Canaan Ranch,
Dedicated to Producing Quality Performance Horses
by Jeannie Blancq-Putney for HorsesDaily

Melanie’s Passion Ignites

Melanie was born with a love of horses. She started riding at the age of four at her aunt’s hunt and jump ranch in Alabama. It wasn’t long before her aunt advised that Melanie’s parents needed to get her horses of her own. “My dad was a doctor, and ranches are a good tax break so one thing led to another.”

Melanie grew up in St. Louis, MO were she rode cutting horses and ran barrels, flags, poles and rode during the summer's at her aunt's hunt and jump ranch. However, something was always missing. “I knew there was something else out there in the horse world that would make me even happier. I had seen Arabians and Thoroughbreds and Appaloosas but none of them were quite right for me.”

In 1986 shortly after moving to Texas, Melanie visited a local arena where she saw a horse doing an extended trot across the arena. She thought, ‘What was that?’ “I knew had never seen anything so beautiful in my life and that was my introduction to Dressage. I have been hooked from that moment. I love the discipline and art of Dressage. It is like ballet on a beautiful horse.”