The history of Crazy W, Inc.

In the 1940's and 50's the Weitzel boys, who lived in Wellington, Ohio, discovered the joy in horses and rodeos while traveling out in the western U.S. They brought back that fun here to Northeast Ohio, by putting on what were called Rodeo Shows. Rodeo shows were a combination of rodeos, fun classes on horse back, and three gaited classes. One of their old show bills still exists and is pictured on our website. They called their farm WB Bar Ranch, the WB stood for Weitzel Brothers.

When the brothers had gone their separate ways, got married and started their own lives, WB Bar Ranch was left behind. They still loved to rodeo and show horses, so with their friends they formed the Wild Buckaroos. This group of guys traveled around Northeast Ohio and showed at rodeos and horse shows.

Many years later two of the brothers, Richard and Robert, had families of their own and introduced horses and showing to their children. Richard purchased a farm and began buying and selling horses. The family named the farm Crazy W, for obvious reasons this name fit (some say the farm was named after the family pet donkey, Crazy Willie). They enrolled their children into the county 4-H horse program. Later they started their own 4-H club and named it the Buckaroos. At Crazy W, they made an arena for the local 4-H to start using and hold horse shows. Soon Richard Sr. started selling tack and saddles to the kids & their families that came to the horse shows because of a lack of tack shops in the area. They started that tack shop on the front porch of the farm.

Richard Sr's son, Ric Weitzel took over the operations of the family horse farm and later, the tack shop. Julie Balint-Weitzel, Ric's wife later took over Crazy W, "The Tack Shop", & turned it into CW Saddlery. CW Saddlery is a mobile tack store & saddle fitting & flocking business. Julie has gone to England to be a trained saddle fitter with multiple years of horse experience.

In November 2003 Ric & Julie opened a new farm in Oberlin, OH called Equine Differences, the best of Julie (Dressage) & Ric (Western). Equine Differences has expanded twice since opening & planning more expansion in the next couple of years.