When LeNore Hunewill started taking in guests at Hunewill Ranch in 1931 the family had to figure out how to take a group of cowboy/ ranch horses and make them into horses suitable for guests to ride. Fortunately, many of our early guests had grown up in an era where they had ridden on their grandparent’s farms and had some riding experience, much more than the average guest today. This was fortunate because those early day cowboy horses were pretty snorty. Those early day horses on the guest ranch were big tall roman nosed horses that had come to the Eastern Sierra with the cowmen, miners, and sheepmen who settled here, interspersed with those were little rangy mustangs that had been caught and roped mostly over on the Eastside of Mono Lake. These mustangs were sure-footed and often made great kid’s horses by the time they had been ridden for a few years. Later in the early 1950’s Stanley Hunewill Sr. bought a Morgan Stallion and later some Morgan mares to add horses who liked to work cows and were all around good ranch horses.

As the dude ranch part of Hunewill Ranch evolved and so did the riding program. LeNore started hiring wranglers in the 1950’s, people whose sole job for the summer was guiding guests on rides and making a memorable riding experience, whether it was working cows, riding in the meadows or into the high sierra. At this point though safety and education was not the priority that it was to become in the coming decades. Evening entertainment included getting bucked off a wild burro named Truman. Guests getting dumped was just part of the experience and awards and laughter were shared around the dinner table as tales were told. There was a certain cowboy toughness that was expected of the guests, however times were changing. In the 1950’s LeNore and Stanley could see that a change in how riding instruction and protocol was conducted needed to be introduced after a more serious horse incident occurred that resulted in litigation.

In the early 1960’s LeNore hired Hal Houts, a schoolteacher and former wrangler on a Wickenburg,AZ guest ranch, to concentrate on creating a riding program that was safe, fun, and educational. Hal focused on getting solid, safe horses,many of these were quarter horses, quarter horse crosses and mustangs. He hired wranglers and taught them about horse safety and how to teach it. The thing he recognized about riding on the Hunewill Ranch was that so much of what made it great was the wide open meadows and freedom to lope in those meadows in groups. So for the next 20 plus years he worked on making the Hunewill Ranch’s Riding program second to none in the country. After he retired in 1986, a former wrangler, Donna Hustace, who had worked under him took the helm for several years and continued to add horse safety elements and a dress code for wranglers that hadn’t existed before. She moved on to create her own riding program in a neighboring valley but left a positive mark on the Hunewill Horse program.

In 1989, Megan Hunewill, who had grown up under Hal Houts’ tutelage took over the program and has worked for the past three plus decades to expand and continue to make riding at Hunewill Ranch safe and fun. The string of 100 plus horses, many raised on the ranch ( primarily quarter horses and some draft crosses) and others purchased, is safe, steady and responsive. Many of today’s guests did not grow up riding on their grandparent’s farm and so the evolution of both the instruction, the riding and the horses has had to adapt to the change in the last ninety- five years. The kids’ program created by Sallie Joseph ( sister to Donna Hustace) started in the 1990’s continues today to have most kids’ handling their horses and loping through the meadows within a week.

Today Hunewill Ranch has a legion of wonderful wranglers some who bring decades of knowledge like Amy Smith, who started working under Hal Houts in the 1980’s and continues teaching her brand of horsemanship today, Jay Joseph, Sallie’s son, who grew up on the ranch and brings his extensive horse knowledge to the barn everyday. Aspen and Rhiannon, Megan’s daughters, who were mentored by Sallie continue to help with the horse and wrangling program and along with the rest of the Hunewill Family value our amazing horse program. These and many other talented wranglers are what make our modern day program continue on at an unrivaled level.

The History of Our Horse Program

The Five S’s of Loping at Hunewill Ranch