Maintenance Team

When most people think about volunteering at WNCR they picture themselves feeding and watering animals, mucking stalls, and grooming and training horses. While these actions are very important to take care of and rehabilitate our horses for adoption, our horse rescue cannot function without many more behind-the-scenes volunteers who maintain the buildings, electric and pipe fences, vehicles, farm equipment, and ranch grounds. For the past few years, three ranch volunteers have taken on most of this responsibility and they welcome your help! Meet Roger Shinnick, Dave Gedmin, and Dave Johnson.

Roger Shinnick is the WNCR Grounds/Maintenance Team Lead. Roger has been coming out to the ranch for about eight years. When asked how he started volunteering at the ranch, Roger jokingly said he would have to blame it all on his wife Mary Ann, who has been involved with the horse rescue for about nine years. Initially, Roger worked directly with our horses but he saw a need and felt his skillset could best be used in maintenance. Over the years, Roger and Mary Ann adopted Eva, Breeze, and Durango from the horse rescue. Mary Ann is a WNCR board member and also volunteers at the WNCR Thrift Store in Edgewood. Roger and Mary Ann have enjoyed riding their horses, but Roger has recently decided to step down from the saddle and keep his feet on the ground. Roger wants to stress the importance of keeping a safe and well-maintained ranch. “We need eyes on our facility to keep the horses safe,” he says. 

Roger often helps feed horses on Sundays, works fences on Tuesdays, and does general building and grounds maintenance on Wednesdays. Due to new volunteer classes, many maintenance tasks are not done on Saturdays as to avoid the noise and distraction. Roger encourages new volunteers to help out, even those with no prior maintenance or farm experience. Roger will gladly teach basic skills so more people know how to keep the ranch operating. 

Dave Gedmin has been a volunteer at WNCR for about six years. Dave’s wife, Mary, started coming out to the ranch about a year earlier and roped him in. Dave attended the ranch volunteer horse handling courses years ago, but opted to focus on maintenance after he saw the need. Dave is usually at the ranch on Wednesdays, helping Mary clean water troughs in the morning and then working priority maintenance projects in the afternoon. Of course, due to the nature of things breaking through normal day-to-day use, Dave is often at the ranch on other weekdays fixing whatever needs done. Dave says a lot of groundskeeping work is “done on the fly” because you have to ensure the horses have water if pipes break or freeze during the winter, for example. 

Dave has been the ranch’s technical oversight and contractor lead for the new office building which is in its finishing stages of construction. Recently Dave has been working on the ranch’s ATV mules and ranch tractor. He can always use a hand since many of the tasks need two or more people to be done safely.

Dave Johnson, also known as “Young Dave” and/or “Tractor Dave,” has been coming out to the ranch for about four years with his wife Cheryl, who also volunteers at the Thrift Store. Dave has been a WNCR board member since 2017. Dave and Cheryl were instrumental in getting the hay barn and training barn round pen built. Dave said he often shows up to the ranch without a specific plan for the day, but finds out what the day’s priorities are from Ashley Snider the Ranch Operations Manager. Dave grew up around horses on a large ranch, but almost never touches horses at WNCR due to so many other tasks needing done. Dave spends much of his time at the ranch on his tractor tilling the horse paddocks, mowing weeds, moving manure, installing fencing, and working on buildings or maintaining equipment. Dave would like to see more high school or college-aged people involved in agricultural clubs and courses. He also hopes to see future cooperation between WNCR and local schools. “We need to encourage trades and teach our replacements,” says Dave. He would gladly teach younger people how to operate farm/ranch equipment and show them what ranching is all about.  

Dave does not have a set day of the week he volunteers at the horse rescue. However, he tries to avoid tilling the horse paddocks on weekends due to the dust and noise interfering with volunteer classes. Often Roger, Dave, and Dave work on larger ranch projects together with the help of other volunteers. As Dave pointed out, prior knowledge and/or experience is not needed because he will gladly teach others along the way. 

Any volunteer on the WNCR Grounds/Maintenance Team can expect to learn a variety of tasks ranging from groundskeeping to building horse shelters. There is always much to be done at Walkin N Circles Ranch. Some tasks are easy, some are hard, but through careful planning, a little training, and teamwork we can get it done safely. If you are interested in learning additional ranch jobs and helping out, please contact the ranch office:  505-286-0779 or email saveahorse@wncr.org.