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A Ranch Adventure Vacation – May Trail Maintenance

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Spring Trail Maintenance – Dude Ranch Work Vacation

guest ranch spring chores
Spring is here! Time to groom trails! Yee-haw!

By popular demand! A new get-away idea! May 13 to May 19

So, if you want to get away from

  • the telephone ringing,
  • the traffic,
  • the TV commercials every six minutes

And you think that celebrating spring might include

  • hauling logs,
  • carrying buckets of dirt up steep climbs

    guest ranch barn and fencing
    Posts for fencing and barn - what fun!
  • setting fence posts and
  • a few hours of riding horses every day for a week?

May 13 is our spring trail maintenance week, and you are invited to join us!

guest ranch horses running
Who left the corral gate open???

We will have 12  – 15 new horses joining our herd, and they will need lots and lots of riding to get into shape for the summer.

Our trails will also need lots of attention (that is, lots of sweat and dirt!). Areas of erosion will be repaired, dead  trees that may compromise safety will need to be removed, water bars built, and just maybe we will build a small barn.

spring guest ranch trail maintenance
Lot's of trails to clean up
  • Hard physical labor and
  • Lots of dirt.
  • No texting,
  • No cell phones,
  • No TV
  • and very limited internet available.

A break from civilization!

If this sounds like fun, visit our Dude Ranch Specials Page or call the ranch (970-224-1222) for more details.

BTW, summer is booking now. If you are planning to join us this year, you might want to call soon!

Dude Ranch Quiz: What is This Horse Saying???

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Colorado Dude Ranch horses communicate very clearly!

Dude Ranch Horse Stevie
1. What is Stevie saying here?

This quiz is part of a series of articles that we have written in the  Sundance Trail Guest Ranch Horse Safety and Horse Communication collection, including Speaking to Your Dude Ranch Horse Part 1 and Speaking to your Dude Ranch Horse Part 2.

When at Sundance Trail Guest Ranch, either for a summer dude ranch vacation or Fall/Winter/Spring B&B stay,

Ranch Vacation Horse Mocha
2. And Mocha?

you will spend lots of time with our horses (and donkeys!).

Horses communicate with body language. (Is this why women so often understand their horses immediately, and why guys are so often clueless?) Their faces, and especially their ears speak volumes, once you learn how to read them.

Colorado Ranch Vacation Pony: Rose Blossom
3. And Rose Blossom?

Here’s a quick primer on some easy to recognize “expressions.”  Have fun!

Answers to each of these facial expressions are listed at he bottom of the page!

Family Vacation Bed and Breakfast Horse: Apache
4. What is Apache saying here?
Family Dude Ranch Horse Khalli
5. What is Khalli doing?
Family Vacation B&B Rusty
6. And Rusty?
Guest Ranch Donkey - Calamity Jane
7. What is Calamity Jane saying here?
1. Stevie is ANGRY!!! She is having a bad hair week. Spring snow has melted and she want’s to party, and the geldings around her are all nerds or something!! Dude ranch horses are supposed to be romantic!!! None of these guys want to dance!!! Best to just leave her alone for a few more days…
She is clearly saying: “keep your distance or I will bite you!!!”
2. Mocha is taking a nap, or maybe she is meditating. Nope, she’s sleeping, in fact, she is snoring! One of her back hooves is up on the toe, her ears are flopped off to the sides, and her eyes are soft, gently starting off into the distance.
3. Rose Blossom is definitely sleeping! She’s still a baby, so she sleeps a lot. She even has her eyes closed, which only babies do – adults sleep with their eyes open.
4. Apache is awake, alert, and wants the cookie in my pocket. He is demonstrating interest and is interacting.
5. Khalli also wants the cookie in my pocket, but at the same time she is listening to some interesting gossip BEHIND her! Yes, kinda like radar dishes, horses’ ears can pivot front to side to back; even in different directions. Yes, if she wanted, Khalli could listen to two different conversations at once!
6. Rusty is actually sleeping. one of his hind feet is up on the toe, his ears are flopped off to the side, and his eyes are softly staring off into space…
7. Calamity is not happy that she is the last picture. She is small, but she is VERY bossy!

Request our Dude Ranch brochure, or Download pdf now, or Email the ranch.

Bears Invade Dude Ranch! (and Mooses too!)

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Guest Ranch take-over!!!

Guest Ranch table cub
Dude Ranch Bear Table

–After successfully keeping momma black bear and her cubs out of the dumpster and the kitchen all summer, Sundance Trail Guest Ranch has been been completely overrun with bears… and mooses*!!

-Take home a bear as a memory of your ranch vacation! Or maybe a Christmas present from your family vacation. Looks like there’s a whole herd of the critters hiding in the gift shop, next to the Jackalopes, water bottles, disc golf Frisbies, and elegant Colorado hand carved bowls.

Colorado family vacation ranch gift shop
Bears Hiding in our Dude Ranch Gift Shop

-Our neighbor, Rob, is a chainsaw artist, and he make some of the finest carvings we’ve ever seen!

-Our dude ranch has become a gallery of finished pieces!

-Rob’s work shows the demanding control and precision needed for this unlikely art form.

Colorado Ranch Vacation Bear
Itty Bitty Dude Ranch Bear & Kleenex

Big ones, little ones, some holding signs, some holding tables, some just sitting on a table top being cute.

Colorado Ranch Vacation Bear and itty-bitty Moose
Sundance Trail Guest Ranch Front Porch Greeters!

Most of these are bears, but there are cubs and mooses* as well.

He takes custom orders for wood carvings of any kind; including bears, bear lamps, Eagles, Indians, Cowboys, Santas, pumpkins, …you name it!

Bears protecting sundance trail guest ranch fireplace
Bears Protecting Ranch Dining Room Fireplace

Rob’s prices vary, depending on the size and difficulty of the piece, and whether any museums or fine arts galleries are bidding for the piece.

Family Vacation Hugs!
Colorado Ranch Vacation Hugs 5 cents!

Generally, small bears & mooses*,  about a foot tall, start at $35 or so.

If you have something special in mind, please feel free to email the ranch and Rob can give you a quote.

Also, Rob said he’s open to demonstrating his art here at the guest ranch if you have a group that would like to watch & learn more.

* We appreciate that in some parts of the country the plural of “moose” is “meese” but here in Colorado we use the more correct ranch term “mooses.”

Guest Ranch Horseback Riding – My Daydream

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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!

Dude Ranch horseback riding; Sundance Trail Guest Ranch Colorado
Dude Ranch horseback riding; Sundance Trail Guest Ranch Colorado

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.