For those of you who have been to the ranch before, you know the routine on Monday morning. An exhilarating safety talk from Ben, some introductions, and then a mellow ride around the ranch to get connected up with your horse. It is an important time, and it is required for us to provide some sort of orientation before we head out too far on the trail. For some, this morning is fascinating and helpful. For some they’d rather skip it. But, as you may have noticed on the schedule this year we are trying something new!
Instead of a Monday morning talk, we will fit in a bit more of the orientation information on Sunday evening, and then try to minimize the time spent Monday morning getting everyone up to speed.
What you will find on Monday is that you can choose when you want to take your quick orientation ride. Would you prefer to head out on a hike Monday morning and then take a short ride after lunch? Or, would you rather do that quick ride first thing, but then use the rest of the morning to fine tune your seat, balance, and get a feel for how your horse handles a bit more? You choose! The orientation ride will still be the mandatory first riding experience, but it will be shortened to about an hour, and then you’ll have some options from which to choose. You can move into the arena for some more instruction and tinkering with your horse. Or you can grab a fly rod and warm up your casting arm with a clinic. And you’ll find even more options for either Monday morning or afternoon.
The intention of this shift is to allow you all to make Monday more of your day rather than having to use up the full morning for the orientation. We are taking advantage of the fact that we’ve capped our numbers a bit this summer due to COVID-19 to try some new things out to see how they work with lower guest numbers. And we’re really hoping you’re all going to love this new flexibility!