Our Program
Welcome to our Woroniecki Ranch Quarter
Horses program located in southwestern North Dakota near
the community of Hebron. We are Warren and Jodie Woroniecki with our children,
Jordan-30, Adam-26, Ella-25, Carson-21 and Ryan-20. We feel fortunate to live where and how we do.
Thank you for taking the time to look through our site.
You will see pictures that show our western lifestyle
and how our horses are routinely handled.
Our website banner picture at the top of the page sums
up four key elements of our quarter horse program--the
horses, the people, the cattle and the terrain--showing
horses aged 2 to 23 and people aged 8 to 73. We are
three generations of ranchers working
together---brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, children,
cousins, spouses, fathers, mothers and grandparents. We
respect and appreciate our good old horses and continue
to ride and develop young horses. This is a picture of
two year old heifers being moved to a new pasture for
the first time and they had no idea where they were
going. There are 184 cows plus their calves and bulls in
that bunch. It is unfortunate that they were so bunched
up, but the point is that this kind of work makes for a
good work ethic for both the young horses and the kids
as they have jobs to do early in life.
Our quarter horse program is just one portion of a
commercial cattle ranch running approximately 1000 cows
that is owned and operated collectively with various
family members on approximately 13,000 acres. Horses
have always played a necessary and an instrumental work
and management role for the ranch. Much of our landscape
terrain is rugged and horses can go places that pickups
and four wheelers cannot.
On any given day, four to ten horses can be saddled for
the days’ work of moving, gathering or sorting various
groups of cattle. During calving season at least one
horse is always saddled in 8 hour shifts 24 hours a day
and ready for whatever regular or emergency task is
needed. Our calving horses perform duties such as
dragging a calf sled to bring a calf in from poor
weather conditions, patiently moving newborn calves
following their mothers, bringing in a calf slung over
the saddle, roping a cow or calf as needed for
doctoring, covering large pastures or smaller corrals,
and standing patiently until they are needed. Young
horses get good and broke during calving season.
In addition to cattle work, horses are used to ride the
pastures and check for noxious weeds that need spraying
or fences that needs fixing. Our horses have good
dispositions and are used to “going to work” and then
being rewarded at the end of the day when turned back
out to pasture for a good old roll. Our horses get used
to being hauled and trailered and most of them don’t get
the chance to become barn sour or buddy dependent. They
are taught they have a job to do and they do it. We are
especially proud that our children can take the ranch
horses to town to competitively compete in rodeos and
4-H horse events. Our horses and children have
participated in parades and have shown in poles,
barrels, goat tying, halter, reining, horsemanship,
western riding and trail classes at the local, county
and state levels.
When not working, you might find us doing a variety of
competitive, educational or recreational horse
activities. Most recently, Ella and Warren participated
in a Craig Cameron “Original Extreme Cowboy Race” and a
colt starting clinic in Watford City, North Dakota
(Jodie’s home town).
Our mares foal out on pasture. Some foals are handled at
birth. We try to handle the rest during their first week
of life. They become very used to us moving about their
pastures and either they approach us or they take no
notice of or alarm in our presence. They continue to be
gently handled during times we work with the mares or
bring them all in for topical fly protection. Our foals
learn early on that humans are not a threat to them. The
mares are easy to work with and that really sets a nice
behavior foundation for the foals. There is more
information available on our mares
and foals pages.
All of our horses, from broodmares and yearlings to
saddle horses, are allowed to run in open pastures and
learn to travel up and down creeks and gullies, cross
water, drink from natural water sources and water
fountains, navigate brush and trees and just be horses.
In the winter they are still allowed to free range for
exercise and forage but are given hay and a
protein/fiber supplements as needed for their age, group
etc. We own and operate our own feed consulting and
ration balancing business, Prairie Nutrition Center,
Inc. Therefore, Warren closely monitors the mineral,
vitamin, energy, protein and other nutrient requirements
for the various ages and work levels of the horses.
Woroniecki Ranch All Around is a pelleted 14% protein,
18% high soluble fiber feed that we developed for use
for pre-foaling mares to weanling and yearling
development to working performance horses. In addition
to the health benefits, it really aids in reproduction,
performance, stamina and focus. Horses do NOT get hot on
this feed--it provides them a focus for whatever their
job is. We do our best to nutritionally prepare our
foals and young horses for a long, healthy life and that
starts with the mare's nutrition. All of our horses
receive adequate foot care and de-worming and
appropriate vaccinations. Feel free to contact us
concerning any questions on these topics.
Please take time to look at our
mares,
foals, and
stallions pages to get a better idea of our breeding
philosophy and bloodlines. We strive for those horses
with the ability to go in many directions. We need and
use good horses here on the ranch and we try to offer
the kind of horses that we would want for ourselves.
These horses should be able to go on and do any task.
Thanks for taking the time to view our website. Feel
free to call or email with any questions.
