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Double D Boarding Stables
 

Horses have been a part of people’s lives for centuries. Soldiers have ridden them into battle, plainsmen rode them into the frontier, and cowboys rode them as they drove cattle up the Chisholm Trail to the cattle towns of Kansas. Horses were used for plowing, for riding, and for pulling wagons and stagecoaches. It is correct to say that the west was tamed on the back of a trusty horse.

   Although the horse has been replaced as a primary means of transportation, they are still found working on the local ranches as cowboys cut cattle from a herd for medical attention and people use horses for a variety of recreational uses.

   Many people continue to enjoy a relationship with a their horse as a hobby or diversion from the madness of our high technology world. I used to have a pair of sorrel quarter-horses that I kept stabled in Stockton and visited them after a long day at work. It was relaxing to let them run and play in the arena while I occasionally took a short nap in the warm sunshine.

   When I maintained my horses in Stockton, I learned about an excellent horse boarding and recreational facility in Tracy called Double D Stables. With rumors of its excellent reputation coming from so many people, I decided to have a look at this facility for myself and for the readers of the Tracy Business Journal.

Front Entrance to Double D Stables showing the antique farm implements and the main barn.

   Double D Stables is owned and run by Daid and Diane Colli.   The family moved to the Tracy property in 1928, which makes it one of the older family owned businesses in the area. Dave and Dianne ran cattle after acquiring the property from the family in 1983. They were working cattle on the property when neighbors asked them to board horses in the pasture.

Mickey is one of three dogs who keep an eye on the facilities and are good company for the horses.

   Raising cattle tends to result in a series of operating costs with revenue coming in only when a large group of cows have been sold.  After seeing the regular monthly revenue from their horse boarding operations, they realized that  horse boarding offered a regular cash flow and began improving the facility and expanding their boarding operations.

   Double D has evolved into a mature facility with seventy horses boarded on the premises in the inside barn, in outside barns, or in the pasture.  They hope to increase the level to about a hundred horses after completing several property improvements.  Hay is grown in the fields and is sold to the general public and is used to feed the boarded horses. 

Fields of fresh alfalfa hay ready to be mowed for sale to customers or for feeding to the stables horses.

   Double D Stables currently charges $100 per month to board a horse in their pasture, $160 per month to board in an outside barn, or $205 per month to board in the large barn. Boarding in the large barn includes full care, which includes  feeding the horse and cleaning of its  stall.

The outside section of the main barn stalls.  This is where the horses go when they go out for a bit of sunshine.

   A tour of the facility starts with the front parking area, which is about to be paved to better accommodate the boarders. From the parking area, we move into the large barn with horse boarding stalls down each side and a large open area in the middle. The stalls have the customary contained outside area that allow the horse to wander from the enclosed barn and out into the weather while maintaining their own space.

The inside portion of the barn stalls.  Things are neat and clean with the horses name on the stall door.

   From the large barn, we can walk across an open area and into the enclosed arena. An arena is where the owners may ride and work on specific riding skills. The advantage of an enclosed arena is that riders may work their horses on rainy days without riding in the rain and they can work their horses in the heat of the summer without stressing themselves or the horses with direct sunshine.

A view from the main barn through the arches of the door looking out toward the covered and lighted small riding arena.

   As we walk from the enclosed arena toward the large open arena, we see the outside barns to the left and a small picnic area next to the large open arena. The open arena is large enough to do a lot of training or riding and it is used for the Team Penning practice on Saturday evenings.

Looking at the side of the main barn from the area of the large riding arena allows us to see one of the picnic tables.

   From the outdoor arena we wander south past the round pen, which is used for lounging (pronounced lunging) horses or for other forms of horse training. Past a few more covered stalls and we arrive at a large pasture. It was breakfast during my visit and the horses were busy consuming alfalfa hay.

Breakfast for the horses in the pasture. 

   It is always fun to watch a group of horses eating from the flakes of hay that are thrown into the pasture. No matter how many flakes of hay are thrown to the horses, each will select a flake and begin eating. After eating for a while, one horse will decide it prefers to eat the hay of another horse and will run that horse off. All of the horses will go down the pecking order taking over the flake of another horse until they are again all eating from a different flake of hay. This is always entertaining to watch.

Horses eating from their own flake of hay just after moving from another flake.

   Double D Stables has two riding instructors who train at the facility. They are not employees of the stables, but they provide a variety of equine services. They will help with horse training, riding lessons, horse care, and horse transportation at reasonable rates.  Their information can be found on the Double D Stables web site.

The front of an outside barn with everything labeled and cleaning tools nearby.

   To provide more of a social setting, Double D conducts Team Penning clinics on Saturday evenings in the large, lighted, outdoor arena. Team Penning is an equine sport with a variety of options that requires a small team of riders to work together to cut a specific cow, or cows, out of a small herd while keeping the small herd together. 

The outdoor arena where riding and Team Penning are practiced.

   In Team Penning, the riders are positioned at the opposite end of the arena from a tight herd of cows. The number of members of riders on the team determines the number of cows that are used. When the team crosses a line in the arena, they are given the number of the cow, or cows, to be found in the herd and cut out.

   The proper cows are cut from the herd and must be driven into the holding pen at the opposite end of the arena without bringing extra cows with them. The timer will stop when all of the requirements are met and all cows are where they belong, but they must be done in less than a minute and a half in order to receive a time.

   Every Saturday night Double D Stables has 2 on 1 Team Penning practice between 7:00 and 10:00 pm in the open arena. All arenas are lighted so they can be used after darkness has fallen.

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