Ouray Livery Barn

Definition of livery stable

1.      a stable where horses and vehicles are kept for hire and where stabling is provided —called also livery barn.

Have you ever been asked “Were you raised in a barn?”

For me, the answer is “Yes, I was raised in a barn.”

My mom, dad and two younger sisters moved to Ouray (U-ray), Colorado in 1968, when I was five years old to take over the Ouray Livery Stable. We would run dude horses out of the stable for 40 years, in what would be the longest continuous riding stable in Colorado, until my middle sister last closed the doors in 2006.

Here is a brief history of the place I spent all of my childhood and a lot of my adult years, too.
Gold and silver brought miners to the area and they needed pack animals the haul their freight in and out of the high mountain mines.
John Ashenfelter owned the largest of the freighting companies, or liveries. John Donald came to Ouray in 1886 and started a packing business with a string of burros. He eventually purchased the Ashenfelter stables in 1920. The Fellin brothers purchased John Donald’s business after his death in 1933, including the Ouray Livery Barn.