Ekone Ranch

04/19/2026

A minute of a special spring treat 🥹🥰

04/15/2026

EDIT: we had the dates wrong, oops!

Rites of Passage for Teens 🌠

This special session employs the nourishing land of Ekone and the power of community to support teens as they step towards adulthood. Expect this week to be reflective, joyful, and connective. There will be solo time, group workshops, sharing circles, peer support, and skilled mentorship to explore identity, purpose, and transition.

The week centers around a supported overnight solo on the land. This experience is often a “stretch” for teens; we’ll spend much of the week preparing for this stretch and integrating what we learn from it. Marking life transitions can play a crucial role in helping adolescents move into adulthood by providing them with the tools, skills, and sense of identity they need to navigate this important stage of life. Rites of Passage foster identity formation, self-esteem & confidence, social integration, and connection with nature.

Link in bio to learn more & apply!

03/30/2026

Link in bio for more info & application!

Music Camp gives new and returning campers the opportunity to be inspired by Ekone magic to write, sing and play to their heart’s content. We encourage musicians to bring an instrument, their voice, creativity and a notebook. Campers will spend time out on the land and in community to help uncover the music they'd like to make during the week. They will play music with the land, and in the process learn about the dance between space and sound, deep listening, and the origins of music.

There will be time to make music together as a full group, break off into smaller groups, and also to work on and perform solo music, if desired. Campers will have many chances to share the music that is important to them, and to share stories, feelings and thoughts about their influences and inspirations!

There will be talented Ekone staff musicians as well as guest stars (musicians with real world experience!) to bring all kinds of ideas to the week. The culmination of the session will be an Ekone-style concert giving campers the opportunity to perform in a supportive environment. If time and equipment allows, we will also try to record some of the music created throughout the week.

Music Camp is a *very* supportive community! All musical styles, instruments, and skill levels are welcome. Bringing your own instrument is not required; we have a selection of instruments to share! 🎸🎼

03/20/2026

When we learned that a gelding who was *maybe* going to be donated this spring had found himself a smitten 10yo girl over the winter and would be staying with her (which we love for them!), it became—once again—horse shopping time. We’re pretty covered in the pony department at the moment, and so for this next one, we were looking for a respectably horse-sized horse.

I found this mare in Idaho, and by some magic of the universe, managed to get a message to the seller at just the right time—horses like her tend to go *fast*. She’s about 16hh and is a Percheron/Quarter Horse cross of some variety, and she’s registered with the American Sugarbush Harlequin Draft Association (say that five times fast!) as an improvement mare for the relatively new breed.

We’re calling her Soleil. Soleil means sun in French, and Percherons originated in France. She’s got a bright personality and is friendly and interested in people. And she’s the same color as Sunny (a bay dun mustang who used to live at Ekone), for anyone out there who remembers him. 🧡☀️🖤

--jenna

03/17/2026

Art Camp at Ekone 🎨
(link in bio to learn more & apply)

Get your crafty creative juices flowing in the Ekone Craft Area! Anything is possible, from natural dyeing to collage to basket-making to creative writing to painting a group mural together. Our craft area is stocked to the brim with paints, leather, paper-making supplies, lino-cut stamp making materials, beads, tie-dye, fabric, embroidery thread, friendship bracelets, and so many other treasures! As one camper put it: "This is a crafting PARADISE!"

Art Camp tends to include a mix of big group projects, structured teaching time, free-range crafting, crafts to take home, and art that makes Ekone more beautiful and leaves our mark on this special place.

Of course, Art Camp comes with all the possibilities that any Ekone Summer Camp program has to offer, like swimming in the pond, playing on the rope swings, hikes to the canyon, games in the forest, kitchen projects, and wild adventures!

03/12/2026

How many horses can fit in one mud puddle?

03/10/2026

01/21/2026

Some of you may remember that we mentioned a new horse in our recent email highlighting the four-leggeds of Ekone. Well, she’s here (and we’re calling her Tula)! At 17.2 hands, she’s claimed the title of Ekone’s tallest horse from Mosie—I was looking for 16.2-17hh, but kept striking out for one reason or another, so we did some head-scratching (and emailing with the summer horse staff) about whether we could go taller. And, as you can see, we decided to go for it. (Spoiler alert—so far, so good!)

Two weeks ago, on our second snow day of the season, I got a call from the haulers that brought Tula here from Wisconsin saying that they weren’t positive they could get their truck and trailer turned around here (based on scoping it out on Google Maps), and that we would have to meet them in Goldendale and transfer her from their trailer to ours. We were not incredibly interested in this option, but we didn’t really have a choice, and so Shawn hooked up the trailer and we carefully made the drive into town (props to & for being lighting & film crew and moral support). We’d arranged to meet next to the McDonald’s parking lot (and you may be shocked to hear this, but I had not envisioned meeting this girl for the first time next to a McDonald’s parking lot). We parked and waited for the driver to arrive. He pulled up about 20 minutes later, parked, brought out her paperwork, and walked into the trailer to halter her.

When the door was open, the driver brought her down the ramp and handed me her lead rope. She stood quietly while we made sure the business end of things was all taken care of, and then she walked across the parking lot with me and stepped into an unfamiliar trailer with zero hesitation, and we closed ‘er up and headed back home. If I had to meet a new horse next to a McDonald’s parking lot, I’m glad it was her. It’s always a good sign when your first impression of a horse you bought sight-unseen is such a positive one. 🥰

More in the comments 👇🏼

12/26/2025

If you’re on our mailing list, you’ll have received an email announcement (check your spam folders! We recently had some email/website issues that may have started sending our emails to your spam folder again, apologies!), but summer camp 2026 applications are live!

View our session schedule at https://www.ekone.org/camp-schedule and apply by December 31st to be considered in the first round of applications—you’ve still got a few days!

We’re looking forward to seeing you in 2026. ☺️

12/12/2025

In early October, we received a message from a camp family who found themselves needing to downsize their herd, and they had one horse, an 8yo mustang gelding, who they thought might be a good fit for summer camp. They offered him to us on a trial basis in case it wasn’t a good fit, and we went to go meet him. He was friendly, reasonable and willing, albeit a bit green, and so we decided to give it a shot.

A dear friend of Jenna’s, Searmi Park of Autism Mustang Alliance, offered to haul him from his home in McMinnville to her place near Mulino so that our trip to come get him would be easier to do in one day…and *then* spent a week working with him on trailer loading when he wouldn’t get in our trailer, oops! We couldn’t have gotten him here without her (literally, when she did get him into her trailer and the door shut, they came straight here), and we’re so grateful.

AMA’s mission is “to support the communication, regulation, motor planning, and sensory needs of autistic individuals of all ages while fostering confidence and meaningful connection”, and they do so by offering free, low-cost, and equitable access to individuals and families with autism to come and participate in learning about, spending time with, and caring for their herd of horses & donkeys, goats, pigs, and dogs, with the occasional chicken or duck or cat in the mix, as well. They are doing such good work in the world. To learn more about what she does or to support AMA’s work, check out her website at autismmustangalliance.org, where you can read much more in depth about their mission and the programming that they offer, as well as donate through their website or other listed avenues. (And thank you for considering! She gifted us the time she spent training and hauling, neither of which is a small task).

Our newest four-legged friend is called Magpie, and he’s doing well adjusting to the ranch and to his new horse friends. He’s sweet and endearing and very interested in hanging out with people, even more so than those sassy mares he lives with (although he likes them, too 😉).

Here’s an assortment of photos since we met him & one video from his first micro-trail-ride today.