We have a new home!
Happy Dog Ranch Horse Sanctuary operates at historic Jarre Creek Ranch. This facility provides significant advantages for the herd and ample space for our programs to expand.
Located in Sedalia, Colorado, we are just 45 minutes from downtown Denver and 50 minutes from Denver International Airport.
Our 117-acre ranch is located in a quiet, peaceful valley that brings out the best in our herd and our visitors! It includes a large indoor arena for year-round operation, allowing us to serve more people each year.
Happy Dog Ranch Horse Sanctuary at Jarre Creek
3640 N. State Hwy. 67
Sedalia, CO 80135
(For GPS directions, use: 3640 CO-67, Sedalia)
Our expanded programs will result in:
More therapists trained in equine-assisted therapy and more clients served
Greater space for mental health and wellness coaching with the herd
More in-person equine education clinics each year
Equine education offered through streaming video
Increased partnerships with corporations looking for volunteer opportunities, team-building venues and leadership training
Additional classroom and meeting space for clinic participants and other guests
The ranch features amazing amenities, including:
Large, flat pastures and paddocks, offering a wide variety of turnout combinations for our herd
A 85’ x 220‘ insulated indoor arena – which extend our clinic season! We now can operate all year long, rather than our former seven-month season that was dictated by the weather
A large outdoor arena – providing space to operate multiple clinics simultaneously
An expansive south pasture area offering the space and privacy to conduct therapy sessions and team-building activities
150 Years of History at Jarre Creek Ranch
From raising cattle and horses to brewing beer and inspiring music
Happy Dog Ranch Horse Sanctuary operates at Jarre Creek Ranch, a historic property located only a few miles from Santa Fe Drive (Highway 85), providing easy access to South Metro Denver.
Though close to a metropolitan area, our secluded setting feels like a world away, with meadows nestled among evergreens and rolling hills. The lovely Jarre Creek that runs through the entire property adds to its charm, as does the original homestead built in 1870 and the dairy barn built in the 1890s.
The History of Jarre Creek Ranch
Walking across acres of quiet ranch land, you can easily imagine this property a century ago. The spot that Happy Dog Ranch now calls home was the ancestral homeland of the Cheyenne and Arapahoe people, and it has witnessed the perseverance of its early pioneers. It has been a peaceful sanctuary for cattle and horses, and has inspired award-winning beer and music.
The namesake of Jarre Creek Ranch, Alphonse Jarre, was awarded homestead rights to the property by the U.S. government for his Civil War service. He came to Sedalia in 1873 and married his wife Christina two years later. Their children were born in the house that still stands on the property. Over the decades, the property was used for cattle ranching, tree farming and hay production.
After Alphonse passed, it is believed that his widow, Christina, hired John Overstreet to help run her ranch. Christina and John later married, and John built the iconic red barn that’s visible from Highway 67. Christina died three years later, leaving John with a daughter to raise. John married Ada Dow, and they raised six more children on the ranch.
Memorialized Through Music
Folk singer Juni Fisher is the great-granddaughter of John and Ada. Juni memorialized the pioneer life of John Overstreet and his family – and her Sedalia heritage – in her 2008 album Gone for Colorado, which won the National Cowboy Hall of Fame Award. She tells the story of 14-year-old John who left home to be a cowboy and describes his life as a rancher at Jarre Creek. Juni went in search of the ranch in 2006 and recognized the house from a photo in a family album.
Juni is one of the nation’s top Western music performers and songwriters, with 16 music awards under her belt. She’s also an accomplished author. In addition, Juni is a horsewoman who has won championships, trained cutting horses, ridden three-day eventers and steeplechase horses, and has fox hunted professionally over the years. She is active on the cutting horse show circuit today.
From Brewery to Boarding Facility
The ranch was purchased in the 1960s by a lawyer who bought the property to farm and later decided to open a beer brewery to raise extra income. Founded by Steve Long and his two partners in the ’90s, Jarre Creek Ranch Brewery operated in a building that still stands next to the original dairy barn. It was so successful that they had to contract with Breckenridge Brewery for additional production just to keep up with demand. They eventually opened a brewpub in Castle Rock, Colorado, where the brewery operated until 2005.
In recent history, Jarre Creek Ranch was the site of Tolland Falls Equestrian Center, a training facility and sought-after location for horse shows and equestrian clinics for almost 20 years. Susan Tinder, who operated Tolland Falls until 2023, used the old red dairy barn as a home for retired horses.
With Jarre Creek’s rich past, we’re thrilled to make it the new home of Happy Dog Ranch. We’re proud to honor its history by appreciating all it has to offer and being good stewards of the land and the animals we care for.
