Trickle Creek Ranch

Trickle Creek Ranch is located in sunny  Desert Hills, AZ.  We have over 20 years of showing, breeding and horse care experience.  We specialize in breeding half arabian horses of color (palomino, buckskin & black) for the working western disciplines.  Our broodmares are from some of the finest purebred bloodlines such as Al-Marah and great polish lines such as Bask horses as well as AQHA favorites like Easy Jet and Dash For Cash.  We are still a small operation and currently concentrating mostly on building our own broodmare band of purebred Arabian mares, however, we are proud to offer a few select purebred and half Arabian foals each year to the public at this time.  We breed our mares to some of the best Arabian and AQHA stallions in the business!  Please visit our for sale and broodmares pages to see what's been happening in our breeding barn.  We're sure you'll like what we have to offer!

                            Stacey and SAS Arielle                          Dan and DS Powereddy

Camden and Accidentally Alice

Other Family Members:

Our resident guard dogs from left to right - Rufus, Ripley and Rosco!

Rosco likes to work the cows as they're coming through the alley.  Of course, being an Aussy, that's his job!

The cows get Rufus & Ripley's attention, but they're not quite sure what to do with them.

They're great family dogs and we love having them!

We recently enrolled our son Camden and his dog, Rufus, in an AKC sanctioned event called Earthdog.  It's a really neat hunting and instinct test for the dog and something Camden could easily get involved with and participate in as a "team" with his dog.  In fact, Camden and Rufus are entered in their first Earthdog test on 4/5/08 & 4/6/08. 

The purpose of the Earthdog tests is to offer breeders and owners of small Terriers and Dachshunds a standardized guage to measure their dog's natural aptitude and trained hunting and working behaviors when exposed to an underground hunting situation.  The program begins with a basic introduction to den work and quarry and progresses through gradual steps to require the dog to demonstrate that it is willing to perform the required tasks including seeking its quarry, locating and working it underground.  The initial test is called "Introduction to Quarry" (a/k/a Intro) and it is an instinct test for terriers and dachshunds.  The behaviors tested are willingness to follow a scent to the entrance, willingness to enter a dark den and willingness to work the quarry.  The dog may work the caged rats by barking, digging, growling, lunging, bitting at the protective bars or any work that the judge feels displays a desire to get to the quarry.  The next level is "Juniors", then "Seniors" and finallly "Masters".  Each group gets progressively more difficult by adding more maze features such as dead ends and false exits. 

Camden was really excited to do his first Earthdog test with Rufus.  They did an EXCELLENT job!  They were entered in an Intro class on both Saturday and Sunday and they passed their classes with little effort!  In fact, Camden & Rufus were the ONLY team to pass the Intro class on Sunday and one of only three teams to pass the Intro class on Saturday!  We had a ball and learned so much about this sport that is new to us.  Below are some pictures of our fun weekend.

Camden and Rufus have now been to their second Earthdog competition and WOW, we're SO impressed with them!  They passed the 1st leg of their Junior testing!  They only have one more to go before they earn Rufus' title of "Junior Earthdog"!  Then, they will have 3 legs to pass in the senior Earthdog competitions before moving on to Masters.  Camden is really excited and he can't wait to do it again with Rufus next April!  Way to go, boys!

At their fourth Earthdog trial in October of 2009, Camden and Rufus completed their second Junior Earthdog leg, so they can now move on to the Senior legs at the next trial.  Rufus received his JE (Junior Earthdog) title from AKC and Camden even received a JE Handler title from AKC!  What a great sense of accomplishment!  Our other Russell Terrier, Ripley, also started this event, but she's so young, she was a little afraid of going underground into the tunnels.  She'll get better the more we practice!  Good job boys!  We're so pround of you!

Now we've been to our 5th Earthdog competition and the progress is amazing!  Camden and Rufus finished their SE (Senior Earthdog) title in ONE WEEKEND!  The completed ALL THREE legs for thier SE title!  AMAZING!  Rufus is officially the 3rd Russell Terrier WORLDWIDE to have ever completed his SE title in Eartdog...quite an amazing feat!  Ripley is doing better, she now goes into the tunnel; however, she isn't making much noise down in the tunnel, so while she's not passing her JE legs just yet, she's made progress.  She's not even 2yrs old yet, so we're not overly worried about it...she'll get there!  Way to go again, Camden!  Great job!  It's on to the Mater's course at the next even in October!

This is a picture of the starting line for the Intro class and the den that the dog has to enter

This is a better picture of the actual den entrance

This is Camden turning Rufus loose on the Intro course for their first class

We even had time for a little hiking in the beautiful cottonwood trees

We had a blast!