In 1994 the Whatcom County Parks & Recreation Dept. obtained the 70 acre former Arabian breeding farm of Kay
& Don Lowry. It was formerly known as Sunset Farm Arabians. Kay was a prominent Arabian breeder in the Pacific
NW in the 1960's. In an effort to preserve her beloved farm, a deal was struck with the Parks Dept. where Kay
donated half the value of the land (about $750,000 in 1994) and a grant was obtained to purchase the other half.
The equestrian community of Whatcom County will be forever grateful to Kay for her foresight and generosity.
The Parks Dept. did not have any funds to develop the park, so it approached various horse groups in Whatcom
County to see if any were interested in helping develop it. A number of groups were interested in the beginning,
but our group is the only one that continues to be involved.
We have graveled a small parking area, run a water line out to the parking area and installed a frost free hydrant.
We have built a number of cross country jumps (some of which weren't very good!). An entire set of stadium jumps
have been built with donated lumber that have been used many times to raise money for our efforts at the Park.
In the fall of 2003, we hired Canadian Steve Buckman for a week. Steve is renowned throughout the West for his
cross country jump building skills and expertise, and has built many of the courses in our area. He built us two
portable jumps (and provided several of us with great instruction on the "how-to" involved) and a fabulous water
complex. The water complex has two revetted sides and two sloped "creek entry" sides. Needless to say, it has
seen a lot of use since it has been finished.
We plan to continue building and upgrading the cross country course, so that our sport will continue to flourish.
Click on any of the photos below to see a larger version. (Click your browser "back" button to return to this page)
table jump, built by Steve
Buckman.
built by Steve Buckman.
built by Steve Buckman.
The revetted wall wasn't
quite finished in this photo.
built by Steve Buckman,
donated by All-Weather
Woodtreaters.
built by Steve
Buckman
enough for a full-sized
dressage arena, or stadium
jumping. Built by Rick
Dahlgren Excavating.