This month's Feature Destination:
Blue Sky Farm

February 2006

Thinking Big by Thinking Small!

Marion and Donna Schmidt tend to think small--miniature, in fact. And visitors to the Blue Sky Farm just love the way they think!

Raising miniature horses, the Schmidt’s have no doubt gotten used to the puns about these delightful animals. To be registered a Class A miniature, a horse must be no taller than 34” at the withers, and most of the 15 horses at Blue Sky Farm are well short of that.

Pride placed 12th in nation in color. He stands 26" tall.

“Pride stands only 29” tall, and was named the 12 th 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.

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.”

Read more about how these little horses pull their weight in agritourism

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Agritourism Scholars Attend NAFDMA

The Department of Commerce awarded 13 scholarships to certified agritourism operators to attend a winter meeting and to gain knowledge to improve their farm business.

Nine of the winners applied for scholarship funds to help them attend the North American Farmers' Direct Marketing Association Conference in Austin last month.

Those attending NAFDMA were:

• Bauman's Cedar Valley Farms
• Double Arrow C Ranch
• Harvest Farm and Pumpkin Patch
• Moore Ranch
• Pendleton's Country Market
• Renyer's Pumpkin Farm
• Smoky Hill Bison Company
• Survivor Paintball and Recreation Center
• Walters' Pumpkin Patch
  

Also shown in attendance were Janna Dunbar, the Agritourism Liaison for the Kansas Department of Commerce, and Jane Eckert, Agritourism Consultant to the state of Kansas.

The convention included a three-day Pre-Conference Bus Tour, a day of full-day Workshops, a two-day conference with concurrent sessions, and a Post- Conference Bus Tour. It also included a Trade Show. Participants chose which pre-conference and conference activities matched their interests and travel arrangements.

Check the Kansas Agritourism Calendar for Upcoming Events

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