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Santa Ynez Valley Animal Tour
updated: Sep 25, 2010, 9:15 AM
By the Dedicated Staff
For this week's tourist attraction, may we present an Edhat exclusive: An insider's guide to the amazing animals of the Santa Ynez Valley.
This suggested tour, suitable for cycling or driving, takes you to local hotspots for unusual and exotic animals that call this pastoral valley their home. We're not talking about well-bred horses or happy cows, although you'll see plenty of those along the route, too.
Some of these destinations are bonafide tourist attractions, while others are working ranches. All the animals are visible from the roadway, although specifically in the case of the Watusi cattle, you may want to keep your distance even from the fence.
 Miniature donkeys. Seeing Spots Farm, 2599 Baseline Avenue (just above the village of Ballard). These little donkeys are mellow and great with children, who are welcome to come inside the pen and even take a short donkey ride (donation for rescue donkeys on site encouraged). When they're not open, you'll see the donkeys hanging out together in a pen next to Baseline Avenue. The Seeing Spots farm is also home to a zonkey, a zebra-donkey hybrid that is the size of a small horse.
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 Miniature horses. Quicksilver Ranch, 1555 Alamo Pintado Road (between Solvang and Los Olivos). Miniature horses are not always as sweet tempered as miniature donkeys, although they can be, but you can view them from outside the fence. Especially adorable in springtime when the babies are born and frolic out in the green pastures with their mothers nearby. Tours of the ranch are available daily, and the minis are for sale.
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 Brush eating goats. Along northbound Hwy. 101, next to the blueberry farm. (1 mile south of Buellton). Remember the story of Billy Goats Gruff? Well, these goats have defeated the troll and are defending the bridge themselves near Buellton. They're the goats that are hired out in Santa Barbara to keep property neatly trimmed of dry brush, and they do a good job eating all that pesky foliage. If you walk back to pick blueberries, you'll see them on their favorite bridge.
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 Ankole-Watusi cattle. 3600 block of Baseline Avenue (next to Somerset Farms). You can't get a peek at the horns on these cattle without doing a big double take. From a distance, their horns look like they are almost as long as the animals. In fact, they could be, as they can grow up to 6 feet long. Those horns actually help keep them cool in hot weather. There are four Watusi grazing here, and they are a fairly recent addition to the Santa Ynez Valley animal menagerie. Privately owned, don't touch or cajole. Imported to the USA in the 1960s, according to Wikipedia, the species is no longer endangered.
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 Buffalo. Windmill Ranch, 6-mile mark of Ballard Canyon Road (outside Los Olivos). The good old domestic American bison doesn't look quite so exciting after the amazing horns of the Watusi. But there's still a particular frontier feeling that comes with seeing these animals out on the ranch. The buffalo at Windmill Ranch are grazing with regular old cows, but they seem to get along just fine.
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 Ostrich/emus. Ostrich Land, 610 Hwy 246, (just outside of Buellton). The movie "Sideways" made it impossible to have a list of SYV animal attractions without including this riverbed ostrich farm. But so far, the drunken tourist run through the birds' habitat has happened only in cinema time. The ostriches are in the riverbed of the Santa Ynez River and about a half mile from the stand where their eggs are sold, making it hard to get a good photograph. You can feed them and get closer for a fee. Or, you can buy a giant ostrich egg ($20) and make a giant omelet for 15 friends when you get home
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