Dryhead Ranch - Billings

Dryhead Ranch is a real authentic horseback riding vacation experience. There are lots of vacations that will take you on a beautiful ride up a trail but this is a working ranch where you will be given the opportunity to get your hands into however much you want to experience. The Dryhead Ranch is located on the eastern slopes of the Pryor Mountains. This is remote seldom seen high plains grassland country with lots of Indian and cowboy history. The Bassett family is a fourth generation owners of this historic ranch and we share the cowboy history as well as the Indian history with you while you are there.

We begin our guest season in April with horse drives that take our riding horses and young colts we are training back into the Dryhead Country to begin our grazing season. This is a unique thrill to move horses and our guests love the challenge. It is a 50 mile trail that takes three days and each day changes in terrain and scenic beauty mixed with the opportunities to see a mustang on the Wild Horse Range. The Lockhart ranch is also a great place to visit, it has been restored for visitors to walk around and see the homestead settings that dotted the territory in the early 1900. We take time to see these historic places around the work of moving our horses.

Then in May we begin our cattle drives. We move 800 head of mother cows with their calves into the Dryhead Territory as well. These drives take four days and we move the cows in smaller groups for three different weeks. Guests who join us for cattle drives are interested in a slower pace kind of riding than some of our other rides. We have great cow horses that you will enjoy riding during the week of your stay to be a cowboy. They aren't "trail horses", they are cow horses that will watch a cow and teach you where to be and how to get the calves moving along with the cows. Getting cows and calves together to the ranch is the main challenge and there is nothing like the feeling of accomplishment when we get them to the summer pastures we will leave them in until November.

Our summer and fall is full of real ranch work. Our guests love the ranch atmosphere and riding out of the gate each morning to gather cows, brand calves, work out strays, doctor heifers, put in the studs and make up the mare bands, wean calves in the fall, pregnancy test cows in the fall, fix fence, work with the young horses to halter break them and get them riding outside the correl. This is truly a ranching experience that you come and join us for. We have fun also in the evening around the campfire and cookouts. The food is homemade and wholesome and we hope you come and join us for a great family horseback riding vacation.