoria went absolutely gaga over the miniature horses at Quicksilver Ranch.

First, the ostriches -- these big birds are not the friendly type and are extremely aggressive eaters, so it actually takes a lot of courage for little kids to offer food to them (and hold the bowl still while the birds attack it). Ostrich Land itself doesn’t hold much charm, but the girls actually remembered quite a bit from the wonderful and informative ostrich breeding farm tour we took last year in Tehachapi. They could identify which birds were female vs. male and remembered quite a few of the unusual facts and breeding information we learned there. Maybe things do sink in!

As fun as it is to feed an ostrich, it doesn’t seem to compare to the wonder these little girls have around miniature horses. Quicksilver Ranch is a breeding farm with a staggering 65 head of minis. I can’t imagine a cuter thing to breed and raise. These little guys and gals are off-the-charts adorable and even the stalls, fencing, and feeders at Quicksilver are mini-sized. A very kind lady at the farm answered several questions for us. Madelyn was especially enamored with “Macho Man,” pint-sized even by mini standards, and Erika fell for a blue-eyed paint. Naturally, they wished with all their hearts to take their picks home. But Victoria? When asked which one she would have liked to take home, she sighed and with a sly grin said, “All of them.”