Dynamite Sport Horses is located at Quail Rock, nestled in the beautiful Sonoran Desert. Not only do the quail thrive here, it is also the home of the Saguaro cactus. A few fun facts: these majestic Saguaros can grow to more than 40 feet tall and live between 100 to 200 years. They serve as “hotels” for many birds including the Cactus Wren and the Gila Woodpeckers, which carve out nest holes in the plants. The Saguaro’s bloom is Arizona’s State Flower.
Living and working in the Phoenix area, Stoney became interested in 3-Day Eventing, a demanding combination of Dressage, Cross Country, and Stadium Jumping. His event horse, Alazan, was a retired Thoroughbred off the racetrack with a spook that lived in his brain. One day Alazan had a rotation fall on a jump that had not been an issue before, which resulted in Stoney’s neck being broken in 3 places. That was when Stoney decided that he needed to be breeding athletic and rideable event horses that had a brain. Stoney’s father, a cattle rancher in the southern part of Arizona, had a small herd of mares that he had acquired from the Hunt family in South Dakota. There was a tall, long-legged, athletic mare named Swan Creek Brownie that both Stoney and his wife, Josie, really liked. They did not know at the time that one of the horses in her pedigree was Bold Ruler, sire of Secretariat. In looking through a US Eventing Association magazine they saw an advertisement for R. Johnson, a tall, beautiful Dutch Warmblood jumping stallion. Because of R. Johnson’s breeding, the resulting foal, Regal Dutchess, was fully accepted by the NRPS Registry. Thus began their journey with the Dutch Warmblood horses. This started their dream of breeding Dynamite Sport Horses that are both athletic, and rideable.
Stoney’s wife, Josie, didn’t start out as a horse woman, but she is a critical part of day-to-day operations. Josie refers to herself as the “Barn Manager” and she is just that! When it comes to the well-being of the horses Josie knows what is happening with each horse during the day and, if there are any issues she is working to get the issue corrected. When it comes to feeding and what’s being fed, she only wants the best feed. Her eye for the quality of their movements and temperaments is amazing. Josie will tell you that she is not a horse woman, but Stoney will tell you she knows way more about horses than she lets on.
Stoney has always had a love for horses. His father’s family were cattle ranchers in Blue Arizona and Stoney loved spending time with his grandparents at the ranch. As a small child he liked to lead the horses and would spends hours “pulling the horses,” as he called it. One of his grandmother’s favorite stories was of finding him just sitting on one of the bigger horses in the corrals. The horses had apparently been lying on the ground and Stoney must have just crawled up on the horse and the horse stood up. Stoney can never remember not knowing how to ride a horse; it has just been something that he has always done. Stoney’s grandparent’s ranch is still a working cattle ranch and is managed today by Stoney, his uncle, and 2 cousins.
Stoney’s grandfather, Tully, had gone to work for the Double Circles Ranch in the blacksmith shop at the age of eleven. The Double Circles later became a part of the San Carlos Apache Nation. Even though Stoney had helped his grandfather and knew something about shoeing horses, he later took a farrier class and accompanied a local farrier on Saturdays to further his own shoeing skills. Today he does the farrier work on the Dynamite horses.
Both Stoney and Josie consider the well-being, care, breeding, and training of these majestic animals a privilege beyond comparison. For God is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us. Ephesians 3:20