What Is A Guest Ranch?

Red Deer River Ranches is a working cattle and guest ranch/dude ranch close to Banff National Park and the Canadian Rockies. You might ask then, "Well what is a dude ranch or guest ranch?" or "What is a working ranch?" and "Why do I even care what the difference is!?" We will do our best to help you understand what we are and why you might want to come find out for yourself.

A dude ranch is a place where people can come and participate in the daily routines of cattle work in the traditional way, on horseback. A guest ranch is a place where folks can either work cattle on horseback or participate in other equine endeavors such as trail riding. At a guest ranch there are also often other adventure activities to participate in either on site or close by. A working ranch is often described as a place where an authentic livestock production operation is taking place, raising beef cattle for sale on the market.

So what is Red Deer River Ranches? We are a hybrid of all three. When you visit us you get to choose what type of experience you want based on your interests and what you would like to achieve while you are here.

What we always stress to those who ask is that we are first and foremost a cattle ranch. Over 115 years ago Harry Graham settled this area because he saw it as a good place to raise cattle and we want to continue that tradition.

There are some who think the name "Dude Ranch" is derogatory, that is not a place befitting those who are truly interested in being a part of real cattle operation. What we are not is a place that pretends to be real. We never want to be perceived as a "pseudo western experience".

What we do want to be is open and transparent about who we are and what we do. We are willing to let our guests, for a short period of time, become part of the real west. We will do our best to let people see "on the inside" as much as we can. Not all places will do this, mostly because ranch folk can very proud and, at times, they want to carefully protect their way of life. We certainly don't have the market cornered here, but we will try to help you experience what you have come here for.

First of all you will find our staff to have had considerable experience with horses. From guides to the ranch manager we will do our best to make sure you have a safe, fun, and exhilarating time. Riding horses is what we are all about, whether it be with guests on a trail or moving cows to summer range. You will get to experience our appreciation for using good horses in all aspects of your visit here, whether it is being on a trail ride with the ranch manager or guides to watching cowboys heel calves at branding. Good horses and good horsemanship are important to us and we know that it is important to you.

We buy many of our horses as this is often a good solution to finding the right mounts for us or for our guests. In the last few years we have started our own breeding program, using a wild stud, named Spirit caught by the ranch manager, as our herd sire. His foals are smart, hardy, and easy moving, as well as having quite a lot of eye appeal. We will continue to develop this line into more of our trail and using horses as time goes by.

We make sure to have a healthy horse to client ratio to ensure that we can better match our guests ability and size to that of the right horse. As well we like to keep our guest to guide ratio at 6:1 for many reasons, the most important being safety. Also by keeping this ratio our guests will have more opportunities to learn about our operation, the land they are riding on, and perhaps a couple of pointers about their horsemanship.

We now offer rides of differing difficulty and are always working at offering our guests the right kind of ride and terrain to match their ability and experience.

Cattle Ranch

2012 season

What Is A Guest Ranch?