We would like to share with you how we came about the development of McKuster Ranch, LLC and hope you will consider letting us help care for your horse.

Eventhough Kittee and Dale did not grow up with horses always in pastures around our homes, we did have an early love for equines. Dale attended his first Pendleton Round-Up, Happy Canyon Program and has been around his Oregon family's horses since the age of three. Kittee had her first pony, Blackie for a couple of years when she was nine, before her family moved to southern Califorina suburbia. Yes, then as now, Kittee would bring her pony into the house to visit. We both have always had a love for the great outdoors, and every chance to horseback ride.

Let us say that we are sadden when we see horses living on dirt/mud "dry" lots with only hay, no pasture grass available. For this reason and the benefit of our horses, we are developing the pastures of McKuster Ranch. For us it is a joy to watch horses around us running and throwing their heads with tails high everyday on their/our pasturing range. We know there must be joy and contentment in the lives of the horses at McKuster Ranch. The equines at McKuster Ranch are not just livestock and pasture rent payments to us, they are all special creatures in our life's journey.

We have met people that think ponies can be mean, and will bite. Ours are very much pets, gentle as our kittens.
This is who we are...

Did someone say something about fly fishing? We do enjoy fly fishing in the streams, lakes, ponds and rivers of beautiful Oregon. Kittee, moving from Portland, OR and Dale, moving from Hendersonville, NC met at his fly shop in Pendleton, Oregon. Just over a year later we were married near Tollgate, on the breaks overlooking the So. Fork Walla Walla River canyon. A year later, we found our ranch on the 4th of July, on our way to fish at a friend's Arabian horse ranch up the South Fork. A few days later on Kittee's birthday the bank called us back and said the ranch was ours if we wanted it. We did, and we feel we have been blessed by the Great Spirit to have this special place and be able to call it home. The mainstem of the upper Walla Walla River shown here flows clear and cool through our ranch and is our source of irrigation. Our stretch of the river supports wild redband, rainbow and bull trout, steelhead, whitefish, and Spring Chinook salmon, and the wildlife habitat we are protecting provides a home for turkey, ringneck pheasant, Canada geese, kingfishers, hawks, quail, Great Blue Herons, ducks, whitetail and mule deer, coyotes, rabbits, foxes, as well as a gazillion other birds and critters, all of whom make use of the river. The wildlife habitat portion of our ranch along the river is currently being restored and managed by the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation and the USDA's CREP program. All the apple orchards have been removed from around us so now we get to watch herds of whitetail deer grazing and romping through our wildlife preserve between #7 pasture and the river. In Native American language, "walla" means falling water. The Walla Walla River is a nearly perfect, well-oxygenated, pristine cold water fishery, and our stretch of the river has been used for fishery research by USFWS.


We owe a big thanks to our friend Meryl Demaris, Jr., who grew up on this farm and worked the Demaris Family Farm for nearly 60 years. He has helped us in so many ways... helping us find the decommissioned underground irrigation system, he has done much of our farm machinery work, with willing helping hands. He told us when we bought the ranch that he was through farming and ready to retire. But, still like magic, so many times he shows up at the ranch when we wish for and need an extra helping hand. In our book, Meryl is a great guy and a cherished friend.

~~~ Our Trainer ~~~

Travis Webster Need a good western pleasure riding horse trainer? Travis our trainer, is one of the finest young men we know. He has been working with horses all his life, and handles them in a gentle, but firm manner. He will get into a horse's face so there is a firm understanding of who's training whom. When he and his horse went to be certified at the - Josh Lyon's Training Center - Josh was so impressed with Travis prior horse's training that he bought the horse right out from under Travis. This was for Josh's own daughter's saddle horse. Travis still works with Josh and John regularly when they are doing west coast-Rocky Mtn. states horse training clinics. Our good friend, Dale Cosper who has been riding/ working horses for over 60 years says "Travis is one of the best horse trainers I have ever run into." Travis lives just a few miles from our ranch. Give him a call if you are looking for (we feel) the area's best trainer. (509) 540-9440

Dr. Doug Corey - Adams, Oregon - D.V.M. - President of American Equine Practitioners. Doc Corey travels everyday through Milton-Freewater on the days he goes into his office in Walla Walla, WA.

Dr. Pat Kennedy - Milton-Freewater, Oregon - D.V.M. works on all our ranch critters. The only vet to vaccinate Derby without a horsey snort,
stomp, and "I don't want your needle stuck in me" attitude.

Dr. Sarah Metcalf - Potlach, Idaho - D.V.M. is our equine dentist. She makes her annual fall circuit through our area to check out everyone smile.

Dale is a member of Blue Mountain Flycasters (FFF) - a Pendleton area fly fishing club, Walla² Fly Fishers (FFF) - a Walla Walla area fly fishing club. Kittee and Dale are members of the Pendleton Chapter of Back Country Horsemen of Oregon, Northwest Quarter Horse Association, Walla Walla Wagon Wheelers - family horseback riding clubs. Kittee is also a member of Blue Mountain Riders - a women's horseback parade group/ riding club, and Oregon Women Lawyers (OWLS). We do stay busy with horses and horseback riding, and with a steady diet of reading horse magazines, we do not find time for TV in our home.

Our palomino Shetland Island ponies/ ranch mascots Jasmine and Ginger, are full-blooded sisters a year apart in age. They are very much unlike horses. In the future as we work with our pony pets, you may see them drawing our McKuster Ranch, LLC / Custer Law Office buckboard wagon in area parades. Jasmine enjoys her workouts and spends much of her training time on the longe lead trotting. You can see more of our ranch life with Jasmine, Ginger, our cats, and some of our boarding horse friends if you wish to follow this link to life at our ranch.

Kittee Custer is a sole practitioner of Oregon State family and criminal law. Custer Law Offices are located in Pendleton, and Milton-Freewater, OR. Kittee may be contacted by calling 541-276-7139 in Pendleton or 541-938-2000 in Milton-Freewater.

If you are interested in polishing up your fly fishing skills or taking up the sport from scratch, Dale will be happy to give you a leg up on your way to fly fishing the west. Dale has been instructing fly fishing and fly tying for over 30 years with Trout Unlimited, Federation of Fly Fishers, Blue Mountain Community College, Oregon Dept. of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW), and his fly shop business in Pendleton. He also has been a licensed fishing guide by the State of Oregon, primarily guiding in ODFW's Northeast Zone of Oregon, and has guided fly fishing trips through the back country of Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, and Yellowstone Nat'l Park. Dale can also tell you the ins and outs of fly fishing the upper Walla Walla River, see NORTHWEST fly fishing magazine-Summer 2004. When it comes to fly fishing, Dale will work for tips, and the joy of sharing this sport. Dale no longer guides fishing trips, but he will gladly point you in the right direction to the above mentioned fishing holes in the Pacific Northwest or Rocky Mtn. states... unless he has plans to be there tomorrow. Depending on the individual's eye-hand coordination skills it usually takes 2 to 4 hours to become a fair to good flycaster, thereafter "practice, practice, practice, makes perfect".

Instructional Package

Dale would prefer to spend the first hour of casting instruction with each individual -alone-.
Personal fly casting instructions* begins over grass (freshly mowed lawn using an egg yarn fly, no hook).
Dale gives you fly casting instruction, private casting critiquing, with plenty of target to aim for.
Soon thereafter we move onto the Walla Walla River using egg yarn for flies - no hooks.
With an instructional video tape** to use at home for 2 weeks, between lessons, you should be a very good flycaster in 2 weeks or less.
Double haul casting instructions also available.
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Personal fly casting instruction rate is $15 per hour.
*fly fishing gear - rod, reel, line, leader, boot & waders not included.
**a refundable security deposit of $25 for Joan Wulff's Dynamics of Fly Casting - a great instructional VHS video tape.

NOTE: Dale wet wades, from June - October in the Walla Walla and other area rivers.

In wild trout, steelhead, salmon waters, Dale practices only Catch & Release fly fishing... with one exception for fishing in our backyard on October 31st..."the fish that fights and swims away, can live to fight another day." Fly fishing is for FUN.

Need a place to live around Milton-Freewater or Walla Walla? We also own and manage McKuster Rental Properties, LLC, which includes residential rental units in Milton-Freewater's city center. Call us, or click here to email Dale we may have a vacancy in town.

Do you have need for a personal, organizational or business website? Dale can create a KISS website for you at a much more reasonable price than you would probably expect. Let me know if you are interested in a current listing of active URL's that have been created in our Pacific Northwest by mckaincomputergraphics.

Ginger ride	Playing with ponies	Jasmine ride
Misty ride		Bobby ride

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McKuster Ranch, LLC is an Equine Facility
All activities on these grounds are subject to the Oregon Equine Inherent Risk Law
Oregon ORS 30.687 - 30.697

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Enjoying our coffee next to the morning fire.

Copyright © 2004-2010 by McKuster Ranch, LLC.
All rights reserved.
Last update: December 2009
Webmaster: D. McKain
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