Curly Creek Ranch

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Curly Creek Ranch

Curly Creek Ranch raises world class Arabian/AQHA crosses sourced from the top bloodlines in the US and Spain. Curly Creek Ranch cria caballos cruzados PRÁ

Curly Creek Ranch began as a young girl who dreamt of having a horse ranch of her own. Having been raised with world class Arabian horses thanks to Soltau Kings Crest of Alamo, California, it has been a 20 year journey for that girl to find the perfect place to raise Arabians with color, crossbred with AQHA for strength, character and palomino genes. Located between Pamplona and San Sebastian in t

he greater Spanish Basque region amongst the foothills of the Pyranees, Curly Creek Ranch brings together a deep love and respect for horses with a vision for a more sustainable future. Not only home to Khemosabi and Eclipse bloodlines, but also a bioconstruction off-grid farm house, permaculture methods and an organic garden. Curly Creek Ranch is open to the public, on appointment, to enjoy our way of life that blends our love for animals and the environment with a deep commitment to sustainability and living gently.

30/07/2026

Good morning! This happy little sunflower, only about a meter tall, set up shop right in front the entrance to the barn, bringing so much joy every time we walk in. So now we're sharing it with you!

27/07/2026

Such a cute picture of Betsy and Annie! I did manage to remove the bars from the chute using AI though...crazy stuff, man. But aren't they adorable??

22/07/2026

If there's an upside to this insane heat, it's that the garden is quite ahead of where it usually is by now. Even the corn is flowering already!

19/07/2026

It's only been a couple of days but we're definitely making progress! Yesterday Betsy came to me seeking treats and I actually managed to scratch her face and chin a few times! Annie licked my hand for the first time and I touched them both on the rump. They walked off, but didn't jump back or run, so I'm taking these all as good signs. They also had their first pasture move yesterday, which went pretty well considering narrow gates were involved so all in all very pleased!

16/07/2026

At last!! The long awaited arrival (after months, days and years!) of our first ever cows. As we get deeper into Holistic Management, it has become ever clearer to me that our soil is missing the microbiology that one large ruminants can provide. Goats didn't really cut it, so we decided to integrate some cows.

So meet Betsy, who is set to valve in March for the first time, and Annie (in honour of Ana and Anita of LA SELVATANA who introduced us to the farm where we bought the cows). They are jerseys crossed with the local Galician breed limia. Gentle, small, raised on pasture, just how we intend to keep them.

Now comes the fun of getting to know each other and integrating them with the horses. They're already getting used to the chickens, who very happily and quickly understood what a cow patty was, and soon Khora will get used to them, too. That's basically our summer adventure!

14/07/2026

Phew! Finished it just in time! Not long to go now...thanks for the gift! It was fantastic cover to cover! Here we go!

12/07/2026

We're on day 8 of this heatwave with temperatures well over 30c and we have another few days to go before the heat breaks. It's been hard on everyone, from the horses who come in during the day to the hens who have died from the heat despite having fans, from not getting enough water and having to bring in tanks of 14,000 litres (tomorrow our third one for the season so far arrives) to not sleeping well with the high temps and having to work really early or late in the evening to keep things going.

This is the second heat wave since late May and we expect more to come before the rains return in the fall. The last time we had a summer like this was 2022, so not long ago, which tells us this could well be becoming the new normal. We have learned to build in as much diversity as possible from when we plant, what we plant and how we plant it. The more crop diversity you have, the higher chance you have to be productive as some crops will do better under certain circumstances than others. This year we'll get lots of aubergine (when most years we get little or none), tomatoes and pumpkins which are all thriving in the heat. We've lost tons of lettuce, onions and leeks. We'll probably lose the early brassicas.

And this is why we're so focused on what strategies from boosting soil health to retain water as long as possible, to using wool and straw in the beds to reduce evaporation, to hand irrigation when the exudation irrigation fails because low water levels in the tanks suck up mid and clog them up.

And still we go on, building and practicing resilience.

05/07/2026

Our main Three Sisters (milpa, in Spanish) area is looking great! We tried it last year but without sufficient water or compost. This time it looks like we're going to get a good harvest come fall.

The Three Sisters is a traditional, North American indigenous form of producing dry land crops where beans fix the nitrogen corn needs, corn provides structure for the beans and pumpkins provide shade to keep the soil surface temperature lower and trap in moisture that collects on the wide leaves in the morning.

Have you tried the Three Sisters?

28/06/2026

The heat has been incredible for the last 10 days, for the second heatwave this season already, and although the temperatures will finally cool down, it's only for a week...

We have seen in recent years how extreme temperatures have affected the ranch, which is why we're experimenting with techniques such as using wool in the gardens to reduce evaporation and keep the soil moist.

So when Bloomberg contacted us last week about how regenerative farmers are combating the extreme heat, we told them about the wool experiment and they thought it was interesting enough to include.

It's been a dicey start to the season for us with water supply issues from the city hall and severe water restrictions during the early stages of crop growth. We've had some losses but other plants are doing beautifully, and that's exactly why we're obsessed with biodiversity. Some years some things do well, other years they fail while others succeed.

And we keep marching on....

13/06/2026

This spring, as part of the Hub del Norte EOV season, we had the pleasure to host Uruguayan artist Emilia with us at the ranch as her home base in between monitoring sessions, as well as to monitor the ranch itself, including the new communal land we have taken over the management of. As her parting gift, she very kindly made us some digital illustrations of the team that we just had to share with you! Check out her profile, she is truly talented and we're thankful for the opportunity to get to know her better.

Support independent artists!

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http://www.planetenergynow.com/curly-creek-ranch

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