Our Mission Statement ~~~ We care for horses and cater to equestrians who want the best in secured MIG pastures with concerned daily care for their equine in a natural manner, in a natural setting. We will provide a place for equestrians to enjoy their horse, inside gated/enclosed training facilities and a place for riding through the scenic wide-open-spaces of our northeast corner of Oregon.

This is our business, home of our equines, and we wish to share our horse ranch with those that can appreciate our efforts to make a safe place for all to enjoy.

You can follow this link to find our credentials for trusting your horse with us.

We are most concerned for the safety and well being of all horses, and particularly those pasturing at McKuster Ranch -ours and yours- and we hope you will share in this concern whether you consider boarding, or not to board your horse at McKuster Ranch, LLC.

Our Equine Veterinary Health Standards ~~~ We offer horse pasture boarding on a monthly, weekly or weekend basis. Because we are most concerned for the safety and well being of all horses pasture boarding at McKuster Ranch -yours and ours- we ask if you wish to pasture board your horse here that you provide us with a copy of your most current veterinary records of good health and specific vaccinations (equine influenza, EHV-4, west nile) and a negitive Coggins Test results, within the past 6 months. The vaccinations should have been given between 21 days to 8 months prior to entering our pastures. Along with your most recent annual vet records, we ask for a record (sales receipts) of your routine equine worming program, before entering our pastures. In our effort to prevent colic (intussusception/ impaction/ spasmodic), at McKuster Ranch we ask if your horse has not been wormed in the past 60 days, this should be done 48-36 hours prior to entering our pastures.

We feel from the pharmaceutical formulas there are three very good worm programs that fulfill all our needs, for spring and summer worming we use 1) Pfizer or Merial products; 2) for November 1st worming treatment we use only Pfizer's Equimax on all horses, and 3) winter worming we dose our equines with the easy-to-use dry Farnam product. Because we live in a rather lush environment next to the Walla Walla River only the best parasite protection will suffice when it comes to the welfare of our beloved equines.
We will be happy to share with our pasture boarders a CD video of the Parasite Puzzle produced by Pfizer - Animal Health, at the time you bring you horse to McKuster Ranch pastures.

You might find our Pasture Rental Agreement rather long - 8 pages, as we have tried to address all the circumstances/ people that we have encountered in the past years of pasture boarding horses. We have used parts of three other Pasture Rental Agreements (one from Massachusetts, one from California, one from our equine law attorney in the state of Oregon) to help us in composing our own Pasture Rental Agreement. We do our best to run an equine business that takes care of our horses, our boarding horses and maintain a safe place for all to enjoy equine sports, on and off McKuster Ranch, LLC property. To let you know where we are coming from... here are some encounters we have had, and try to address in our Pasture Rental Agreement.

We wish for everything concerning our business with you and your horse to be understood up front and in writing. Some flags we have experienced with some horse owners have been:

• We have had a person want us to feel their horse's rump for evidence of a bump/ having their equine vaccinations - we ask for a current receipt.
• We have had a person bring us a nearly blind horse with a tube of over the counter eye medication for us to administer to their horse daily.
• We have had a person bring us a copy of 120 days past due veterinarian collections billing as their proof of horse ownership - we want to see a Bill of Sale or registration papers for proof of horse ownership.
• We have had a person threaten to sue us for their horse's smooth wire fence cut - a horse is a horse, they are not put on leashes here
• We have had a person that have tried to drive their horse through our round-pen fence panel and leave without taking responsibility for damage done
• We have had a person have their 6 year old child riding their horse in the round-pen with the riding helmet hook onto the saddle horn.
• We have had a person that while they were out of town for awhile, wanted Jane Q. Public (friend) ride their horse in our arena. We knew that Jane Q. Public (friend) was at that time involved with trying to collect on a personal injury lawsuit for injuries received elsewhere.
• We have had a person help themselves to our hay storage and throw half a bale of hay to the horses without permission- October through May we feed hay 2 or 3 times a day - McKuster Ranch provide all hay.

Other inconsiderations we have encountered are:

• We have had people to bringing their horse back to pasture after a day's ride at midnight, and they leave their truck engine running with loud muffler, sitting in front of our house/bedroom during their entire off-loading time - please turn off your engine when you park.
• We have had people use our veterinarians, and not paid for the services rendered. The saying goes, "The least expensive part of owning a horse is buying a horse." Veterinary care and payment is the responsibility of the horse's owner.
• We have had people say that they thought McKuster Ranch, LLC would wait for the pasture boarding rent payment until they had paid some of their other bills - unless previously discussed, horse are asked to leave McKuster Ranch if their boarding fee is not paid promptly.

We wish for everything concerning our business with you and your horse to be understood up front and in writing. If you have any questions, or a problem, please communicate with us concerning your boarding agreement with McKuster Ranch, LLC. Thank you.

Our Pasture Boarding Application ~~~ If you wish to make application for pasture boarding at McKuster Ranch please see our Pasture Rental Application -- provided here in MS Word.doc, or MS Word.rtf and also available in PDF format.
Please make copy and US Mail to: McKuster Ranch, LLC PO Box 674 Milton-Freewater, OR 97862-0674.
After we have discussed your horse's application with our herd we will notify you by email, telephone, or US Mail of acceptance of application.

Our Pasture Rental Agreement ~~~ Will be available before December 2008. If you are interested in having your horse graze on some of eastern Oregon's finest MIG irrigated horse pasture, you can review our Pasture Rental Agreement by clicking on any of these document links available in MS Word.doc, or MS Word.rtf, and also available in PDF format.
Please use/copy ~pages 1 through 8 ~, which we will ask for at the time your horse enters McKuster Ranch pastures - please do not US Mail these pages to us.

Email us or call (541) 938-6271 if you have any questions concerning pasture boarding your horse at McKuster Ranch in 2008.

We hope you will enjoy your stay at McKuster Ranch, and we have had vets to say that they wish they could stay here if they were a horse. August 1, 2007 Fugly Horse of the Day recognized and recommended our horse pastures and pasture management system, so we feel we are doing things right in the care of horses.

Pasta Pronta

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Last update: October, 2008
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