OT: Cowboy Vacation

[Bruce K]

I am curious if anyone here has ever done either a working ranch, cattle drive, or dude ranch vacation?

I am curious as to your experiences - good or bad

This has been a bucket list item and I am trying to decide if it’s worth keeping there

BK

[William]

A buddy of mine is a middle aged big-city radio ad salesman. He and his friends Ed and Phil were having mid-life crisis. They decided the best birthday gift was to go on a two week holiday in the wild west driving cattle from New Mexico to Colorado. There they met a cowboy named Curly who not only taught them how to become real cowboys, but also one or two other things about life in the open air of the west. The dude was old but he could bang out one-armed push-ups.







W.:) ;) :)

[kingpin75s]

A buddy of mine is a middle aged big-city radio ad salesman. He and his friends Ed and Phil were having mid-life crisis. They decided the best birthday gift was to go on a two week holiday in the wild west driving cattle from New Mexico to Colorado. There they met a cowboy named Curly who not only taught them how to become real cowboys, but also one or two other things about life in the open air of the west. The dude was old but he could bang out one-armed push-ups.

W.:) ;) :)

Sounds like a bunch of yuppie city slickers to me ;)

[Bruce K]

Gee thanks, William - I think I know those guys.

The things is, if you do a little research, there are several types and various levels from luxury to full roughing it (like the movie - sort of).

I am really curious if anyone actually did one of these trips and if it was fun or more of a hyped / fake planned out to the minute thing

BK

[joosttx]

I worked on a ranch growing up. Pulling a calf is an experience everyone should experience once.

When I had a summer job for the Forest Service, I moonlighted as a wildlife expert at a dude ranch. This meant giving slide shows of the flora and fauna of the area.

People were very kind and it was a positive experience.

[donevwil]

A buddy of mine is a middle aged big-city radio ad salesman. He and his friends Ed and Phil were having mid-life crisis. They decided the best birthday gift was to go on a two week holiday in the wild west driving cattle from New Mexico to Colorado. There they met a cowboy named Curly who not only taught them how to become real cowboys, but also one or two other things about life in the open air of the west. The dude was old but he could bang out one-armed push-ups.

You know what the secret of life is ?







https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-h5Jj424UCmw/VyjMS9cKvlI/AAAAAAAACvM/qWjxhAtt27A6W6VxxOswNR2_SoQCMIYVQCLcB/s1600/City%2BSlickers-Just%2Bone%2Bthing.jpg

[wtex]

This looked cool: https://www.newmexico.org/nmmagazine/articles/post/the-wild-heart-of-the-gila/
https://www.newmexico.org/nmmagazine/articles/post/ranches-77144/
The Silver City/Gila area is just remarkable, I always thought it would be hot desert down there, but it's mountainous and green and often cooler than ABQ and Santa Fe.
If you drive it, take the Pie Town route one way and then the eastern way out - beautiful, but switchback city.

[Hawker]

And this is done on bikes? Gravel or Mountain?

[Louis]

I am curious if anyone here has ever done either a working ranch, cattle drive, or dude ranch vacation?

Before doing anything like this I'd re-watch the movie "Deliverance" and re-read Cormac McCarthy's "Blood Meridian."
Then I'd decide if I was still interested in that type of adventure...

Also, do the horses use Brooks, Selle Italia, or Selle San Marco saddles?

[saf-t]

I am curious if anyone here has ever done either a working ranch, cattle drive, or dude ranch vacation?
BK

Some (definitely not ranch-type people) friends of mine did a dude ranch vacation a while back and really liked it.

[Frankwurst]

I know a real cowboy and they are tough ass people. I've known this guy since he was in high school and graduated from college 11 years ago. Visited him on a ranch he worked an have heard stories most people would cry BS on but were indeed fact. It is truly a labor of love. Dangerous, hard work in less than ideal conditions a lot of the time. Looks good in the movies though.:beer:

[XXtwindad]

I am curious if anyone here has ever done either a working ranch, cattle drive, or dude ranch vacation?

I am curious as to your experiences - good or bad

This has been a bucket list item and I am trying to decide if it’s worth keeping there

BK

Thanks for posting this. I have never worked at a dude ranch, nor do I have any desire to. But this certainly qualifies as an "off beat" post, and these are the ones I like finding in the GD area.

[CNY rider]

I'm no cowboy but my girls love riding horses.
We are going back to the Tanque Verde Ranch in Tucson for the third consecutive year in the spring.
It's very well run, with a full day program for the kids so you can drop them off in the morning and not see them again until after dinner, if you so desire. They go on rides, and do all sorts of fun stuff so they're in no hurry to see you.
My wife takes the beginner riding lessons each day.
The great thing for me is they have a ton of other activities including mountain biking. So I go bicycle ride while they ride horses.
Then we go hike in the desert together.

Would we go if we didn't have the kids? Not sure because I don't ride horses, but I have only positive things to say about the place.

https://www.tanqueverderanch.com

[11.4]

I've known a variety of people who've worked at guest or dude ranches (the difference is just like it sounds) in Idaho, Montana, and Colorado. You can get realistic experiences where you really work for your time there, or you can just be a city slicker and dream about a growth experience.

I say this with a bit of a bias. I have two Australian shepherds that are superb cattle herders (cattle, not geese or sheep). The younger actually has a W-2 from running cattle drives. Sometimes these are short, sometimes longer, but there aren't many any longer. Cattle usually get moved on trucks or railcars, and beef consumption is down a bit so there are more chicken and turkey farms popping (which don't have quite the same thrill). We get called because a cattle drive is an art form and even most ranch hands and most herding dogs don't have the skills. Even on a semi-traditional cattle drive you have a pickup flatbed with a winch on the back to drop fences for cattle to pass over, and a suburban that carries all your stuff and goes into town to pick up Chipotle for dinner around the propane infrared heaters.

[Louis]

No one asked, but I'm going to say this just the same:

Unless I were super-buff from working a "real" outside job and had calloused hands and sunburned skin, I'd feel pretty lame showing at a working ranch expecting to contribute in any meaningful manner to the work being done there.

If the job was going on MTB / gravel rides, hiking, or lounging by the pool, yeah, I could do that, but I wouldn't deign to imagine that I could do any real work.

[Bruce K]

Louis - I agree to a point

At my age I am not chucking hay bales etc

But if I could get the experience of herding, roping, etc I could be there in a heartbeat. These are things I did when I worked on a farm when I was in college. I also led trail rides and excercised horses as part of the experience as well as learning to drive a 2 horse logging hitch with a pair of big draft horses.

But a farm on upstate NY and a western ranch are two different things. As I said it’s a bucket list thing that may or may not happen but the Longer I wait, the less likely it is.

BK

[RFC]

I have wrangled and branded bull calves on my brother-in-law's ranch. These are tough, no BS people who work very hard. For example, haying season is 15 hours a day and calving season is around the clock in spring snow storms.