Dad always said:

About Us

Lorne and I were both fortunate enough to be able to use a horse as our transportation to school: I on my " not so reliable pony" , named Tony, and Lorne in a cart, pulled by a gentle old mare named Dolly, and driven by an older sister. By the time we got to junior high school, both of us had lost that privilege and were bussed to school there after. However, the die was cast. We both wildly loved horses, and years later, each other, as we set out to persue our dreams. We're still developing those dreams.

In 1963, Lorne was declared the Southern Alberta Amateur Cutting Horse Champion for the year, riding a mare named Barbara Parsons. In 1975, we bought D'Arcy's Otoe and his colts did well, with the yearlings winning many awards. Otoes Doolin Dolly was QHAA( Alberta) Champion Yearling Filly for 1977, and reserve champion Junior Mare ( those shown aged 3 and under). She finished the year out by topping the Edmonton Horse Sale at CFR, selling for $5100 . The thing that has stuck in my mind is that the Friday before that sale, we had sold 36 or 37 younger end calves and they also brought a total of $5100. That really got us enthusiastic about the horse business.

In 1981, we bought Skip Zan Parr after first seeing him in Oklahoma at the World Quarter Horse Show. Many of you will know him. He was everything we wanted and needed in a stallion. We had to sell him in 1996 when Lorne became ill. A man called the day of the sale, to set up telephone bidding, and asked that if I could change one thing on Zan, what would it be? That was easy- his age. At the ripe old age of 16 , Zan brought $48,000, at our sale. He was an AQHA Champion at 44 months of age, and produced many champions, high points and all around wonderful horses.

It was during this time that we had Hoffman's Horse Minerals developed. We ran into a speaker on finances, at our church, who impressed us with his knowledge, so we asked to speak with him about our finances. About 5 minutes into this meeting, we discovered that he was a feed specialist with ADM, and since we were having some deficiency problems with some colts, the finances were immediately forgotten as we discussed our horse health problems. The speaker seemed quite confident that he could help us, and got us together with the nutritionist. It was immediately apparent that he was very knowledgeable, and when we got that vitamin mineral mix, now Hoffman's Horse Minerals, it absolutely revolutionized our breeding operation.

Lorne got sick in 1996, and our customers started calling asking where they would be able to get the minerals, because we had disbursed our stallions. We were retiring, we thought , and weren't very cooperative. In 1998, one of these customers called and said that she sure didn't like badgering us, but was putting us on notice that she was going to keep right on until, in her words," YOU PUT THE MINERALS ON THE MARKET. " She said it was just too good a product to let go by the wayside. We called UFA ( United Farmers of Alberta) about carrying it, thinking that they would say no, but they said yes and the rest is history. We certainly appreciated the years we spent with UFA, where Hoffman's Horse Minerals is still always available.

Along the way we raised two great kids, Judy and Michael, and then a little further down the road, picked up two great in-law kids, Judy's husband Brent Smith, and Michael's wife, Cindy Virginillo. Judy and Brent have two girls and a boy: Cole, Jessy, and Kirstin, and the apple hasn't fallen far from the tree. Cole rides on a big ranch in south western Alberta and starts colts on the side, and Jessy rides in a big feedlot, in spite of being educated in office management. Kirstin is still in school, and has spent part of her young life barrel racing.

We now live in the beautiful Porcupine Hills in south western Alberta, on the ranch I was raised on and we enjoy every minute of living here.