Timmermann's Ranch & Saddle Shop

The barn that started it all was built by hand by Shana Rigsby's great-grandparents. The front room used to be a forge, because her great-grandfather was a horseshoer and worked out of it.

The way she tells it, the reason any of it exists is stubbornness on both sides. Her great-grandmother was hell bent on having a horse barn, and her great-grandfather was hell bent on making it happen.

Four generations later the family is still here, and the range of riders is the point. They will start a child as young as a child can be started, on pony rides, and they will also work with world champion competitors. Basic skills come faster than people expect. If you want to learn to steer, stop and make a horse go, Shana says she can teach you that in one lesson. You might not feel confident about it yet, but you will be able to do it.

They board and train as well, and work around what each horse needs rather than running every animal the same way. The horses have personalities the family talks about like relatives. Tiny is an enormous horse whose head comes up to Shana's torso, and she is five foot eight. She named him Tiny on purpose, because everyone hears the name and pictures a pony.

Shana is the fourth generation, and she did not arrive at that by default. She tried to leave. Her heart and soul said no, and nothing else has compared since.

Asked what the ranch would say to the world, she does not talk about riding at all. Support your local farmers. Everything in the store started on a farm, and without people behind them it goes away.