Embracing equines

SUTHERLIN — When Bill and Mikie Van Den Berg first visited Dodge Creek Stables, there were only four four-legged residents.

They could see the facility needed work to turn it into a horse haven.

With their passion for horses, donkeys and mules, the Van Den Bergs didn’t mind rolling up their sleeves and giving the barn, arena, stables and corrals three miles west of Sutherlin the work they needed to attract more residents. They saw potential.

Four years after purchasing the business in 2003, the Van Den Bergs and their stables have reached full potential with 55 equine animals boarded. Forty-six of those are paid customers, while the others belong to the Van Den Bergs.

There are also 18 goats that are used to control brush on the surrounding 58 acres that were also part of the purchase.

“I wish we would have done this years ago,” said Mikie of the couple’s move from a one-acre horse and donkey ranch in Sacramento, Calif., because they decided they had outgrown it. “It’s wonderful to be here. Working with horses, working with people and their horses is so wonderful. It’s a lot of work, a lot of hard hours, but it’s better than sitting in an office. The move was a good thing.

“Horses give so much back to us,” she added. “You can watch them learn and you can watch the people riding them gain so much confidence in themselves.”

While Dodge Creek Stables is a business for the Van Den Bergs, it is their love for equine animals that drives them. The animals are fed hay and/or orchard grass pellets for breakfast, lunch and dinner, their stalls are cleaned daily and they each get personal attention daily.

Mikie, a 59-year-old high-energy woman, moves quickly from job to job throughout the day, talking to the animals just as easily as she does to customers and visitors.

Bill, 54, splits his work time between the stables and running his Van Den Berg Home Inspections business.

The move from California resulted in quite a life change for both Mikie, who had worked for a nonprofit organization, and for Bill, who was a 27-year government employee at McClelland Air Force Base before retiring seven years ago.

“Bill used to wear a tie, sit at a desk from 8 to 5, have coffee breaks and a lunch hour,” Mikie said of her husband’s former life. “Now it is a much different routine.”

“Now there’s hay to be dealt with at all hours, and 14-hour days of work,” Bill said. “But it has to be done and you don’t complain.”

Horses have been a part of Mikie’s life since she was a youngster. Her aunt had horses, and Mikie grew up with those animals. Bill said he always wanted horses, but being a “GI brat” in a family that moved every two to three years didn’t make having large animals feasible.

Bill “married” horses and their equine cousins when he married Mikie seven years ago.

“There’s so much versatility with horses,” she said. “They can go any direction if you work with them — showing, ranch work, pulling, trailing, riding. You can develop a relationship with a horse so you have a partner and you’re just not the owner.

“There’s not a day that goes by that you don’t learn from them or they learn from you. It’s a continuous education.”

Since purchasing the stables, Bill and Mikie have pulled weeds, repaired and replaced boards and fences, painted, reworked the arena soil to improve the footing, installed better lighting, put up new pipe corrals and offered “better service.” The centerpiece of the equine complex is the lighted indoor riding arena. Horse shows, specialty clinics, workshops and riding lessons are held in the arena throughout the year.

“They’ve breathed life into it,” said Mary Belle League of Sutherlin. “When Mikie decides to do something, she follows through, and Bill puts in long hours, almost 24-7. They’re just going great guns over there. It seems like there are activities every week, and at least every other week.”

Ongoing projects include building eight new stalls, erecting a 10-stall mare motel and providing more covered area off the arena building. There are also plans to improve and lengthen the trail system in the area for trail riding and to develop a Magic Saddles program that will offer a therapeutic riding program for the mentally and physically disabled.

Instructors provide expertise in such specialties as equitation — the learning and practice of riding a horse — western equitation, hunt seat, western pleasure, hunter under saddle, hunter/jumper, halter fitting and showmanship.

The stables are Oregon Family Equestrian-approved. The mission of that association is to provide family fun with equine animals.

Mikie said there is more to riding, especially for a beginner, than just showing up and getting on a horse.

“Plunking a person on a horse right away is not how it’s done,” she said. “You first have to learn about the animal and learn how to ride.”

She explained those first steps include learning about feeding the horse, putting a halter on it, brushing it, the tack that is used for riding and putting it on the horse.

In addition to equine activities, dog agility classes are now also being offered at the stables. In those classes, owners receive instructions in how to train their dogs to run through courses that include obstacles such as bridges, tunnels and hurdles.

“We offer a lot of activities here,” Mikie said. “There’s more than one reason to come out there.

“Our goal is to make the facility safe, and to have people enjoy themselves and the horses,” she added. “We want people to have fun with their critters. We’ve breathed life back into this place and we want people to use it.”



• You can reach Features Editor Craig Reed at 957-4210 or by e-mail to creed@newsreview.info.