American Canyon Stables

I would like to share an exciting event from our trip to Black Rock horse camp in Joshua Tree back in May. You may understand why this is so late once you hear about it. We were getting ready to make dinner after a great ride when Steve spotted an endangered desert tortoise under our picnic table. Looking closer, we saw she had dug a nest in the sand and was beginning to lay eggs! We were able to document this and report to the park. It seemed like every employee there came by to look, even though by then the tortoise had covered them up and walked away (they are not very attentive mothers). The area was cordoned off, and monitored by staff. Just a couple of days ago 6 little tortoises hatched. This was the report to us from the park:

I would like to pass along the good news that the tortoise nest and eggs in Black Rock have hatched! Just this morning, new hatchlings made their way out of their nest burrow, greeted Avery (JOTR biologist) and started exploring the fenced area in Horse Camp at BlackRock.

Six hatchling tortoises are now in the care of the The Living Desert Zoo and Gardens in Palm Desert. We considered releasing the hatchling tortoises into an area near the camp, but decided that “head-starting” them would be an appropriate and best case scenario for the hatchlings. Head-starting is when biologists/zoologists rear the young tortoises for a couple of years until they become large and armored enough to resist predation by ravens and other things. Survivorship of hatchlings in the wild is generally really low, but after they get to a certain size, it is much better. So, the plan is to rear these tortoise for a while and then release them back into the wild near Black Rock in the future.

We feel like proud parents!

Having a great barn campout at Skyline!

Happy 4th from ACS!

Welcome to Ember’s new mustang (name to be announced later) We picked him up at Palomino Valley and he was a good boy from loading, trailering and arriving in his paddock. Can’t wait to see what she does with him. Congratulations Ember!

Fun Christmas carriage ride on Mare Island. Other than a disagreement with a security guard who told us “it is all private property” (Told him the streets are public). He eventually told us no- I said well you are going to have to call the police because we are doing it and it’s legal.

Interesting and informative

𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗧𝗛𝗔𝗧 𝗜𝗦 𝗪𝗛𝗬 𝗪𝗘 𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗡𝗞 𝗛𝗢𝗥𝗦𝗘𝗦 “𝗦𝗣𝗢𝗢𝗞 𝗔𝗧 𝗡𝗢𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗡𝗚”