Our video-on-demand channel called "The Urban Cowgirl Channel" is now fully operational on the web. It currently has these program lineups:

The Urban Cowgirl Show
The Miniature Zebu Show
MiniZebuTube (video sharing web site about miniature zebu cattle)

The Goals of MinMor Farms

by Sonya Sokolow, owner of MinMor Farms

The goal of ranch-horse versatility training is a horse than can do many things well. The collage shows 9 different horse activities, yet there are only 2 horses in the photo: my stallion Shadrack Triton Gimcrack (4 corner and center images) and his daughter named Shadrack Triton Semi. I train my own Morgans in versatility on my 5-acre ranchette in Santa Cruz, a small coastal community in northern California.

My retired stallion “Shad” is 33 years old. The collage shows only a small sample of the activities he has learned in the past 30 years: roping cows, cattle cutting, pleasure saddle, pleasure driving, and being a vaulting horse for my children. You can see many more photos of his versatility on my website (www.thesokolows.com): cattle penning, parading in saddle and cart, playing at equine play days, park saddle, and park driving. I am training my other 4 Morgans to be ranch-horse versatile too. Morgans as a breed are inclined to be versatile. They are capable and willing. The collage shows Shad's legacy “Semi” (4 year old mare) being trained to rope cows, pull logs, and do trail obstacles. She also is learning to do cart driving, cow cutting, reining, western pleasure riding, free lunging over jumps to music (with her dam Demi), and actual trail riding.



My other 3 performance Morgans (10 year old mare Doubletrack Demi Moore, 6 year old mare Firecrest Easter Eve, and 1 year old filly Shadrack Sonenshine Sadie) are likewise being trained in ranch horse versatility by me. I use various economical home-made devices (cycle-driven simulated cow, motor-driven simulated cow, ATV-driven roping simulated cow), as well as 2 miniature Zebus (heifer Suzie and bull Rusty), to help me train my Morgans for cow work and movement over their haunches. I have created many videos on DVDs to show other Morgan owners how to train their own horses in ranch horse versatility.

Walt Disney's movie “Justin Morgan Had A Horse” explains how the Morgan breed originated and clearly shows the versatility of the foundation stallion Justin Morgan. You can learn a lot about training horses and cattle by watching RFD/TV (Directv satellite channel 379) and HorseTV (on some cable systems). I also use my training techniques to teach my mini cows in cart driving, log pulling, and saddle riding for children. I have made videos of these bovine activities available to other mini Zebu owners through the two mini Zebu registries: American Miniature Zebu Association (AMZA) and International Miniature Zebu Association (IMZA). These miniature cows are great for small properties. Caring for them is like caring for a large dog.

It's very satisfying to work with my livestock and to educate others who may want to do the same. Satisfaction comes in the journey toward ranch horse versatility, as well as in ultimately having useful, reliable, safe, and happy animal companions.