The venue is currently closed.
Owens Spring Creek Farm
1401 E. Lookout Dr., Richardson
972/235-0192
bobevans.com/ourfarms
Hours: 9am–4pm Monday–Friday from March–November
Admission: $5 for ages 2 and older. Cash or check only.
Parking: Free.
The kids may never have seen a horse as big as Captain Midnight, the dapple-gray Percheron at Owens Spring Creek Farm in Richardson, and he isn’t even the heaviest of the four draft horses at the 11-acre show farm, petting zoo and museum. His mother Iris weighs in at 2,300 pounds. These giant horses – along with diminutive Shetland ponies and bleating goats plus hayrides, a trackless train and a child-sized maze – make Owens Spring Creek Farm just the place for a low-key, quick retreat to keep the kids going through the onslaught of end-of-the-year school activities.
You may recognize the name from the grocery store’s freezer aisle. C.B. Owens founded Owens Country Sausage in Richardson in 1928 and opened the farm in 1962. Now the Ohio-based Bob Evans Farm, Inc., owns the farm, the product brand and the sausage production plant down the road where pigs are shipped for slaughter. No tours for that.
Families, however, can take self-guided tours through the farm to view the animals – including a few potbellied pigs – but especially the goats, which never get enough of visitors. Farmhands provide cups of oats for you to feed to the 26 goats, including nine babies. Sprinkle some oats onto your child’s flat hand and watch the most eager goats crane their necks for the treat. Then clean up with provided hand sanitizer.
To get a closer look at the two Texas longhorns and the small herd of nine Shetland ponies, step up into the hay-lined trailer for a bumpy tractor ride. The driver will take you around the pond with wading ducks, geese and sunbathing turtles for a full view of the rolling pastures.
Stop by the row of chicken coops to see male turkeys fluff their fan of feathers, and don’t miss the white rabbits and miniature donkeys, as well as a miniature paint horse. The farm’s draft horses are reminiscent of the early days at Owens when the founder would parade his prized Belgian horses through local fairs. Six of them would pull an antique stagecoach to advertise the company, and you can see the same stagecoaches, wagons and blacksmith shop where the horseshoes were forged. They remain on display for luck.
