A very special week at McGinnis

Hey everyone,

WOW, we just wrapped up the end of a very special week, exclusively for repeat guests.  We had guests who had been coming here for 3 years all the way up to 17 years with plenty in-between!

To show our appreciation, we wanted to make this week special, epic and most of all, memorable.

To start with, we revived our morning jingle for the week—ROBY took out two guests with him to bring in the horses each day.  Right now, they are on the farthest end of the pastures, so it’s at least a 2-mile-long trot in the crisp fall air. 

We had about 20 head of cattle that needed to be moved out to graze from the ranch.  They were all the way over on the Jo-Ann Wallace pasture, by the Davis place.  Guests drove the cattle all the way from the ranch to the firetruck tanks on Davis mountain!  It was definitely an all-day event with beautiful views through the vibrant colors of fall.

One afternoon, Miriam made a deluxe lunch that Dave brought out to graze for all cattle-goers to enjoy on one of the ridge tops.  I wish I could have been there!  It was a gourmet anti-pasto platter, with wines, coffee and some goodies too.

Roby, Scott, Ron and Carl had found 19 head that they were going to bring to the Elk Creek Pasture just before lunch on that day.  He staged them in a nice spot, hoping they would hang around in time for them to grab some food and continue their cattle drive.  Unfortunately, in the 30 or so minutes they were eating, the cattle vanished!  Everyone got a laugh out of it and it was OK…the hunt is most of the fun anyway!

Dave Blackburn’s band came and played a post-dinner show for everyone in the dining room on another evening.  Janice did stretch classes throughout the week.  Scott made a couple bonfires too.  Guests roped horseback.  I’m sure I’m missing some other cool stuff but that’s the majority of it! 

Our guests were pretty evenly divided in interest this week.  We had our hard-core horsemanship folks who spent all week advancing in their knowledge with Shayne.  It was a fun dynamic since all of these guys have spent a lot of time with us in horsemanship before. 

Because of this, on Monday afternoon, Shayne had everyone cantering in formation and doing flying changes over logs in the center of the arena!  Even doing it two-abreast!  That was something he hasn’t done before J  I was able to camp on a couple colts and the guests were also able to watch their progressions throughout the week.  Of course, Shayne also spent a bit of time working on the slower, more refined movements, reminding all of us that every movement counts, be it a footfall or just a flick of the ear.

Our “outside” group of guests started on Monday with Roby out in the meadows and in the trees.  He wanted to make sure everyone was ready for some hard-core riding out at graze.  His guests learned how to navigate centered down very steep hills, could long-trot and switch diagonals with ease and get a job done with cattle.  Throughout the course of the week, the guests kept coming up to me and telling me how much this day made in difference in how well the rest of their rides went!

Sue, Roby, Scott and Jenna did a wonderful job out at graze, taking guests down new trails (cut out by Sue,) up to fantastic views, and covering a LOT of miles.  This is really the best time of year to be out there—the fall colors seem to become more vibrant with each passing day.  The weather this week was perfect too—chilly in the am but warming up to temps in the mid to high 60s and blue skies every day.

 We want to extend a heartfelt THANK YOU to all of our repeat guests who came here this week and for those who were unable to make it this time around. 

You guys are what keeps this place going and we so appreciate the opportunities to ride with you, spend time with you and consider you our friends.  We hope to do this again next year!

Des