Colorado!

[olympicdreams04]

So I am applying to a couple of positions at dude ranches in Colorado and in looking at pictures and descriptions of the area, I am concerned that my horses that live out exclusively on pasture board will be hard pressed to find grass. Is this the case? Also any and all reviews of CO appreciated. What is the eventing like, the market for nice sale horses, that sort of thing?

[NeverTime]

Between my friends and I, we've worked at quite a few Colorado dude ranches. It was AWESOME! What towns are you looking in?

If you are talking about dude ranches, I'm assuming you probably are talking about living in the mountains, in which case you'll be a bit farther from the main eventing area in Colorado, which is up and down the Front Range (ie, Fort Collins-Denver-C. Springs). In that prime area, Colorado has a really healthy summer eventing season for intro through prelim. If you want to keep trying with intermediate, there's only one intermediate event left in the area and the closest intermediates beyond Colorado are 12+ hours away: Texas, California, Illinois, etc.

As far as living out, again it really depends on what part of Colorado you are talking about. One thing that's really nice about the area is that they grow some of the best hay around, so even if you are living in an area where the grass isn't great and you've got to feed a lot of hay, it should be FABULOUS hay (like, way better than anything I've ever seen from Pa down to Fla). The summers up in the mountains are really temperate and the winters are doable outdoors as long as (a) your horses have some type of shelter/wind break and (b) you leave your horses alone to grow their winter coats and protect themselves from the elements.

PS: Weren't you just asking about Middleburg last week? Colorado is a VERY big change from Middleburg!!!! :cool:

[olympicdreams04]

Very helpful! See the thing is, I am opened to ANYWHERE. I don't want to limit myself, I want to try new things, and live new places, and all of that young wanderlusty stuff. I am limiting it to stateside because I love my mare more than anything else and can't bare to part with her. Unfortunately, I already have a trip planned to Ireland in March and if I don't find some place I am in love with before then (note that I said PLACE), I might just be importing my one and only Moosecow. So, all of that beingn said, do you have any specific suggestions for dude ranches to work at. I would like to be close-ish to Parker/Denver but it's not necessary.

[Gnep]

Colorado is a rather big state, and with a very deverse inviroment.
Micro climate is standard. you can live 3 miles away from 4 to 5 inches rainfall, might get 9 feet of snow and no rain for the rest of the year.
You think about 6000 feet as low but might consider 7000 as average.
You got the plains in the east the mountains in the middle and the deserts in the west.
It is such a split and deverse state. East slope ( east of the mountains ) a tone of people, millions, west slope, empty, towns that bareley make a 1ooo, counties that just make 25 000.
East slope is strugling for room, west slope is strugling for people.

Eventing, jup there is eventing, quiet a bit of it. But if you are on the west slope, you are talking miles, hundrds of them. My closest event is 300 miles away, easy 5 hours.

Depending were you are, but my horses live year around outside, pastured during the spring and fall, alittle bit more confined during the winter, snow has that efect.

I used to outfit, long distance rides, 500 miles in 11 days, had 50 horses and more, very tough busines.

If you end up in CO and need care for your hose or eventing stuff let me now, I am on the West Slope, very south, Cortez area, but be ready for a serious culture shock, its Cowboy Country, big time

[Altitude Rider]

Colorado is awesome, I spent the best years of my life there (so far!). Because I lived in SW CO (Durango & Telluride), I didn't compete much since all the events were on the front range, which is more like 7-9 hours away (GNEP drives very fast!).

It was worth giving up competing for a while to just enjoy the mountains with my horse and the great people that live in the state. I worked for an outfitter in Telluride, quite a grouchy guy but a real a softee inside, especially if you took good care of and were knowledgeable about the horses.

The grass hay in Colorado is some of the best. And it's affordable and pretty easy to find.

I left the west to move to Aiken, SC but I was in CO for about 16 years. I highly recommend living there for at least a year, it will change your life for the better. Personally I like SW Colorado the best, more remote and incredible mountains...I am not a city girl and the front range (Parker/Denver) was too busy for me...but great events over there. You can ride all winter, though you will potentially be riding in deep snow.

I know Gnep from when I lived in the Dolores River Valley...he is a good guy and one of only a few eventers I know in that area.

Good luck!

[NeverTime]

To build on what Alititude Rider said, if you are interested in dude ranches and a really fabulous quality of life, but also want to event, why don't you look in the mountains just outside Denver (ie, Silverthorne, Loveland, Copper Mountain, etc.)? Living there, you are outside the endless suburb that the Front Range has become but still a very easy drive down I-70 to get to the events. (And the bonus, doing it that way, is that you are always going the opposite direction of the heavy weekend traffic into the mountains.)

The downside is that some of those areas are more expensive to live in than others (Vail, for example, is uber-pricey). But if you've got horse skills, you can work almost anywhere in the summertime and there are tons of places to keep your horses and lots of little barns hidden away with English riding.

Visit the Area IX Web site and check out the regional CTAs to get a feel for where the horsey areas are.

I lived in Colorado for about 15 years, from college until recently with one short break, and loved it more than anything. There's nothing that compares and the eventing crowd out there is such a fun, fun group of people. Good luck!

[Goldiegirl]

Hey, don't forget about us up in NW Colorado. Steamboat has TONS of great dude ranches and quite the active english riding community. Remember that reality show "filthy rich cattle drive"- it was filmed at the Saddleback Ranch. Also check out the website for the Home Ranch in Clark. They do some interesting horse stuff there and its absolutely gorgeous. Have fun!

[NeverTime]

Forget about Steamboat? NEVER! That's where I lived for 10 years!:)

Steamboat is absolutely fabulous and has some seriously amazing trainers -- including a German woman who is a wonderful person and an unbelievably talented rider and trainer. She helped me move my horse up to intermediate and helped several members of the winning Area IX young riders team get to where they are today.

But if you want to be really convenient to the Front Range, Steamboat is an extra hour away. From Steamboat, you can get to one event (Windy Wyoming in Laramie) in about 2 hours, you can get to the Front Range events (Spring Gulch, High Prairie/CHP, etc.) in about 3.5-4 pulling a trailer and to the further south ones like Aspen Ridge, Abbe, etc. in 4+.

Lots of fun dude ranches to work on (though having friends who worked at Home Ranch, I'm not positive I'd recommend that over some of the others) and some of the best people in Colorado. Although it's got fabulous skiing, Steamboat is way more cowboy than richie-rich and the whole English riding community is great. It even has a series of local dressage and H/J schooling shows right in town in the summer!

[olympicdreams04]

You guys have been exceptionally helpful! Does anyone have any suggestions as to WHICH dude ranches to apply to? What about these little English barns hidden away?

[Altitude Rider]

I was neighbors with these guys in Durango (well, north, up by the ski area). They are nice people with good horses (meaning healthy & safe).
http://www.rappcorral.com/horseback.html

I also worked for Roudy at Telluride Horseback, http://ridewithroudy.com/intro2.html. He's the grouchy one I mentioned but he does operate year round and is a good guy. Living in Telluride was amazing!! And I had free horse board + decent (sort of) pay. Good tips and some of the most beautiful country you could ever ride in. Generally horse care is really different than back east. There are still plenty of fancy barns around but you learn to let your horse be a bit more natural, like not blanketing.

Boulder has a lot of event barns but not sure how close to dude ranches.

Be prepared, CO is very expensive, the whole.darn.state...I was out looking at real estate this summer. Ouch! Wish I had of never sold my property there. A taco and a beer would cost me over $9.00 but there is so much good food there you have to eat out!

Positive note: Jobs usually pay pretty well and there seem to be plenty of choices of them - "real" jobs and fun jobs. Also, TONS of cute, outdoorsy guys all over the state!!! :D

[olympicdreams04]

Oh dear lord, AltRi you're gonna make me start driving right now. Good wages AND cute OUTDOORSY guys!?!?! While I very much enjoy whatever this crazy goingson is I have with the guy in my life right now, he is...wait for it...a ballet dancer. Now before you start to laugh...okay when you get done laughing, consider the flexibility involved here. And the body. Purrr-urrr-urrr! All those useful lifts and stuff they do on stage? Oh yeah, those transfer. Haha. Enough of that. I am not looking at owning property I am just looking for a good place to work within reasonably close driving distance to events. That's all I ask! It can't be that hard, can it?!

[Gnep]

Altitude,

Roudy used to leas some of his dude horse from, one of them is still alive, a little sway backed, I should put skates under is belly.

Telluride is brutaly expensive, most people who work in Tellu, the seasonal workers, live several miles away from that place. some even here in Dolores, 50 miles away.

[NeverTime]

Steamboat is less expensive than Telluride/Crested Butte and less remote (from Denver and from the Area IX events) than southern Colorado. Some of the dude ranches in that area:

Dutch Creek, Home Ranch (as Goldie mentioned), Del's Triangle 3, Saddleback (though I'm not sure how many outside people they hire; I think they keep it mostly in the family), High Meadows.

Near Vail:
4Eagles, Piney River Ranch (unbelievably beautiful, but I'm not sure if the current owners are doing horseback riding or not).

I'm positive, though, that you could find something along I-70 much closer to Denver if you Google and look around. Obviously, they won't be hiring for a while now -- which brings up another point. Generally speaking, if you are planning on doing dude ranches, you need to figure out what second career you are happy working in the wintertime (teaching kids to ski? babysitting? being a ski lift operator for a free ski pass? working at a barn?), because most ranches shut down for the winter or go to skeleton staff.