About Us
We're the Faces of Empty Pockets Ranch LLC
I'm Shelby and this is my husband is Ty. How lucky am I to have someone who supports me in my dreams and all these free-loading animals that I love?
We came to our property located in Coggon, Iowa because I was blessed enough to care for the sweetest mare I have ever met. No boarding barn was good enough for her. She was an aged quarter horse named Chex and had all of the signs and symptoms of PPID/Equine Cushings. I felt that no barn could provide all the things I thought she needed. I also learned so much about PPID/metabolic horses (and still learning). So we set out to find what Ty called "Pony Paradise" or "Chex's Retirement Home". We bought 10 acres, built our house, remodeled a barn on site, built pastures, tore down that old remodeled barn, and rebuilt a brand new barn. When we were building our place from the ground up, we poured all of our money into this place...coining the name, "Empty Pockets Ranch".
One of our favorite stories to tell of our adventure of building this place was from the night we moved in. We moved in on a Thursday, the day before pay day and we just laid down to go to bed. Realizing we would get paid in less than 15 minutes, we decided to stay up and see the money hit our accounts. Midnight struck and we pulled up the accounts. Ty had $3.00 in his account. I had his card earlier in the day to buy a drink at the gas station while moving our stuff and almost bought chicken strips...which would have overdrafted him! So literally allllll of our money has gone into this property. And now we have Empty Pockets!
Anyways, time marches on and I learn more about horse care and keeping, constantly learning. I learned about track systems and how beneficial they can be and how it provides the 3 Fs most important to horses: friends, forage, and freedom.
Once I learned about it, I knew I wanted to do this with my own horses and knew other horses could benefit from this type of management. We proceeded to learn more, build the infrastructure, and move forward with creating a boarding barn for track system management and rehab. We want all the animals in our care to live their best lives!