paintbrush adventures

We've gone on several rides with Paintbrush Adventures ranging from day trail rides to rides where we camped up in the mountains for several nights. To spend time with Wanda and her husband is priceless....the stories, the history, the landscape, the wildlife, the memories are unbeatable. These people are the hardest working, have the most integrity, are the most interesting and are so storied. It's an opportunity not to be missed.

We booked with Paintbrush adventures for a week of ranch days. City Slickers IV - Curse of the East coasters. We could not stay on the Ranch or in their Ranch house (which I heard is beautiful) along the Stillwater river (Fishermen usually book this far in advance) because it was booked. We stayed at another ranch 8 miles away but we were there from 8AM to 10PM. If you have insomnia, this will cure it. Every night we hit the bed hard! Some nights we did not even shower before bed, that's how tired we were. It's not hard work but for a couple of people who sit at a desk all day (who goes to the gym a few times a week), all day walking around and doing stuff wears you out quickly. Tini (Wanda's husband showed us the farm and the cattle and sheep. Tini showed us how he horseshoes them and help us learn to saddle our own horses. He was a the quintessential working ranchman/cowboy who would leave after breakfast and come back before dinner with his hands all black from the work that he did all day. These people work hard! For our ranch days we fed the sheep and lambs and chickens and we took daily horseback trips to check on the cattle, long horned steer across 1500 acres! We saw the old homestead houses and old abandoned school houses and rode across the rolling hills as if we were in a dream. We corralled a Bull (who had gotten out of the fence onto a neighbor's land) for maybe a mile or two on horseback and got him back into the horse trailer - That was quite an adventure! I watched Emily (a ranch hand from England) galloping and grabbing her hat to catch up to the Bull…it was so graceful. At one point we were on the horses and we went into a Lope (which is faster than a trot but slower than a gallop) which was so much fun and scary at the same time. One day Troy (Wanda's son) let us watch him break a 3 year old horse. I was amazed at how really non physical it was and how it was almost all psychological. He really has an amazing rapport with horses and Mules. I was transfixed for 2-3 hours. On the last day, we had a rodeo day, where we got to do barrel runs and games that use all the horse riding skills that you learn all week and it was amazing at what I had learned! From basically a non rider to a person who was confident and proficient on a horse. My girlfriend noticed that we had not seen a gym in a while and it made sense that when you lead this type of life, you really don't need to go workout because your entire day is physical. I thought my investment in a cowboy hat and cowboy boots were a great investment because I got a lot of use from them. The ranch days were such an adventure and so much fun!

Our group of family and friends totaled 12 and we were easily accommodated on a glorious trail ride. The mountain view and river trail are gorgeous. The horses and equipment top notch. We enjoyed every minute of this experience and recommend it highly. For the record, most of us had no experience around horses. Wanda's horses and her staff are well-trained for this type of situation and so this didn't matter. Great experience!