Star Fire Ranch

A little about us…

We started with our first Morgan in Arizona in 1985. I had grown up in Vermont, and had tried to explain to my native Arizonan husband Randy how the Morgan was different than other breeds. He thought that I was looking for a horse with a thick neck. Once we had our first Morgans, he understood what set them apart in personality and intelligence. Whereas, with other breeds of horses we had ridden, and that would rub you off on a tree at any moment, our first mare Lacey and a gelding from our other mare became trusted riding horses. Lacey would not let our daughter Casey get lost on the trail, even if it meant refusing to go the wrong way and taking the right trail on her own. In the desert, this was a quality worth its weight in gold. Casey's gelding 'Zip' was her best friend, taking the dogs and cats for “pony rides” around the yard.

We’ve driven our Morgans, and ridden trail, gymkhana and sherriffs search & rescue. When we learned about imprint training foals, we added that practice to our training regimen.

Our Australian Shepherds help us move livestock and have been faithful family guard dogs for a long time. We wanted to get a few sheep to help with training, so we started looking at different breeds of sheep.

We chose to add Icelandic sheep to our farm in 2006 in order to diversify our on-farm income and give us a line of products with a different market than the Morgan horses The cycle of lambs and wool, along with the variety of fiber and the excitement of breeding crosses has been an added bonus. Like the Morgan, the Icelandic is different than other sheep, they have distinctive personalities and act independently, rather than as a mindless flock. One of them is always on guard, scanning the horizon for any signs of danger.