Riverview Ranch & Resort
About Us
This is a Mom & Pop Ranch
Roger and Sabina Burton
Empty Nesters With A Big Nest
Photo from 1994 wedding in California.
Roger Burton
Roger was born in Clark Air Base, Philippines while his father was stationed there during his service as an Air Force Staff Sergeant. Roger's older brothers: Glenn was an Army officer and Tom, was in the Navy and switched to the Marines as an officer. Roger's younger brothers: David enlisted in the Coast Guard and Shawn enlisted in the Air Force. Roger moved with his family to New York, then to Phoenix Arizona, then to Laytonville California. If you ask him where he is from he will tell you he is from Laytonville, population 1,152 (in 2020) because that's where he went to high school. Roger had his own horse in Laytonville. He and his brothers all had horses of their own. He had permission to ride anywhere in a neighbor's 1,000 acre ranch. Those were some fun times on that ranch with his brothers and his horse, Honey. He sold his horse when he joined the Navy and then switched to the Marine Corps a year later when he went to college. While in college he got his private pilot certificate flying Cessna 152 and 172s. After college he flew the T-34, the TA4, the A4M, and the AV-8B. He served in Desert Storm and was honorably discharged when President Clinton began drawing down the military. Roger was a flight instructor in Orange County California for a while, then flew some charter flights, flew a CRJ for Atlantic Coast Airlines (United Express), then the Boeing 757 for American Trans Air Airlines. He married Sabina in 1993 (and 1994) and had two beautiful baby girls, Sophie and Sarah.
Sabina Burton
Born Sabine Wuensch, legally changed her first name to "Sabina" when we were married because Americans kept mispronouncing it. Her friends call her "Bina." She grew up in Bavaria, Germany. She always wanted to have a thousand horses. Her father had flown the ME-262 in combat during WWII. Her mother also went through the war. Sabina chose her profession as a Criminal Justice Professor because of a great desire to help prevent another Hitler from coming to power in the world. Fighting corruption where you see it is essential to this goal. She has three siblings: Rolf and Birgit, living in Germany and Ralf, living in Switzerland. Sabina was injured in a gymnastics accident as a child, suffered several botched surgeries, and spent 7 years on crutches. She worked so hard to heal and build her body that the German Olympic Rowing Team asked her to compete with them. She was honored, but declined the invitation. She was the first female member of the German Federal Police, the German equivalent of our FBI. She interned for Janet Yellen, Right hand to Margaret Thatcher. Sabina has five masters degrees. She studied Latin for eight years, is well versed in the political philosophies of ancient Roman and Greek philosophers, and studied under the best Criminal Justice minds of our time. She received her PhD from the University of California Irvine (UCI). She became a US Citizen in 2009. She taught Criminal Justice at UW Platteville from 2008 until 2018. Her talents were wasted due to corruption. She married Roger in 1993 (and 1994) and had two beautiful baby girls, Sophie and Sarah.
Our Equestrian Center
24,400 Sqft
Roger and Sabina bought the ranch in 2015. The ranch was formerly called “Rainbo Valli Farm” and “Galena Riverview Equestrian Center.” It was used for horse training, sales, and showing. The building was built in 1980 by the original owners of Chestnut Mountain Ski Resort. It has a 60′ x 160′ indoor riding arena, a stable with enough space to house 36 horses, and a large hay loft above the stable.
The main floor living section contains a lobby, a bar, a half-bath and apartment 1, which is currently being renovated. The second floor has two 1,300 sqft rental apartments which we rent to overnight guests. We have a fantastic view of sunsets over the Mississippi River.
Neighbors to the South
Brad and Robin Hall
Hall Eventing
You will likely see our neighbors feeding their horses to the south of us, or practicing jumping horses in their practice arena on the west side of River Road. Brad is an amazing competitor and instructor in Eventing, a horse discipline where they do a lot of jumping over obstacles on a stamina course. If you are looking for high level rider or horse training, you won’t find better instructors. Click Here for their website.
We feel honored and blessed to have such high caliber and friendly horse neighbors. Brad and Robin have always been willing to give us a hand when we needed one.
We ask that our guests and visitors please respect our neighbor’s privacy and not go down their driveway or pet their horses. Feel free to pet our horses instead.
Neighbors to the East
Slobo and Birgit Radin
The Goldmoor Inn
Just a short walk up the hill is an exceptional hotel and restaurant. Slobo and Birgit, the owners, are from Germany too. They bought the Goldmoor about the same time we bought Riverview Ranch in 2015. Since then they have made the place into a wonderful, and successful, high end hotel. They recently hired a highly acclaimed chef. Sabina and I took our daughter and her boyfriend there to dine at the “chef’s table.” It was fun to sit at a table watching this professional cook preparing food for restaurant patrons. It was nothing like Masterchef on TV. No shouting at all. We had a great time joking with the chef and other staff as we ate a fantastic meal.
What Caused Us To Shift To Agritourism
Chancellor Dennis J. Shields and Attorney Jennifer Sloan-Lattis railroaded Sabina and had her fired on trumped up, and false charges. Ultimately, the real reason was that he did not like her complaining that her rights had been repeatedly violated. They had all sorts of vague, false, and hyperbolic allegations for things that were not against any rule.
In 2012 a student asked Sabina to help with a complaint of sexual harassment by a male professor. Sabina reported the incident to the dean. Sabina received retaliation for her action. She filed a complaint for the retaliation. She received more retaliation. Well, bottom line is this – The University of Wisconsin System is Corrupt. It may be the worst college in America, but we also learned that this sort of corruption is rampant in American Universities. Our specific background, however, is in the UW System. Unfortunately, we also found that getting a lawyer who is actually on your side is quite difficult. Our first two attorneys, Mary Kennelley, and Timothy Hawks (the teacher union’s attorney) fed us to the lions. We also determined that Judge Van De Hay and Judge Peterson are corrupt. Hard to win court cases against all that corruption. But we tried. We will continue to resist corruption and lies with every breath. If you would like to know more you can look at our briefs in the Wisconsin Western District court, the 7th circuit court of appeals, and the federal Supreme Court. Sabina Burton v Wisconsin Board of Regents. She was fired because she complained about retaliation and violations of her rights. She never complained once about sexual harassment against herself, just retaliation in the form of violations of her rights. We spent our retirement money on lawsuits and could not continue the fight in court. We looked for something to keep us out of bankruptcy, help pay for the hay and vet bills, and to keep the lights on through retirement. We also were quite stressed out and wanted an environment where we could heal emotionally and mentally. We found what we were looking for – and named it “Riverview Ranch and Resort.”
Riverview Ranch & Resort
We decided to buy the Riverview Equestrian Center and start a business with the horses we had acquired since 2006. We bought the Equestrian Center in 2015 and Roger spent a lot of time fixing it up, commuting the 45 minutes from Platteville. We moved to the Equestrian Center in 2017. We sold our Platteville ranchette in 2018. We went through the onerous and expensive process of getting a guest accommodations license and finally started our horse riding and accommodations businesses, which we re-named “Riverview Ranch & Resort,” in 2020. Just in time for COVID. We started again in 2021. In February 2021 our arena roof collapsed from snow load. We finally got it fixed in late summer of 2021. We continued growing our fledgling business in 2022, 2023 and 2024, gaining experience and understanding along the way. In 2025 we are trying some new things and it looks like we will have a great year. We have a great outlook on life and we want to help other people find the calm and peace we find with our animals and our ranch. Being around horses and other critters is indeed calming. We are not afraid of a little hard work. Sabina and I run the ranch and the resort. We have a pretty good system to split the work between us and we pick up the slack when someone is out of sorts or gone on a trip. But sometimes, when things get really hectic, we call on Roger’s alter egos to pitch in. There is just too much to do for just one Roger.
Our Long Term Plans
Roger has aspirations of getting a flying machine he can take off in a pasture. He plans to create an online service to provide access for travelers to the next generation of air taxi and to provide retired pilots a way to own an airplane and use it to make money. This business will be online at Taxijet.com and Taxicopter.com.
Sabina enjoys sharing her understanding of politics with people on social media and debunking some of the ridiculous lies we hear every day online. Who knows where that might lead? One thing is for sure, we will stay at Riverview Ranch for a very very long time.
We plan to find someone who can help us run the ranch so it will continue to provide rest and relaxation to our guests and visitors even after our bodies begin to fail. But for now, Roger and Sabina are in great health, in great spirits, and are excited about the future.
Rain
Or
Shine
Mom used to say: “Whether the weather be cold, or whether the weather be hot, we’ll weather the weather, whatever the weather, whether we like it or not.” Here at the ranch, we like it, whatever the weather! Our 24,440 square foot equestrian center has a 60′ x 160′ indoor riding arena for riding on rainy or windy days, and lots of animals for your family to meet in the indoor stables.
Guests staying in our Resort can pet the wandering zoo any time the animals are available and may pet horses over the fence, but may not enter horse enclosures unescorted. The pigs and dogs wander in and out of the lobby often. The chickens, and ducks wander all around outside. There are also, always, an assortment of interesting wild birds all around the ranch and beautiful scenery every season of the year.