STGR Blog

Current Specials for Stagecoach Trails Guest Ranch

20% discount for stays between September 3-10, 2008

$429 per person (double occupancy), $519 for a single, children $399 for a 3 night stay between November 17-23

Children 3 and under are free
Only valid on reservations made after June 1, 2008

Our last guests for the season will be arriving soon and will stay through Sunday morning.  When they checkout we will officially be closed for about 6 weeks until mid-July when we re-open for the remainder of the year. It has been an incredible season with a lot of great times! and thanks to all the wranglers, staff, and of course the guests for making it so enjoyable. Updates on the staff - Trey is back in Canada on the Rodeo circuit and Scott is in Big Bear, CA with his wife Sherry at the YMCA camp. Craig is staying on this summer to watch over the ranch, dogs, cats, and horses with Randy. Jeremy, Jodi, and Sophie are leaving the ranch on Monday and will be moving back to Wisconsin and will be “replaced” by Dan and Carrie’s daughter, Vicki, and her husband, Tony, who have both lived and worked at the ranch in the past. Their will be more information on that in a later post as I just don’t want to close that chapter yet - still have 3 days left here at this beautiful ranch.

Wow, what a afternoon we had today. First of all the weather has been crazy the last 2 days - 3 days ago it was over 100 degrees and today it was in the upper 60’s to low 70’s during the day and it actually rained!!!! for the first time since mid-February. It was extremely windy one minute, and calm the next. While that is not crazy in itself, what happened 30 minutes before dinner indeed was - As I was walking up for dinner from my house (right next to horse pasture) It seemed that something wasn’t right, as there seemed to be a lot of horses running around and rearing up, but I thought for a second it might just be because it had been raining. After about 15 seconds I then realized that NO, a entire 1/5th of our corral full of horses had gotten loose, about 15 of them, and most were standing by the freshly delivered haystack having the “buffet of a lifetime” while a few others were showing off the fact they had escaped to the other horses still inside the other corrals - hence the rearing up and running around I had noticed. I called the wranglers down and we began to gather them one by one and most were cooperative. However, there were a few that wanted to have a little more “fun” shall we say (with the help of Tux our border collie herding them), and were not going to be caught just yet. And then came the rain! now it hasn’t rained in 3 months and we haven’t had this many horses get loose in many, many years, so the chances of both happening in one 20 minute period is slim to none. Read the rest of this entry »

While it is nice that we don’t often have clouds, sometimes they make for great sunsets like the one we had tonight.

It has also cooled down a lot the last day or so and is only in the upper 70’s right now which is great!

It has been very, very hot here the last 4 days as we went from perfect temps in the 80’s and 90’s to about 105 the last few days. Luckily though it is set to “cool” back off into the 80’s and 90’s by Wednesday…and remember folks - “it’s a dry heat!”

About 2 years ago we had a group of ladies stay with us that were all breast cancer survivors. They wore pink the entire trip - everything was pink from socks and shoes to shirts to bandanna’s and hats. Ever since then we have created a tradition of all wearing pink shirts on Wednesday nights for dinner. If you care to join us please bring along your pink shirt!

We have so many returning guests this week that we got a large group of people wearing pink and Henry S. (5x returning guests) was nice enough to take a picture of everyone.

A well deserved Happy Mothers Day to all of you out there! We had a great one here as Sophie rolled completely over for the 1st time! She did it in room #8 while cleaning today and was a real Mothers Day treat for Jodi and Grandma. We even had the video camera on hand to catch it on tape.

Also Trey finally won his 1st horseshoe tournament with his partner Gloria (7th time returning), a well deserved win as they beat me and my partner Katja from Germany in a close championship match of 11 - 6.

The weather has been great with some days in the upper 80’s and some in the 90’s. We will probably be switching to our early-summer riding schedule soon with 1 ride before breakfast and 1 ride after breakfast. The afternoon rides will go out a little bit later as well to accommodate the heat.

Even though it is Mothers Day I wanted to post this pic I took of Daddy (Jeremy) and Sophie at sunset. To achieve the same effect when you are at the ranch just set your camera to manual mode if possible. Wait until sunset when you can achieve a very hight contrast. Then choose the fastest speed, usually in the thousandths of a second (2000-4000) and then choose the lowest ISO rating (50-100). Then get really low to the ground with the subject above as much of the horizon as possible and snap away.

Another month goes by and along comes another birthday for Sophie - 4 months goes by quick!

Well, we finally had a day off on Saturday and took advantage and went golfing at our favorite local course in Parker, Arizona - Emerald Canyon Golf Club. As of May 1st it is only $20 after 1pm for unlimited golf with a cart. It is probably the best golf deal in the entire world! as you will not find a better course for $20. If it was located anywhere near a major city it would easily be over $100 as it is just that spectacular and scenic. Trey and I ended up in a tie with 89’s and Randy and Dan are better off keeping their scores a secret!

Here are a few pics so you can see just how scenic it is. If you are interested in playing while you are in the area the only bad thing is that it is about 1.5 hours one way from the ranch.

Here are some cute little pic’s of Lilah and Ozzie snuggling together in the office today. It’s hard to believe a cat and dog can get a long so well!