In the beginning:

When I was a young girl growing up in Eastern Kansas, I was lucky enough to fall in love and own several quarter horses and my very favorite Shetland pony, name Princess.

I found it especially easy to train her to play football with me against my 4 brothers and lavish me with kisses whenever I wanted. There was construction on the highway so all the trucks were rerouted past our place for almost a year. I enjoyed so much listening to the CB radio to the trucks telling each other to look out for the girl with the horse in her lap on Route 2. Princess used to love to have her belly rubbed.

Then the worst imaginable happened when I was 14, the Amoco in my hometown closed and my entire family was transferred to North West Indiana. Mom and Dad found a home for Princess, but they knew me well. They were afraid I would run away with her, so she was loaded up in the middle of the night on Christmas Eve.  I don’t think I ever got over having to leave her behind.

After college I married and had 3 kids, settled into my life in Indiana.  The years went by and suddenly the kids were grown. My husband wanted to look for retirement property in Michigan. I didn’t like the idea, for I knew that he would be fishing all day and I would be alone. He asked me what I wanted, and immediately I said horses.

Now, mind you, this was supposed to be several years off. My husband would only consider retirement in Indiana if it was in North Valparaiso Indiana, where the there are lots of trees and places to fish. We told everyone that this would be a few years away; we were just going to look.

Well, the first house we looked at, a mile deep into the woods captured our heart. It was easy to imagine a horse ranch on 11 beautiful acres. This was in August 2008 and by October 1st, we were in our new home. I brought up the idea of miniature horses to my husband, and I was surprised that he sounded interested. We found everything out that we could about miniatures and the more we read and looked at them the more we knew that it was meant to be.

Construction of Timberwood Minature horse ranch began in Feb. 2008.  Larry and I along with the help of our tractor cleared over an acre of woods to make room for the barn and paddock. In March we traveled to Wisconsin to look at some miniature horses. Our maximum was going to 4; we came home, the proud owners of 7.  We had a lot of work to do to complete everything by the time they would arrive in June.

June 28th was the big day. I went to pick up my darlings It was love and first sight and nothing has changed in the 2 yrs since we started our new life. We now have 11 darlings. 2 new colts this last spring, a beautiful Red Sorrow gelding and a red chestnut miniature colt yearling, We have a guard lama names Cocoa Bean, 6 cats and our beloved Great Pyrenees Sarah, who helps keep our darlings safe.

You would never know that Larry had no experience with horses. When you love something so much, it comes naturally. The last year and a half has been the most rewarding of my life. When we open up the barn in the morning, they all have their heads over the doors ready for their good morning kisses. They have given us more love then we could ever have imagined. The babies love to lay in my lap for belly rubs and Belle who was our princess foal last year, still wants to roll and lay down for her belly rub. They know that they are loved and I can’t imagine our life without them.

I have broken 3 to drive a cart and entered them into the local fair just 3 weeks later. We came home with ribbons, I was proud of them.

All of our breeding stock is AMHA and AMHR registered. They come from a rich bloodline and will make wonderful show horses or pets.

Many people who have come to see our minature’s have said that they are so people friendly. They are our family and we spend a great deal of time with them, training, and always letting them know that they are loved.

Our Barn is always open to visitors and you are sure to get a whinny when you stop by. Our darlings would love to see you.