Who are we at Rancho de los Cielos?

We are Theresa Longo and Jake Martinez, partners in the businesses of horse breeding and boarding, in the cultivation of organically grown fruits, and, especially, partners in the stewardship of a small corner of the earth where people, animals and plants are nourished and valued for themselves.  We’re about living a purpose. We’re about quality, in the way we work and the way we live. Our horses and the fruit grown on our land are the best that can be, because they express the best within us.

I was a horse crazy kid who cleaned stalls and worked horses for others because I couldn’t afford a horse of my own. While never losing touch with horses, I never had a horse of my own until after I’d established myself as a physician. I bring to our breeding, training and boarding processes a knowledge of biochemistry/biomechanics, genetics, and medicine that has served as a foundation for our Rancho’s goals of getting the best gait from breeding the perfect horses and then matching them to riders who can enjoy them safely and sanely.

Jake grew up with horses on the 340 acre orange ranch where his father was foreman. He learned riding and training under the tutelage of his uncle, Mellitone Ortega, chief horse wrangler for the famed Camarillo ranch, where the breed, the White Horses of Camarillo, was established, and a noted movie stunt rider for Hollywood studios in the 1940’s. Jake was earning a living training horses for others before he was 21 years old. He’s never stopped learning. His methods emphasize compassionate manipulation of behavior and horse-rider collaboration like what Xenophon taught the Macedonians in Alexander the Great’s day blended with quiet common sense and human-to-horse leadership qualities similar to contemporary “horse show circuit” trainers. Jake and I have been to Brazil, where Jake’s ability to ride gait the way the Brazilians do got him invited to ride horses for exhibition at every ranch we stopped at from Cruzilia to Belo Horizonte to Agro Maripa near Sao Paulo. Jake is the only US-born Mangalarga Marchador trainer whose riding and training skills are recommended by Thiago Resende Garcia ,the Brazilian judge, and Kate Barcelos, the Brazilian inspector, who have many times performed their services in the US on behalf of the Brazilian breed organization, the ABCCMM.

Together, Jake and I have tried to breed the horses we most wanted to ride ourselves. We grew up appreciating the brawn of Quarter Horses, the speed of Thoroughbreds, the elegance, athleticism and endurance of Arabians, the majesty of Andalusians.  As we matured, we really came to value the horses of Spanish/Iberian heritage bred for natural, smooth, 4 beat gaits. We started in 1997 with Peruvian Pasos. Although wonderfully smoothly gaited, our show Champion Peruvian Pasos hadn’t the legs or the wind to withstand the rigors of the trails Jake and I like to ride. We kept trying to find horses who kept their gait while achieving a greater size and a stronger confirmation.  We learned about Mangalarga Marchadors in a magazine article (Conquistador, 2002). In them, we found the

quintessential horse:  subtly but superbly smooth-gaited, versatile athletes with strength and agility, the speed in gait to rival what non-gaited horses do in a gallop, the balanced conformation needed for flat riding or jumping, beauty to set a horseman’s heart on fire, the endurance and perseverance to conquer long distances over any terrain where a horse can go. Most of all, our Mangalarga Marchadors are companion horses, serenely intelligent trail partners, willing to go, happy to be there with you, horses who will walk through fire for the right rider.

At Rancho de los Cielos, we breed Mangalarga Marchador horses for the love of them.  It’s about having and riding a horse who matches the spirit inside you, the best you have and are, or could become. Come ride with us and ride the wind.