Engler Paints and Performance Horses Unlimited combines breeding, boarding, training, and it offers a safe environment to encourage horse people to involve their families in their interests. As a breeding facility, the focus is on foundation Quarter Horses and Paints in an effort to produce horses with great all-around performance ability.
Whispering Horse Ranch, home of Engler Paints and Performance Horses, is a 20-acre ranch located at the edge of Yuma. Owner Don Engler describes the facility as being "designed principally to support the breeding operation. We are the first breeders in Yuma County to use Artificial Insemination breeding, and this program enables us to acquire stallion services to national and world horses. Half of the property is in pasture for broodmares and babies. There is no wire or T-posts. Our arena is 146 feet by 340 feet and is designed with what we call a second chance fence of galvanized mild six-foot panels and supported every 32 feet by well pope that is attaches with galvanized connectors. In between the supports, every other connection is hinged, so if a rider or horse should make a mistake, the fencing is designed to give. The whole ranch is intentionally designed for safety of horses and of people."We have built a state-of-the-art facility that is for responsible horse people who want to enjoy their horses, and our philosophy is we don't care what kind of saddle your horse wears. Most people who have horses also have families, and sometimes they are forced to make a choice between them. Because we encourage the use of the facility by families that are interested in horses, we have a Kiddie Corral. This is a segregated playground area for children. People can bring their children with them and when they play with their horses, there's also a safe place for the children to play. The whole facility is designed in a manner that you can see everywhere in the area that is open to public use. If parents are in the barn with their horses, they can see their children in the Kiddie Corral, and the children can see their parents."
Don Engler says his horse facility is a "vocation/avocation" that he feels fortunate to have and to offer others the pleasure of owning and riding a good horse. More importantly, it is a place to enable horse people to include horses in their family activities.
Excerpts used with permission from the November, 1999 Arizona Horse Connection Magazine article, Engler Paints And Performance Horses Unlimited.
