Ranching Holidays

S

silverbreeze

Well-Known Member
Joined
31 March 2009
Messages
732
Location
Cheshire
Visit site
Hi

I am looking for a ranching holiday that would offer a really exhilarating experience, basically as fast and furious as possible!!! I have been looking online for ages and I just can't seem to make up my mind, i am scared to commit in case I spend my money and then end up plodding around a field because someone in the group isnt confident enough.

I would love to participate in a cattle/horse drive and maybe have some involvement with breakers and basically try and avoid the overly commercial 'Dude rancehs' that seem to be everywhere!

I havent necesarily set my mind on USA, I have seen some fantastic looking ones in Chile and Argentina too...

Basically, i would really like to hear of peoples experiences/recommendations of holidays of this type so I am have more than the marketing material hype to go off!

Thanks
 
No experience of any myself, but inthesaddle so these kind of holidays, maybe you can google them and find some reviews?
 
Thanks for those, had a quick look. there is one in Equador that looks fantastic, with the fighting bulls! I know that the cattle drives are slower paced than the horse drives due to condition etc. My main concern is being stuck in 'tourist' groups that have never seen a horse before ;-)

I think i might just investigate the Ecuador one a little further as it looks like my kind of thing... Any more experiences, i would love to hear them!

Thanks again
 
Last edited:
TX Ranch on the Montana / Wyoming border http://www.txranch.com/ the best place for a real flavour of the old west. No dude ranching going on here up at the crack of dawn after sleeping in tents, no electricity or any mod cons, at my last stay there it was time to move the outhouse, so the old hole was burned and a new hole dug then the entire outhouse lifted over the new hole!!!!!

Proper ranching being done and I think they do 2 cattle drives a year however even if you go when there are no drives on plenty of work to do around the massive ranch, from ear tagging, castrations, injections etc of the cows, which is usually done after spending several hours rounding them up and getting them to the working area. Ended up doing some riding that I would never have dreamed off before mainly galloping down very very steep sided ravines after cattle and have to say sitting on a cutting horse working the cows is amazing!!!!!

Evening spent around the camp fire with coffee and whiskey, really can't recommend this place enough and the owners Hip and Loretta Tillet are two of the loveliest people with a wicked sense of humour and many fab tales. (In fact if you caught Jamie Oliver's cooking trail across America it was with Hip that he stayed when in Wyoming when they camped out and he was trying to bring Asparagus with him and Hip looking like he was a loon!!!!!)

Really can't say enough good things about this place :D
 
On Saturday I am going to Bitteroot Ranch in Wyoming. http://www.bitterrootranch.com/

Like the TX ranch in Wyoming, they have weeks which are solely cattle roundups. They also have a variety of clinic weeks or regular weeks where you get to drive the cattle, go on picnic rides etc. It is a proper working ranch as opposed to a dude ranch and is also BHS approved. The rides are split into different abilities so one shouldnt be stuck with people who are only up to slow rides

I can hardly wait.

3 sleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeps.

If you dont necessarily want to go in America, I can thoroughly recommend Africa. Last year I went to Wait A Little Horse Safaris in South Africa. Nothing beats riding 10 metres from lions or galloping with the game. We also had one night sleeping out under the stars. Gerti and Phillip who own Wait A Little are so nice and you feel like one of the family for the week that you are there. I can also recommend African Horseback Safaris in Botswana.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top