Every evening during cocktail hour one of our wranglers visits with you to see what you would like to do the following day and what is available. We try to make things as customized as possible with various riding opportunities from trial riding to cattle work. We work to accommodate each guest's needs from the length of ride they'd like to experience to the type of ride they're interested in.
Full Day Cattle Work Schedule
7.30am - Breakfast and all need to be ready by 8.15am.
By 8.15 AM all horses are loaded up in the trailers and the Wrangler picks up the guests in front of the lodge. This is a real working cattle ranch so we go where the livestock is on this 250,000 acre spread. The drive to and from where we park the truck & trailer to unload is always scenic and often challenging. Every truck takes max. 5 guests per truck and 6 to7 horses per trailer.
We unload the horses, bridle, check cinches and ride out to where we need to start the cattle work, rounding up, drive cattle, sort cattle, etc.
During cattle work our guests can stay with the wrangler or follow directions on where to go look for cattle, calves or yearlings. Confident adventurous riders will split off and start working immediately. Others will stay more close to the wrangler and follow his instructions, riding with him/her. The wrangler keeps an eye on the entire party to make sure they are safe and that all work is being done properly.
Beginners can stay on the trail or with the larger group of cattle/livestock and push them in the direction we are headed, while the other riders search the country and bring smaller groups to the herd.
As we work the herd grows and soon we will need all hands to keep moving forward.
We always ride through scenic and very diverse country, making cattle work and drives at The Hideout always breathtaking scenic rides at the same time.
We take a break for lunch at a nice picnic spot around noon.
Once we have dropped off the cattle or done our work, we usually take a different trail to the trailers. If we are with 2 wranglers and 2 groups we usually split up the groups in a fast one and a slower one. The wrangler with the faster group(trot/lope) will take a longer trail to head back to the trailer.
Arriving at the trailer we dismount, unbridle and load up the horses. Driving down to the valley there is usually some good fun in the truck. We arrive at the barn between 4.30 PM and 6 PM.
By 6.30pm we all meet for Cocktail hour looking at the pictures of the day which are loaded up the computer in the mean time.
7pm - Dinner We all dine together and there's always some members of the family or staff dining with the guests. After dinner there are games, music, campfire, hot tub, horseshoeing, etc. However most of the guests are usually off-to-bed because they are exhausted.
Sometimes we will take a group on "extreme cattle work” which is usually for the better riders and can be as long as 9 to 10 hours depending upon the work that needs to be done. This group does not return unless the job is done and does not really consider being back by cocktail hour or dinner. It is just a day like the hands of the ranch. It's finished when the job is finished. So it can be earlier done than anticipated.
Trail Rides
There are ½ day trail rides, 2/3 of a day trail rides or full day trail rides and there are trail rides for beginners, intermediate and advanced. For the ½ day rides we always return to The Hideout and most of these rides are in the valley. We are back for lunch and we leave again at 1.30 PM from the barn.
Half day rides leave at 8.30 AM and are back between 11 and 12 AM. They are back at the barn around 4 to 4.30 PM. Guests can opt for a morning ride, an afternoon ride or a morning and afternoon ride. The 2/3 of a day trail rides are usually back at the barn around 2 to 3 PM. We take lunch in the mountains on the trail.
We ride private property, BLM, National Forest and Wilderness Trails. Diversity of scenery throughout the week ranges from riding in the half desert with sage, riding in red rock and red canyons, riding green canyons with creeks, riding alpine forests, alpine meadows, aspen coves.
We are happy to offer fishing trail rides if you would like.