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HOW IT STARTED
WHY "DENVILLE-KANANI"?
WE START "SPORTHORSE" RIDING
HIGHLAND TRAINING JOINS US
OUR SPORTHORSE FOCUS INTENSIFIES
"TEAM DENVILLE"

In 1983, my husband Dennis and I were two middle-level managers at Pacific Bell, looking for something to focus on outside the increasingly stressful atmosphere of corporate America.

Dennis used his eigth company-initiated relocation as an opportunity to buy a small ranch in Sunol, California. He then bought and rode his first horse. I found myself riding again. We were hooked- our future was going to have something to do with horses. Then we went to the 1984 LA Olympics, and we knew that these were the horse sports for us.

Dennis was the first one to get an opportunity to live this out- he took a "golden parachute" out of his job in 1984 and went to work as an independent management consultant. We bought broodmares and started a small Appaloosa breeding operation on his 4 acres.

Dennis the rancher
& Kris the "executive"
(It took me until 1992 to "retire")

Then the California real estate crisis in 1985 gave us the chance to buy 22 acres of land in the Mount Diablo foothills between Danville and Pleasanton, California.

After developing a long range vision of the ranch, we began building. We continue working on that vision to this day. In 2000, we upgraded all of our stand-alone paddocks with steel panels and mats. We added bleachers in our large arena for shows, and we enhanced our cross-country/trail course. In 2001, we are adding an upgraded dressage judges booth for our dressage shows, and bringing in fill dirt to add additional bank and ditch combinations to our cross country course. We will also be working on the all-weather footing in the outdoor stall/paddocks. See ourRanch Facilities Page for more details and pictures.



OUR NAME

One of the first questions that we get usually concerns the name of this ranch. It is named for the two of us and our background. "Denville" represents Dennis who lives in Danville.(A looong way from his original home of Newport, Maine!)
  "Kanani" represents my background- Hawaii born and raised. The word means "beautiful", and that is how we see our ranch! All of our horses also have Hawaiian names - a constant reminder of home for me.

OUR RIDING CAREERS "BEFORE"

We enjoy different "Olympic" riding disciplines. I focus on dressage, and Dennis prefers three-day eventing. At first we did all our riding and showing by ourselves - we had a part-time trainer and the ranch identity primarily evolved around our Appaloosa breeding program. However, we did manage to have a few riding successes in the mid-80's.

Kris and O-So-Fair (Appy/TB Mare) USDF All Breed Champions 70%+ scores at Training Hi-Point at many shows	Dennis and Mr World(Appy/TB Geld) Multiple wins at Novice Eventing Grand Nationals Jumping Champions ApHC Nat'l Champs-Non-Pro Jumpers

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This page was last updated on 2/11/01.