A working week in the saddle.
From the barn in the morning to the table after dark — for one week, you’re part of the outfit.
This is a real working cattle ranch, not a dude ranch with planned activities and photo ops. There’s no set itinerary — you pitch in with whatever needs doing that day, horseback, across fifteen thousand acres of Powder River country. Along the way you’ll learn a good deal about land stewardship, cattle management, and horsemanship — and come home dusty, a little saddle-sore, and a good deal surer of yourself than when you left.
It starts at the barn.
Mornings are busy, and you’re welcome to be there early to brush your horse and help tack up — the more hands, the better. Mary matches you to a horse that suits your riding ability, and the horsemanship lessons start before you ever step into the stirrup.
These are good, well-broke ranch horses who love going to work. Give the other riders room out on the trail, and let the horse do its job — you’ll get along just fine, whether you’ve ridden for years or are finding your seat for the first time.
There’s a rhythm to it, and you’ll fall in fast.
Breakfast is around 8:00 — earlier if the work calls for it. We gather at the barn about 9:00, saddle up, and ride out to whatever needs doing. Midday we break for a hot lunch back at the house; on the days we’re working the far country, lunch is a sandwich tucked in your saddle pockets, eaten horseback with a view most folks never get. We’re usually back by 5:00 or 5:30, and supper’s on around 6:30, family-style at the ranch house.
These are the hours we aim for. Real ranch work doesn’t punch a clock — count on some early mornings and the odd late night, depending on what the day brings. The cattle set the schedule — not the clock.
No two weeks look alike.
The work follows the season and the country, so every stay is its own. Over your week, you might:
- ◆Ride the pastures and check cows and calves
- ◆Ride and fix fence line
- ◆Move cattle from one pasture to the next
- ◆Doctor an animal that needs it
- ◆Haul salt and mineral out to the herd
- ◆Check the water tanks and springs
It’s honest work, learned by doing it next to people who’ve done it their whole lives. And if a day comes when you’d rather sit one out — saddle-sore, or just soaking it in — that’s fine too. Stay back with a book from Maria’s library, or run into Broadus to look around. It’s your week.
We ride when the work is real.
Guests come in spring and fall — the two stretches of the year when the country and the cattle keep everyone busiest.
When the horses are put up, everybody eats.
Three home-cooked meals a day, served family-style at the ranch house table with Mary, Dustin, and the kids — trading stories about the day’s ride with the people who live it. Suppers lean on recipes out of great-grandma Leffingwell’s cookbook, Sagebrush and Snowdrifts: the kind of cooking that comes from feeding a hungry crew for a hundred years.
All your meals are included. There’s a fridge, freezer, and coffee pot at Cow Camp for whatever you’d like on hand, and the ranch keeps water, lemonade, and iced tea going through the day. Bring your own beer or wine if you’d like it with supper.
“Not just a seminar in ranching — we invite you to be part of the daily routine.”
Come ride with us.
Weeklong stays, spring and fall, for two to four guests. Reach out and we’ll tell you everything you want to know.
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