This website serves Farmers and Ranchers in the Kansas AgriTourism Industry.For family outings, go to http://www.travelks.comWelcome to Kansas AgriTourism!This website has been developed specifically for Kansas farmers and ranchers involved in AgriTourism, rural properties where the traveler has an opportunity to experience farm and country life far from the hustle of the city.The site is a project of the Kansas Agritourism Advisory Council, working in cooperation with:the Kansas Agriculture Marketing Division and the Travel and Tourism Division of the Department of Commerceand with financial assistance from Frontier Farm Credit.We invite you to explore this website to find a variety of articles and resources that will help you succeed in agritourism.If you have any questions, please contact the Department of Commerce, Travel and Tourism Division, and ask for the Agritourism Liaison.
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 This Month's Featured Destination: Blue Sky Farm
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| Pride placed 12th in nation in color. He stands 26" tall. |
“Pride stands only 29” tall, and was named the 12th in the entire nation in color,” Donna told us. “His sire was only 25.75, and won first in the nation in 1986 and 1987.”
Today, three of the 15 horses on the farm have placed in the top 10. All of their horses are registered in the American Miniature Horse Association and in the American Miniature Horses Registry.
Marion began raising miniature horses after retiring from Thomas Moore Prep as the head football coach. Initially, they showed the horses in parades or to an occasional group of school children. Then they met Ruben Schuckman.
Ruben works for the Hays Convention and Visitor’s Bureau, and in 1999, the city began offering Twilight Tours. On a tour night, arrangements were made for a local museum or attraction to remain open. For those staying in local motels, they were offered the opportunity to have the Schmidt’s pick them up in a carriage or cart pulled by the miniature horses, and deliver them to the Twilight Tour.
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| Granddaughter, Lauren Barnes showing Snow Dancer and a friend, Kristin, showing Silver Legacy |
“Ruben took us under his wing,” said Donna. “He helped us get our feet wet in agritourism. And a couple of years ago, Jane Eckert [Kansas Agritourism Consultant] visited the farm and gave us a lot of suggestions regarding what tourists were looking for in a farm experience.”
Ruben became their personal agritourism coach, helping the Schmidt’s to plan an event, and teaching them how to promote the event using their own time, talent and skills.
“Our first step was to plan a special event,” Schuckman said. “I explained to the Schmidt’s that the media won’t do much if you just send them a press release saying ‘we’re open for business.’ So we planned an event and hired a cowboy poet to be our VIP. Through the Kansas Humanities Council, we could hire a high quality presenter for very minimal costs.”
“Then we made posters and put them up ourselves. We wrote press releases about the event, and visited the radio and television stations. It was all our own work.”
“On a hot, hot Sunday, they had more than 580 people show up for their first event,” recalled Ruben. “We were all pleased.”
The next year, the Schmidt’s took over the entire event, creating “The Wonderful World of Miniature Horses.” Ruben went on to work with other farms, and is now helping several local agritourism farmers, including the Schmidt’s, come together to combine their drawing power as well as their marketing budgets. The group will probably produce a brochure and web materials to promote their attractions.
Today, the Schmidt’s host several events on the farm, plus school tours, special fall events, and they’ve started attracting motor coaches traveling across Kansas. They also take the miniature horses to other farms to add excitement to area pumpkin patches, the Deutschfest, and Octoberfests; offering cart rides along with the opportunity to just see these beautiful animals.
Tours
The school tour offers a variety of interesting activities:
- Visitors tour the impressive trophy room
- Visit the special barn where the show horses are prepared for show
- Touch and pet the mares and foals
- Learn about how the horses’ hoofs are trimmed, manes combed and cut, and the horses are groomed and prepared for show
- Of course, each tour includes a ride in a cart or surrey pulled by one of the proud miniature horses.
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| Little Angel's Valentine, 31" tall. |
Training
Visitors also learn a little about the extensive training process that Marion does with each horse.
“The training process begins at birth, when we immediately begin imprinting a positive association with humans by holding them and stroking each one every hour, for about the first 48 hours after birth,” Donna said. “We have 15 miniature show horses, and expect 6 or 7 babies this year, so that alone is a lot of time and work.”
New horses are trained to pull a cart in the lounging ring, and taught the walk, trot, and working gaits. They learn to respond simply by voice command, and Marion can also call the horses to him. Later, the training moves to the driving arena, where he uses long reins and teaches them to accept a bit and the reins, and finally, to pull the cart and be ready for show and parades.
The business is growing nicely, Donna reported. “In March through July we do tours, which always include a cart ride. We also have some special groups. We have a very nice picnic area and can arrange to have BBQ catered in. We’ve also got more special Sunset Evenings scheduled- people love that ride at sunset.”
“The horses are very intelligent and affectionate and its fun training them,” Marion says. “Young kids really like them. To see the look in their eyes when they are around the horses is very rewarding.”
It is a lot of work. The horses are all brushed daily. Training is ongoing. There are inoculations, dental care, and being sure each horse gets a balanced diet. Marion added that the cost of maintaining a miniature horse is about one-tenth that of maintaining a large horse, and they are ideal for adults and children who can’t handle the larger animals.
Life expectancy for a miniature horse is 25-30 years, the same as the larger horses, so they are a good investment for the right farms. “It’s hard to part with one of our miniatures, but we know they’ll bring a lot of pleasure to their new owners.”
For more about the Blue Sky Farm, visit www.blueskyhorses.com, or the Hays, Kansas Convention and Visitor's Bureau website at www.haysusa.com
Provided by the Kansas Agritourism Advisory Council.
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