I am excited. Ben, Dace and I just met with Christy and Matt Belton the other day to go over the schedule for our cattle gather weeks in September. And, hold onto your hats, it’s gonna be fun. This is a new relationship between Vista Verde and the Beltons, and the goal is to help each other manage a herd of 1,000 head of cattle on a National Forest land lease.
Here’s how it’s going to work. Throughout the summer, we will be helping check the herd, and keep them somewhat corralled into the parts of the forest where we want them. The lease is a total of 16,000 acres. Yes, you read that correctly. And it’s not all fenced, so there is the chance that the cows can just keep wandering all the way to Dome mountain if we don’t check them and move them to the right areas frequently. So, twist our arms, we’ll be taking all-day rides throughout the summer out to help make that happen.
The real excitement begins in mid-September with our cattle gather weeks. During both the week of September 12-19 and 19-26 we will be driving them all down to holding pens for them to be loaded and shipped. The first couple days of each week will be spent at the ranch taking part in clinics and in-depth instruction so everyone is on the same page with their horses and how we want to work the cows. Mid-week, we’ll head out for several very intensive days of riding in the forest, trying to find all the cows and driving them to the holding areas. These riding days are not for the faint of heart, it will be intensive days in the saddle, and you will love your hot tub when you get back to the ranch. I’m guessing our massage therapist will be in demand at the end of the week! We will be offering all our regular activities, so if you want to just come and experience the beauty of fall at the ranch, you can still do that. We hope to have some of you come ride with us! Give Stephanie a call at 800-526-7433 or [email protected] if you want more information.
