Guest Ranch Horseback Riding is seldom as intense as Dorothy May Winfield expresses here, but this poem beautifully catches those blissful moments of being “in the zone” with your horse. Thanks, Dorothy (and Stewart!) – please say hello to Scotland for us. We hope to see you again next year!
Mounting my quarter horse, I steel myself for the journey,
A ripple runs through him as my legs gently squeeze his sides,
He moves forward, slowly at first.
I feel his power beneath me,
Flicking the reins he gathers momentum
Faster and faster and faster,
He breathes deeply,
Fire bursts from his flared nostrils.
The plain stretches before us like endless time.
hands pull at my hair, my clothes,
Stripping my mortality.
My heart beats to the rhythm of his hooves.
The ball of fire above, now burns my naked body.
The saddle has gone,
There is nothing between us,
We have become one.
Only my senses are alive,
I am lost, deep within myself.
Our Western Horseback Riding philosophy is on our Riding Horses page.
A little while ago, a journeyman square dancing caller named Mark Hammett somehow got entangled with a local group of crazy people, and the result is the Ponderosa Promenaders Square Dancing Club.
The Promenaders meet every week. Cyril somehow managed to get Ellen, Dan and Justin off the dude ranch to enjoy part of the winter in weekly lessons, and we’ve all been having a ball.
In fact, we’re having so much fun that we’ve installed a new dancing floor in the dude ranch recreation room!
Mr. Mark has graciously agreed to call for us this summer!
He and his bride Corrine will be joining us for supper every Monday and then will be teaching us with the beginning of the dude ranch season in late May.
We will be square dancing every Monday night!
All of our neighbors and all “Angels” are always welcome! No experience necessary! There is no charge to dance at the Sundance Trail.
What do Pepi Roni (the pizza magnate), Judge Waylin Payne (of Roadkill, Colorado) and the science fiction author H. G. Wells have in common? Why, they’ve all been murdered right here at our Colorado B&B – dude ranch!
One of our favorite winter time activities is Murder Mystery weekends. Once a month or so, when we have 8 to 12 willing suspects, we find a poor murder victim sprawled out nearby – “deader than a doornail.” Murdered, and often with the first clue nearby.
Who did it? Helena Handcart? Charley Chaplin? Tiny Bubbles? Father Alfredo?
Our guests then spend the weekend, between meals and horse back riding, untangling each others’ half-truths. evasions and high jinks. The games are designed for participants who are willing to take a whimsical view of blackmail, larceny, deceit, and murder.
Those of you who are offended by such high-jinks as shady dealings, sordid affairs, and deceptive conduct should not book reservations for these weekends! If you do book, plan on some laughter!
We love hosting these games. Imagine, people come to spend a B&B week-end with us: They exercise our dude ranch horses, they make us laugh like crazy for the weekend, and then they pay us money! What a life!
We have games scheduled the weekends of:
November 11th Sorry! Fully booked!
December 9th
December 31st New years!
January 13th
February 24th
We can also schedule a game for any time that you might have 8 – 12 people who want to spend the week-end together and play (before dude ranch season begins in mid-May) – birthday party or maybe just get away with some friends!
Give us a call (970-224-1222) and we can tell you all about Bed and Breakfast murder in Red Feather Lakes.
Ranch Life – Dude Ranches Offer a Uniquely American Escape, and give Meeting-goers a Taste of the Old West
Meetings West Magazine, August 2001 by Christine Brenneman
The need to breathe fresh air and get away from it all at a rustic, Old West-style dude ranch is nothing new. In fact, the legacy of these ever-popular ranch vacations started more than a hundred years ago, when East Coast city folk sought peaceful escapes from the harried urban grind. Back then, anyone from east of the Mississippi was called a “dude”, and these dudes would travel west to get a taste of ranch life, paying to board on various ranches. Thus, a niche of western travel was born.
Today, many dude ranches still exist as a beloved holdover from a bygone era. Americans seem to be fascinated by myths of the Old West – cowboys, rustlers and a simpler life – so it seems dude ranches are here to stay. Plus, these days, it’s more and more possible to take a corporate group out into the pastoral environs of a ranch to meet – and have the modern approximation of the dude ranch experience. Just what is a ranch vacation, and how do meetings at dude ranches work?
In the world of the dude ranch, change comes slowly. Indeed, these properties often eschew trendiness in favor of tried and true ranch activities such as trail riding and horsemanship. But recently, ranches as travel destinations have enjoyed a slow but steady increase in popularity. Blame it on the ubiquitous cell phone or our cubicle-bound existence. People are simply aching to get back to a slower daily pace in more scenic, technology-free environments. Of course, a dude ranch fits these specifications; and in the current, more competitive market, each ranch has had to carve out its own niche – and even diversify a bit – to differentiate itself from others.
But just how many niches can there be in the seemingly limited dude ranch world? According to Dan Morin, owner of Sundance Trail Dude Ranch in Red Feather Lakes, Colo., who has been in the business for years, even some traditional ranches have expanded beyond mere horse rides.
“Over the last few years, I’ve seen much more diversification,” Morin explains. “Twenty years ago, a dude ranch was a dude ranch. Now you’re finding that ranches tend to find niches that fit with the personalities of the guests and owners. Some are involved with trout fishing, for example. Our ranch is very involved in family, and supporting that. That fits our philosophy. And each different ranch specializes in enhancing the guests’ skills in certain areas.”
“This is a place to get into jeans and tennis shoes,” explains Morin of his ranch in Colorado. “I’ve never seen anyone here wear a tie. The meetings we host are very informal; this is our home after all – you’re meeting in the barn or the lodge dining room. And on breaks, people can go sit outside and watch the horses or hummingbirds.”
At Morin’s Sundance Trail Guest Ranch, a local group of teachers, who meet at the property for a seminar each year, decided to bring families along for the first time last summer. Morin describes it as an unexpected, but overwhelming success.
“We were packed in, with teachers and professors in the meeting rooms strategizing, and the kids and spouses out riding horses, hiking and doing activities with our staff,” he says. “They took their breaks together and it was marvelous. We made it fun by turning one guest room into a kids-only room. And one night, our chef took the kids to make pizzas, which they ate around a campfire. The whole time, though, the spouses stayed away from the meeting rooms, and kids were warned off – so the meeting attendees got their business done.”