Lori and I have had a dream over the years to build our own house with all the bells and whistles we believe are important and then over time that dream has expanded to include mountain views, more horses, dogs, friends, family, trails for riding and hiking and on and on and way more than I remember ever imagining initially.
We named this dream Promise Ranch, first because Lori and I both believe that life is all about making and keeping promises. It is the most important thing that we can do and the promises we make to ourselves, each other, our friends, our family, our colleagues at work, the larger community, our fur family members….it is this quiet and sometimes not so quiet commitment to our promises that is our body of work, in essence our brand and how we measure who we are and how we will be remembered down the road. Promises made, promises kept..there is really nothing more important …so we named our dream Promise Ranch because we believe in promises.
The name actually came from my Mom who is in Hospice now and who suggested that when we get the ranch we also adopt what she describes as a “scruffy” dog from a rescue and name it Promise and have that dog roam this property as our Black Lab Chance who died last year would have enjoyed doing..so we are going to keep that promise to my Mom but we are going to do her one better than that.
In 2016, we really began to search for some land and spent a year looking but nothing really jumped out at us until this property popped up right from under our noses and only about a mile away from our current home. One day last summer, Masquerade and I were riding in Browns Ranch Park and we were way out west near Pima Road and I felt inclined (a soft tap on the shoulder) to ride across Pima and so we crossed and wandered into this development and I immediately had one of those you know it when you see it situations. I turned 360 degrees in the saddle and from every vantage point there were mountain vistas as far as you could see..all the mountains we know and have come to love and enjoy. Wow, I said to myself, I think we found it…Masquerade and I rode hard back to the trailer and when we got home, I jumped in the car and drove every road in the development and finally on the very last road at the very end of the road, there it was just sitting there…Lori and I looked at each other and said this is it….welcome to promise Ranch.
I’ll go quiet now and you can watch the video…we want to invite all of you to our ranch warming party on October 27. During the evening, we will be showing a “trailer” on the soon to be released, Last Chance Corral documentary “Born to Die”. Every year, day old foals are taken from their mothers, so their mother can serve as a nurse mare to a thoroughbred while the thoroughbred mother is then rebred. While the foals who loose their mother are left to die, about 150 every year are luckily rescued by Last Chance and this documentary is the story of their rescue. Sue Morrow, who directed the film, will be at our home to answer questions and help us give away an all expense paid trip for two in the Spring to work with the baby foals at Last Chance. Lori and I will be travelling with the lucky winners to participate in this inspiring experience.
Tell us what you think and as always, enjoy the ride.
Lucian and Lori
www.thelongride.com