Working Ranch Holidays

This ranch in the Pryor Mountains is an authentic working cattle and horse ranch south of Billings, Montana. This is not a dude ranch. Cowboys have taken care of this ranch since 1889 and they will ride with you on 40,000 acres of open grassland country while taking care of 1,200 mother cows and their calves. Montana's "Big Sky Country" takes you away from swimming pools and golf courses to a remote, quiet setting where you can hear the creek at night and see open, breathtaking scenery no matter what direction we decide to ride that day. The ranch raises their own quarter horses.

Being a cowboy has always been a secret dream of lots of men and women. To a cowboy, the horse was not a pet but a companion and partner with whom he works and depends on to accomplish great tasks. That is what we offer at this ranch - the beautiful country, a great cow horse who will help you turn your first cow back into the herd and help you to feel what it is to be a real cowboy. The ranch is located in very beautiful, peaceful, and quiet country at the border of Montana and Wyoming. It is rolling, native grasslands with areas of pines and canyons, laying along the Eastern slope of the majestic Pryor Mountains which run East and West. Very few people have ever invaded its serene and spacious lands. As you leave the paved highway and start up the canyon along the rutted road toward the mountain, you actually feel as if you are traveling back in time.

Ranch weeks are all about a cowboys life: Caring for the land (25,000 acres) is a loving stewardship. Caring for the 800 head of cows and calves changes after a long winter and a well earned change of focus at the ranch. Each day will include riding and working cattle and returning strays to their pastures and gathering and working cattle. We have branding in the spring and gathering and weaning in the fall.

Come ride with our cowboys, it will change your life.

The sun rises at 4:30 right along with our cook and each morning the bell rings at 7:00 for breakfast (coffee is always on at 5:30). Do you want to share in the first best experience? The best place to experience this thrill is on the canyon rims at 6:30 each morning with your camera.

Our wranglers will take you with them (if you want to go) to bring in the horse rumuda on one of these peaceful mornings. If you want to ride, then ask Mike to put your name on the list early. This is one of the first most memorable experiences we share with our guest during their stay at the Dryhead.

A ranch week may include:
branding, vaccinating, roping, mini-veterinary needs, wrangling the cavvy, holding herd, salting, fencing, rotating pastures, bull gathering, weaning calves, pregnancy testing cows, weaning colts, working mare bands, occasional horse drives and rounding up strays. Each activity depends on the time of year you decide to join us. Generally, ranch weeks include several of the activities listed above. You can be sure that you will be able to push a lot of cattle!

Roping instruction and riding hints are part of our Cowboy School on Monday mornings. We want everyone to try their hand at roping and improve their riding skills.

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Itinerary / Highlights

Ranch Week Schedule

During the winter the head wrangler stays at the ranch and cares for our mare band in the spring creek pasture and our guest horse cavvy and older colts in the south pasture. The creek has been frozen so he has had to pump water everyday as well as keep the ice out of the tanks. Riding in below zero temperatures creates special challenges for keeping horses on their feet and our riders safe also.

Winter also brings time to research stud and mare bloodlines so that we can put together our mare bands in the spring and create the kind of horses bloodlines that are most popular for ranch raised horses.

May and early June are the weeks we brand our calves. With 800 head of calves to brand this takes several weeks. Montana and Wyoming are branding states and it is federal law that each calf, as well as each cow, carries our )S( brand. We rope each calf from a well trained cow horse and drag them to the branding fire where we have calf holders (guests and cowboys) hold the calves and one of the cowboys brands the calf. Vaccinations and ear marks are given (by guests) and we start over with another calf. We brand about 100 calves each day.

The summer is the best time to graze the higher parts of the ranch where the water is good, grass is high and green. The snow has recently left the high meadows making it the better places to graze in the summer. Cows love the high country and raise good healthy calves in that mountain air.

We will set up an overnight camp during the summer months (July and August and possibly September). This camp will have an authentic cook tent and teepees for the guests to stay in at the back side of Little Mountain. We will be near a grove of trees, fresh spring water and a great place to enjoy a summers evening around the camp fire. Everyone loves roasting marshmallows for smores and sleeping under the stars, perfect for a cowboy vacation. This puts us close to our work so that we can ride out into the neighbouring pastures to bring back stray cows and also ride our mountain pastures to keep an eye on calves, bulls, fences and water sources.

We have some hands on horse clinics to help get our young horses more gentle. We have weanlings and yearlings that need your special attention to get them halter broke and leading well. We will be getting the 2 year olds ready to put a saddle on them and all the handling they can get will make this process easier.

So come and join us during our summer month for several hours every day will be devoted to working with these great horses. We feel each of our guests can learn some horse skills to take home with them by working with these colts. Through the years it is the horses that bring us together, guests and cowboys. There is nothing like the outside of a horse for the inside of a man.

Late May is the season we make up our mare bands and take them out to the pastures they will spend the summer in. This is always an interesting part of nature to see the studs discipline and organize a new group of mares.

In June, July, and August we will have mini Horse Drives. These drives will include an overnight campout. Moving the mares and their babies in and out of summer pastures will be the focus behind these drives.

Quite often during the summer we will bring these mare bands back into the ranch so we can imprint and work with the mares as well as their colts. All of the weanlings and yearling colts will need to be branded and all of the worming and shoeing and special needs will be scheduled into our work plans.

This ranch is unique in that we share all of these skills with our guests to help them feel more confident in handling their horses at the ranch or at home. Our goal is to give them the feeling and achievement of a hands on horse experience.

September thankfully brings cooler temperatures during the day and the welcomed chance to ride all day. Our fall weeks mean longer days and lots of riding. All our cowboys share in the gathering of 15,000 acre pastures and bringing each cows and calves to the ranch to give pre-weaning shots and again two weeks later to wean the calves.
After the calves are weaned and hauled to Wyoming we pregnancy test our cows and hope for a 100% pregnancy rate for the next year. These large gathers are a thrill few get to experience.

This is an opportunity to ride in big country somewhat alone gathering 800 or better head of cattle and moving them 6 - 8 miles back to the ranch to be worked in a large set of correls.

97% of the USA's cow herds are in groups of less than 50 cows.
97% of the people who own cattle have a job in town and have the cow herd as a second income or a hobby.
Ranches who have 800 head of cows are rare and even more rare is the privilege to ride a cow horse with real cowboys and gather cows on thousands of acres of open, beautiful, grassland country that is untouched by human influence.

We offer a real cowboy experience. One that you will never forget.

Other Details

Accommodation Details

Accommodations for Pryor Mountains Working Ranch

During your stay you can choose between staying in the bunkhouse, in a room in the ranch house, or in one of our cabins.
In the restored bunkhouse there are six comfortable western style room for you to relax in. Five rooms have log style queen beds with western style quilts to accent the room in a true western atmosphere.

The bunkhouse has shared bathrooms attached to the end of the porch.

The bunkhouse has an inviting front porch that cools in the summer and protects in the spring and fall. Many of our guests enjoy sitting on the porch in the evening and chatting with cowboys and guests or gazing at the Big Montana night sky.
The main ranch house has three private rooms with a shared bathroom. The ranch house has an inviting front porch which looks out over the front yard. This house was built in 1907 and was restored in 1990. Here are some pictures of the ranch house rooms.
The small ranch house has a great room for the guests, where they have internet access. Our ranch store is also in this same building.

The cabins are arranged down the canyon from the bunkhouse giving our guests a quiet, restful view of the ranch setting. They are set close to the Dryhead creek and near where our young horses are out on pasture.

Meals
Our guests eat three meals a day with the family and our cowboys in the cookhouse. Our ranch home-style meals are served with hot homemade breads. Each week we serve tender angus beef steaks, top sirloin roast, healthy vegetables, fresh salads, homemade desserts and lots of chocolate chip cookies for the kid in all of us. We promote beef on our ranch from pasture to plate.
One of the meals we are famous for is our Indian Tacos, you can only eat one.

Our cook does a great job dealing with special diets. Please let us know if you have special food needs. Our meals are served buffet-style and several times a week we pack a lunch when we ride out all day to move and work cattle.