Our Beginning
It's all in the family......
The interest in and pursuit of breeding the finest runs deep in the blood of the Vander Wekkens, 6 generations strong to be exact! At the helm of today's breeding operation is Marilyn. She has her Father's good eye and adheres only to a standard of excellence. Her honest straight forward approach has earned her a reputation of fairness and sincerity in the horse industry. The Vander Wekkens have a number of multiple purchase / repeat buyers for these very reasons.
For 26+ years Marana Farms bred the versatile Morgan Horse, shipping all across North America and overseas. Their Morgan program has had many firsts in the breed including the exotic, rare and often only coat colors of grey perlino, homozygous dun, dunskin and grey dunskin. The farm still owns one of their superior bred mares.
Marana Farms has been featured in breed journals and equine publications.
In 2007, Marana Farms purchased their first miniature horses. 16 years later, the farm continues to produce A/R dun overos with a 32 inch height preference. Marana Farms' miniature horses are registered under the Wildberry prefix.
Wildberry Miniatures can be found across Canada and have been exported to the USA. Wildberry Miniatures strives to keep their program current by studying breed journals and having imported quality breeding show stock. A few of their miniatures have become celebrity stars while others are owned by high profile people.
No miniature breeding program is complete without miniature donkeys! In 2013, the Vander Wekkens purchased two bred jennets followed by a quality red show jack imported from California, USA. Born was Kickass Miniature Donkeys! The Vander Wekkens have also exported their donkeys including overseas to Germany. A rare tyger-spotted jack with red gene (since sold) was imported in 2018 from Ohio, USA. In Fall 2022, the Vander Wekkens imported two champion pedigreed jennets from Tennessee, USA. These young jennets bring quality new lines to Canada!
Wildberry and Kickass are registered prefixes with AMHA, AMHR, ADMS and CDMA.