Getting so tired of the heat and humidity here in Georgia in summer, heck, I would be happy to live in 45 degree weather year round. So am dreaming of spending the summer somewhere else, and my husband has always loved Wyoming. He has a friend with a ranch there and has visited and worked there frequently over the years. He suggested we go scout it out this summer to try to find a place to rent and take our horses for three months. It would be near Pinedale or Daniel.
So does anyone know this area? Is this even a thing? How do horses do coming from the south to the west? Any thoughts or advice? We just like to trail ride, nothing fancy.
I only visited Wyo for two weeks in the summer in 2016 --stayed outside of Jackson Hole near DuBois --on a ranch⊠A few statements by the ranch owner gave me pause âwhen a horse got hurt, the owner had to haul him 2 hours to the nearest vet whom he hoped was going to meet him at the clinic - the vet was 2 hours the other directions --so had the horse not been able to be hauled, it would have been 4 hours before the vet came. To pick up the mail, the ranch owner had to drive 15 miles down his driveway to the mailbox. So 30 mile round trip to pick up the mail. Food --well, where I was the food was FedExed --and fresh veggies/dairy were non-existent. If there is/was a grocery store in the area, I didnât see it. According to the rancher where I was and it was a pretty high elevation --there were only 60 frost free days a year. There was no way to do a vegetable garden. Hay was irrigated; one cutting. I talked to the son of the rancher --there were only 7 in his graduating year at the high school in town. His parents had opted to send him to boarding school in CA instead of sending him to the local school. I think WYO is beautiful --but I donât think Iâd like to live there full time.
I certainly know people who live on vast, remote ranches with no winter road access, but not everyone who lives in Wyoming has to drive 15 miles to the mailbox and get their food fedexed, though!
I donât know that area well, but youâve got some degree of civilization up there because itâs a bit of a tourist hub and Jackson Hole is only an hour or so away. There are even a couple of decent equine vets in the area.
Horses love the Westâitâs dry, no bugs, can be quite cool at elevation but even when itâs hot, itâs a dry heat. The climate Foxglove describes is like the one I live in here in Utah and my horses are happy as clams.
Just be aware itâs not called âWindy Wyomingâ for nothing! You can feel like human jerky after a whileâŠ
Iâd give it a go and see what you think. Nothing to lose, after all!
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The summers in Wyoming are wonderful but short. I was a transplant from California and lived there for 20 years in the central part of the state. We moved away because of the winters, just couldnât take that wind and cold anymore. It can get hot during the day but cools off at night. The Pinedale area is beautiful. You wonât see as much fresh veggies/fruit, except for local produce the rest is trucked in. A lot of the land is privately owned so youâll need to get permission to trail ride. Best of luck.
If the horses are in fit condition the elevation change should not be worrisome.
Our horses are kept at 570 ft but we did competitive trail rides of 55 miles in the Davis Mountains on a course that ranged from 6500 feet to over 7100 feet⊠neither horse had any problem. Of the sixty head competing my daughterâs horse missed overall by one heart beat to a horse from Colorado that was kept at 7500 feet.
When I lived there, the last snow was 4" June 4, first one was 5" August 25.
Feeding in the winter, when we came in the news said it was -60F wind chill and the wind really was howling along the river valley we were in.
Even in the coldest of that, broodmares were out to pasture and happy as clams.
We fed them alfalfa cubes right on the ground, twice a day, better than hay that blows away.
We had a huge barn that included an indoor ring, round pen, stalls and machinery shop.
That is where we trained horses when it was just too bad to go outside.
Inside the barn it was nice, not warm, but nothing froze.
We made a run to town about once a month for supplies, incuding groceries.
More often in the summer.
Plenty of people live there, even in the winter.
Not in the higher, harder to get to areas, in the lower valleys, the homesteads, where there is water and shelter.
We didnât have to break ice, the river stayed open all winter.
In the summers it was very nice, just the storms could be fierce.
Some of the hail at times was the size of grapefruits that could kill a person or horse if it hits them.
I later thought, the cold in the higher NM Rockies was more bone chilling than what we had in WY, maybe because we didnât bundle up as much and stayed out longer when it was really miserable out there?
I would take your DH up on that idea and give it a try.
I think you and your horses will love it!
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Iâve worked in quite a few Wyoming small towns and really love the state. Iâd go for the summer in a heartbeat.
Not bad in August at Jenny lake when it snowed one day on my guy and me as we rode horses in the Tetons. The minus 40s in the winter kept us from moving there.
Iâm talking about just being there for August and either July or September.
By all means go if you are just thinking for summer.
People find they either love it or hate it but usually only after they up root and move. This sounds perfect. No commitments.
We are going to scout it out and see if there are any rentals available. Then hopefully we can rent and go out for two months. 2008 taught us rentals only! No way I would spend the winter there, lol. I need to stay in Georgia and fox hunt. My husband says I will get laughed at for riding a draft cross.
Tell him not any more, several WY ranches now are breeding part draft for riding horses.
You can see them selling at ranch sales and on ranchworldads and at very nice prices.
I wonder if with people getting bigger, the part drafts are better for those riders? (Just kidding!)
Ha! Well, we will see. And she is a mare. I sense a real bias against mares!
Yep, mares for long time you rode them at home, but would not go help neighbors on one.
One reason, many mares donât like to run with geldings, beat on them, run off, while geldings play with each other and stick to their herd better, so easier on the riding horse remudas.
Later, when trailers were starting, mares were more up to being offended by a neighbor gelding and kick the heck out of him, while geldings just loaded like sardines in there and just stood nicely until called to unload.
Any more, for some years now, many ride whatever they want and donât have to exuse if it is a mare, as long as she is not giving everyone a bath with her tail if she is feeling frisky, which happens with some mares.
Many mares âact like a geldingâ and those are welcome.
If you are a guest, no one will say anything about the size, breed or sex of your horse, as long as your DH doesnât encite and give them an opening to tease.
Good to know. I have always wondered about why no mares, thank you!
Ask about fencing. Still lots of barb wire on horse pastures when I visited. A few wood rail corrals were around, just all kind of small. Corral panels were getting popular then, may be common fencing these years later.
As someone one who is about to start her second season with the park service In Wyoming and Montana my practical advice would be to consider the extreme in weather and also the threat of wild fire.
The weather can range anger from a dry heat of 90 to snow in June and August ,especially at the higher elevations. Would you and your horse be ok going from heat to snow and would you be willing to pack horse blankets and cool weather riding gear as well as the summer stuff you would need? Would you be able to get out if the weather changed drastically in Late September and early October?
I drove through pinedale on the way to hike the wind river ranger the day after a wildfire in the area blew up. The air quality was poor and some roads in area ending up closing due to the fire. Do you have a way to get you and your horses out if you needed to leave in hurry?
The area you are considering is beautiful with lots of great recreational opportunities and I would kill to do what you are thinking of doing. You do however have to go in with your eyes open and a plan.
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I just lightly skimmed over this.
I moved cold turkey from Nor Cal to eastern Montana, I took 2 OTTBs with me. Both have adjusted great. The one horse is really hardy so didnât surprise me. I live in the nicer âtropicalâ area if you will. Iâm about 30 minutes from Cody. I donât live in Red Lodge. Iâve ridden jumpers and 3DE for the past 10+ years til I met my DH here and heâs taken over the ride one horse.
Tons of English events in the Billings/Yellowstone/Carbon County area. Same with some parts of Wyoming, lots of eventing and some jumpers mixed with dressage.
We have 20 acres for now thatâs all fenced with barbwire and sheep fencing (I was shocked and appalled) DH 'everyone around here only using barbwire.
Totally the visit!
A really close friend of ours breeds the most incredible draft crosses!! He uses them for all aspects of ranch work, pulls wagons, they are even used for dressage and English riding! Basically like a cowboy warmblood. His have lots of Oldenburg and TB in them + draft.
