The Setting
Private Land (5000-10000 acres)
With 7,000 acres of private hills and valleys, our vast wide open spaces make it ideal for riding.
There is a lot of beauty in the landscape of the Sandhills - a region of mixed-grass prairie on grass-stabilized sand dunes in north-central Nebraska. The Sand Hills is designated as an eco-region - distinct from other grasslands of the Great Plains. According to an assessment, as much as 85% of the Sand Hills eco-region is intact natural habitat. This is the highest level of anywhere in the Great Plains. This makes it a very productive cattle ranching area, supporting over 530,000 beef cattle.
The Sand Hills sit atop the massive Ogallala Aquifer; thus both temporary and permanent shallow lakes are common in low-lying valleys between the grass-stabilized dunes prevalent in the Sand Hills.
Our Riding
Guided rides
All rides are guided, because we are working together on ranch operation.
Good to know
After the first ride with Jerry, he will assess your riding abilities. If you need further assistance before trotting or cantering, Jerry will request that you work 1 on 1 with one of the wranglers.
Weight limit for riding
Up to 225 lbs
Riding considerations
no riding experience needed, We recommend a good level of physical fitness
Hours in the saddle
Hours in the saddle can range here on a real working ranch!
Why our riding stands out
- True quality ranch horses. Born, raised, and trained right here. They've been ranched on.
- Real working cowboys work with guests on their riding and communication with horses.
- Guests will experience a wide variety of purpose oriented riding - roping, sorting, pasture rides, team penning
Sample Riding Itinerary
7:00 am Breakfast at the Main House
8:00 am Catch horses, saddle & ride out.
Depending what needs to be done, we may be moving cattle, checking cattle, sorting, doctoring, branding, or working cattle.
12:30 pm Lunch
1:30 pm Ride out
Pasture/cattle work, checking windmills, roping/riding lessons, team penning/sorting lessons.
6:00 pm Dinner
7:00 pm Relax by the camp fire and socialize. On Tuesday nights enjoy watching our neighbors as they "show how it's done" while roping in our arena.
Riding Lessons
Throughout the summer, we rope and doctor in the pasture in the mornings. Sorting, team penning and arena work tends to take place in the afternoons after our pasture check.
In the arena, guests can have fun team penning and sorting. But they also get to experience stockmanship where we teach them to understand how to successfully move and work with cattle.
Just keep in mind, however, that being an actual working ranch, cattle work always takes precedence. Therefore, if we have a pasture-load of cattle that need to be sorted, we'll need to take care of that first.
Details
lessons come with package, basic riding lessons
Given by
wrangler, ranch owner or manager
Location
on the trail, in the arena
Cattle work - pasture gathers
Guests have direct opportunity to ride through cattle daily. On our working ranch, you will be able to ride and work cattle 'til your heart's content. With mother cows and calves, we are consistently riding herd to check health and we move cattle as grass and water dictate.
In the spring and fall, there are plenty of cattle drive opportunities. Throughout the summer, we ride daily checking pastures and with that, guests have a lot of opportunity for gait changes.
The last 2 weeks of May we're gathering cattle, sorting, and moving to appropriate summer pasture.
Summer time is checking pastures and doctoring and we offer an occasional cattle drive throughout the summer. We cannot, however, guarantee dates and time for this as it is dictated by grass.
We sort cattle and drive them back to the corrals around last week of August to precondition our calves.
We take in additional cattle throughout the summer; therefore, the last two weeks of October we will round up cattle and drive them back into the corrals to ship out.
Since we take in additional cattle, ranches ship cows to us in February. We calve their cows, keeping them close to home. In May we drive our pairs, as well as these additional pairs, to grass.
When
May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct
Frequency
Daily
No. of cow/calf pairs
850
Interaction
Guests participate
Branding work
Branding takes place the first two weeks in May. We brand approximately 700 head at ranch, and about 4000 head total in the first two weeks of May, sometimes stretching into the 3rd week, so please contact us as it depends on the year.
You can gather cattle as well as get involved in the branding.
When
May
Frequency
Daily
No. of Branding
850
Interaction
Guests participate
Arena Work
Jerry assesses your abilities. If you are proficient with controlling your horse, you will have opportunity to rope our mechanical steer.
Every Tuesday night neighbors visit and rope in the arena. Guests enjoy watching this activity.
Type
outdoor arena
Activities
penning, sorting, roping from the ground, roping from horseback