Cattle Drive Blog

Originally posted February 16, 2013. January and February are winter scenes at the Dryhead Ranch.  Most of us don't see the ranch like this and since we have been getting a lot of snow in the Pryor Mountains it is a good time to put up a few winter/snow shots before we start wishing for spring.  Sky Grant, Chris Hatch and Jake Hahn have dressed as warm as possible, got on their horses, called their trusty friends to come and help them (dogs) and rode out making sure all of the cows walked down the trail ahead of them.  The weather man says we have about 28 inches of snow in our Dryhead Country.  

Originally posted October 19, 2012. We are going to gather mares and colts next week and work with each pair in the corral and do the registration markings and take pictures.  This is one of my favorite things to do. I love to see the new babies and how they have grown.  I love to see the mares and the markings and personality they have given to the new off spring.  The weather was beautiful this week?  Rain, sleet, snow, wind, and wonderful sunshine.  We are hoping for something similar this coming week.  I just need sunshine for a hour or so each day for good pictures.

Originally posted October 12, 2012. We have had summer late into our normal fall but when it turned to cool it did it fast.  We have had snow and frost almost every night since.  But fall, even though it is short, is beautiful on the Dryhead.

Originally posted September 10, 2012. We have had many special events this summer in our family.  I want to add just a few pictures: Howdy Charles Hahn was born, Brittany and Eric had their children sealed to them at the mormon temple, Kristen turned 17, Miss Iris is hanging in there at 86 in October, our Stringham/Bassett/Brimhall family reunion was a great success with 114 attending in June.  

Originally posted September 10, 2012. Jake and Tyler take several weeks during the July-August summer season to invite neighboring cowboys to come and start young colts.  During these two weeks they halter broke, saddled, put the first rides on 30 colts.

Originally posted June 11, 2012.   Finished up all of our branding this week (June 3-9, 2012) and so now our cows and their calves are all out on their summer pasture. Have been getting substantial rain storms about every weekend so this has really helped our abnormally dry spring turn into a promising summer for good grass and fat cattle. Beginning this week (June 10-16, 2012) we are gathering all our mares and their new foals to put together our mare bands for the summer breeding season. Those that have come in are of course cute little buggers and we are looking forward to seeing the rest come in tomorrow.

Originally posted April 9, 2012. Cassidy and Maddy were thrilled with their new water buckets for Easter. They were thrilled to water the Iris's that are coming up along the walkway at Grandma's house. We had a beautiful Easter Day. Church in the morning and a nice dinner in the afternoon. Hope all of you also had a great day to celebrate the Atonement of our Lord. Even with all of the turmoil we have a lot to be thankful for. Each of you coming into our lives and becoming our friends, that is a lot to be thankful for. We are looking forward to seeing those of you who are coming back to ride with us in 2012 and…

Originally posted April 9, 2012. We bought a new bull to breed to our cows this summer season. It was quite an event for those of you who have never seen or done anything like that before. We received a catalog with 634 bulls listed on the pages. Around 420 of the bulls were pictured and personal statistics were listed. The other 200 or so were just statistics and a name. Each bull was listed for those important statistics each buyer was looking for such as bulls birth date, birth weight, his weaning weight and several other statistics which we were not looking at for that moment. Listed also was the calving ease (small, medium, large) rating for the size…

Originally posted March 6, 2012.   We are all looking forward to the beginning of the 2012 season. We were into the ranch on Saturday to show our new cook where she would be working and what the ranch looked like. It was not the best impression, as it was covered with snow and Jess and Jake got stuck looking for horses, but we had a great time. We are ready to "throw our hats into the air" looking forward to spring and having all of you come and join us. My grandaughters, Maddy and Cassidy and my good friend, Debbie, loved looking and petting the goats and the new babies that are at the neighbors. This is a sign…

Originally posted February 27, 2012   Hello to All. Hope you come and chat with us here on our blog. News for February 2012. We have been busy this month and are excited to share all of our news. Will and Keshia got married February 4, and they will be moving to Hardin, Montana where Will has a cowboy job and Keshia manages the FSA office. The next exciting news is we are bringing Tyler and Cassie Croft back to the ranch this season. Many of you already know them as they were with us two years ago. Tyler and Cassie will start by April 1, 2012.

Originally posted May 25, 2010 April 25-May 1, 2010 started our Cattle Drives out of Wyoming into Montana. We had an enthuastic group of all new guests to start the week out with, they were: Hans Lundgren, Gena Durette, Dennis Hedarp, Irene Barmettler, Fred Ferris and his daughter Kathryn, Bonnie Caswell and Steve DiNapoli. Getting to the Brad correls by 8:00 on a Monday morning was a challenge but we did a great job thanks to Jackie that made breakfast burritos each morning that we could eat on the drive out. The volcano made Irene's arrival a week late but we had lots to do to make up for the riding time. We trailed 237 mother cows and calves from…

Originally posted May 25, 2010.   April 18-24, 2010 started our second Horse Drive week. We were glad to be at the ranch for the whole week and on Monday we began looking for the mares that had spent the winter in Spring Creek with their now one year old colts. We had a group of all new to the ranch guests, Nivedita Chauhan, Gena Durette, Eamon and Maryanne O'Dowd, Barbara Kelley and our faithful helpers Pat Crociata and Lawrence Smoller. We had a great week of gathering horses and weaning colts and returning the mares to the south pasture to await the birth of 2010 colts. It was great to see that everything had made it through the winter…

Originally published May 25, 2010. We began our 2010 guest season on April 11-17, 2010 with our famous Horse Drive. This spring we trailed our horse cavvy from our homeplace in Lovell to the Dryhead Ranch in Montana. We had been feeding the geldings and getting the necessary coggins and health and brand inspections needed to trail between Montana and Wyoming. It was an exciting three days and the horses were ready to be back at the ranch and out on open range. We had two returns back with us, Pat Crociata and Lawrence Smoller and two new guests, Mario Sclafani and Amy McElmurray. It was a great week and the two days at the ranch gave us time to…

Originally posted March 1, 2010. With the sunshine lately and the snow melted here in Lovell it seems like we are about ready for spring. This picture will get everyone excited for green grass if the warmer weather hasn't already done the trick. Here in Lovell we are having 8-10 baby calves a day. Will, Jake and Jessie are tagging everyday to keep up with the older cows as they have their calves. Here in the feedlot better than half of the heifers have had their calves and we have hauled them down into the pasture below the main house. We will continue to have calves all the month of March and they will grow big enough to be ready…

Originally posted February 16, 2010. Iris and I drove to the ranch today to check on our cavvy horses. Not many see the ranch with its winter coat on but it is a beautiful scene. The Pryor Mountains are in the distant background and seeing the horses come into the yard to get their share of the cake we feed them in the winter is a beautiful site. Today looked like this with sunshine reflecting off the 8 inches of snow and crisp fresh air. We have added an earlier Horse Drive on April 11, because of the interest in moving horses. If there is anyone out there who would like to join us, please give us a call (307-548-6688)…

Originally posted February 9, 2010. There is no better place to ride than at the Dryhead Ranch. Lots of beautiful open country to ride in and enjoy the peacefulness of being horseback. Tyler is working on the responsiveness of his horse, Badger as well as the obedience skills of his dog, Bear. He owns several horses of his own and rides colts and spoilt guest horses for the ranch. In this picture we are moving horses back into the neighbors pasture and so there is a lot to pay attention to and be excited about. Tyler is very talented at mechanics and woodworking. Cassie and Tyler are planning a wedding for June 12, and he is making a log bed…

Originally posted February 9, 2010. Cooks are never praised enough and this post is especially for Jackie. She is my sister and the redhead in this posting. Riggs, is the cooks helper and they were a fearsome pair. At the Dryhead Ranch we feed our guests three meals a day. Our menu accents beef since we are a beef raising family and ranch. We offer tender angus beef roasts and to die for hamburgers. This home grown beef is better than what you can buy in any store. Thursday the specialty is Indian Tacos, a favorite in our family as well as with our guests. Homemade bread dough is fried as the base of the taco and then many toppings…

  Originally posted February 7, 2010. Dryhead Ranch (formerly Schively Ranch) is one of the few truly real working Montana Horse Ranches / Cattle Ranches. This Montana Working Ranch was built in l898 and has run thousands of head of cattle and been the home of many cowboys who have rode and trained hundreds of foundation bred quarter horses over the years. We invite you to join us at the Dryhead Ranch to experience a cowboy lifestyle that you see only in the movies, we are a Montana Dude and Working Ranch. When you come to the Dryhead Ranch you will get to participate first hand in a real Cattle Drive or a challenging Horse Drive or have the opportunity…