Diamond Creek Farm threw its third annual open house on June 3, at their Wellsville, Pa., location.
“The Open House is a way for us to welcome the community and all the fans to our farm,” said Diamond Creek’s Adam Bowden. “Many people never get a chance to see what happens behind the scenes at a breeding farm, or they are curious about what goes on here when they see all the fences and barns from the road.”
The day was a huge success with well over 400 attendees, largely from the community, and with some visitors from as far as North Carolina.
Visitors were able to get up close and personal to stallions such as Southwind Frank, as well as watch two different breeding demonstrations, in which Always B Mike and Sweet Lou were artificially collected. They were then welcomed into the lab, as the farm’s resident vet, Dr. Courtney Pink, processed the semen and answered questions from the group.
Down in the mare barn, visitors were welcome to walk around on their own or take a hayride tour around the farm. They had a chance to submit names for a new foal, as well as pet a few, and feed some carrots to some very willing mares. The “guess the weight” game proved to be popular, with guesses to win a t-shirt ranging from 100 pounds to 700. In the end, the colt weighed 500 pounds on the dot.
Guests also got to meet Sweet Karen, the Harness Horse Youth Foundation’s outreach ambassador, and learn more about the program from director Ellen Taylor and her group of volunteers, as well as spin their wheel to answer some harness related questions for some of the new 2017 HHYF Harness Hero cards.
Pacing For The Cure, represented by the founders, Jeff and Janine Gesek, were present as well, speaking about their work for MS research and raffling off some really great baskets, as well as a trip to the 2017 Hambletonian.
With great weather, the farm served close to 600 hamburgers and hot dogs, and Bootleg Creamery gave out more than 400 bowls of ice cream.
“We look forward to doing this event every year,” said Rachel Keeney, Diamond Creek’s Administrator Director. “We are already planning on how to make it bigger and better in 2018.”
Meet The Staff
Working on a breeding farm isn’t all just horses and barn work. It takes a lot of different people, doing a variety of different tasks to make everything run smoothly. One of the very important people in this puzzle is Jake Ziegler, our maintenance manager of 3 years. Jake helps keep the farm in good shape. He handles everything from snow removal and landscaping, to vehicle repair, to even large building projects on the farm, such as remodeling the breeding shed to redoing the office front porch.
(Jake built the porch of the old farm house, which was built in 1807, as well as repointed and restored the outside of the building)
Jake is local to Pennsylvania, growing up close to the farm in nearby Carlisle. He first got involved with Diamond Creek in the summer of 2012, when he helped to tear down all the old barns to make way for the new ones.
Jake’s favorite part of the job is the diversity, there is no such thing as a typical day. He hopes the younger generation gets more involved and keeps growing the sport, as it is a fun and exciting industry to be part of.
(Wishing well built to cover old well, stone is from the original barns and wood is old fence boards)
If Jake could time travel he would end back in his hometown of Carlisle, 100 years ago. The weirdest job he ever had was spent catching pigeons, and he has a secret talent for trivia games. Included on his bucket list is skydiving and not included is eating squid. Jake has 2 dogs, Remey and Axel, and some cows on his farm in Carlisle. And the one thing he can’t live without? His wife, Jen.
Shuttle Stallion Series
151 Warrington Street,
Wellsville PA 17365
Phone: 717-638-7100 | Fax: 717-638-7111
email: diamondcreek2@gmail.com