Rancher-to-Rancher at Moon Horse Ranch (OFFSITE WORKSHOP)
Join Rancher-to-Rancher at Moon Horse Ranch (just south of Santa Fe) for a full-day of learning with other land stewards. Throughout the day, participants will be guided by the core principles of soil health and ecosystem function, the wisdom and experience of participants, firsthand observations and experiments using most of our senses and simple equipment.
Though each Rancher-to-Rancher workshop is different, here’s what you expect from this event:
– Connection with peers: Introduction circle, where everyone has a chance to answer some open questions, and get to know who’s who. Shared learning questions that allow people to reflect on their own learning, different perspectives, and witness the learning of others.
– Learning discussions of grazing management with hosts/managers. What have been their challenges and opportunities? Addressing various issues with grazing planning.
– Soil health demos such as bread vs flour, slake test, infiltration—all of which can be done and shared by participants. Rainfall simulator demo. Soil health principles, ecosystem processes, the forms of sunlight energy–not just abstract information, but specific, hands-on, grounded in real experience. The contributions that grasslands can make to effective carbon and water cycling, and to regional sustainability.
– Looking at land and soil with eyes and a shovel. Rhizosphere, litter, participatory observations and monitoring activities suitable for non-experts such as infiltration, surface transects, visual soil assessments.
– Partners and local resources for people wanting to learn, needing more technical assistance, or access to programs.
– Demos of livestock concentration or “inclusion zone:” before and after observations of short-term high-density trampling as well as low-stress stockmanship.
See examples of past R2R gatherings here.
Upon registration:
– Participants will be given exact location and directions to Moon Horse Ranch outside of Santa Fe (about 30 minutes from the Santa Fe Convention Center)
– Participants will be given further information on transportation options from Santa Fe to Moon Horse Ranch
Lunch will be provided.
A big thank you to SWGLA and the NoRegrets Initiative for helping us bring Rancher-to-Rancher back to New Mexico for REGENERATE attendees!
Questions? Contact Nina at nina.katz@quiviracoalition.org.
About Rancher-to-Rancher: Since 2013, the Rancher-to-Rancher network has gathered ranchers, land managers, and conservationists for events focused on social connection and skill sharing around care for the land and animals they steward, adaptive grazing, healthy soil principals, and the daily realities of land management.
About Kent Reeves: Kent Reeves is a Certified Professional Rangeland Manager and Certified Wildlife Biologist with a 40 year public/private conservation career evaluating threatened and endangered species. He has monitored wildlife populations, habitat, soil carbon, and rangelands relative to livestock management throughout California and the west. Kent facilitates and teaches wildlife, range and livestock management courses, workshops, field days and webinars for universities, professional organizations, agriculture producer groups, and NGOs. He has international experience in Kenya and South Africa, and has worked as a cowboy and mule/horse packer in California and New Mexico. Kent can assist with trial site size and location, treatment of trial site, monitoring soil and vegetation, and facilitating rancher gatherings. He lives in Madera, California.
About Moon Horse Ranch: Moon Horse Ranch is a little ranch south of Santa Fe, home to painter Stella Maria Baer, designer Seth Reese, their three children, an appaloosa named Moon and Stars, a baby pinto named Sky, a flock of wooly goats, and two sheepdogs named Cosmo and Ursa Major.
Our vision for Moon Horse Ranch is a place where people draw closer to the land, one another, and themselves through what we call “Arts of the Land” Workshops. Taught by artist friends of ours, our workshops include Earth Pigment Paint Making, Hide Tanning, Natural Dye, Quilting, Moon and Land Photography, Herbal Medicine for Horses, and Fleece Spinning. These workshops offer ways to return to creative practices in relationship with the land. You can learn more about Moon Horse, Stella, and Seth here!