Diamond Ranch is a family affair

Kelley Dameron rode her first horse when she was 8 years old. Her father showed halter horses for 50 years, so, almost naturally, when Dameron had children, she raised them around horses. And when her father retired in 2020, Dameron and her three daughters decided to expand on her father’s business.

Together they run Diamond Ranch, a horse boarding and training facility in Danese. They offer lessons and rides starting at 5 years of age and up. The stable houses 16 horses trained to accommodate beginner to advanced riders.

“We just loved the horses and wanted to get into it,” Dameron said. “We always helped him and did it with him and when he retired he kinda just gave it to us and we took over.”

The family can break and train horses. They offer classes in Western pleasure – a western style competition at horse shows that evaluates horses on manners and suitability of the horse for a relaxed and slow but collected gait cadence – and barrel racing. They offer summer camps, host birthday parties with pony rides and offer trail rides for one to two people.

Dameron says her dream is to be able to build an enclosed arena to be able to offer year-round lessons regardless of weather.

Shirley Drennen was looking for an activity for her shy 6-year-old daughter Clare in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic. She decided to enroll her in horse riding lessons at Diamond Ranch.

“It’s a solitary thing — you can come here and ride and social distance,” she said.

Now, four years later, Clare is a competitive barrel racer.

“She has a thing that she knows very well that differentiates her from her peers. It’s her sport, it’s her thing,” Drennen said.

“It makes a very shy kid into a much more confident kid.”