Most ranch jobs are five months long. This one isn't, and there's a reason.

Our dude ranch season runs May through September. For those months the place is full — 24 guests, rides going out, turnovers, long dinners at the table. Then most ranches go quiet and send their crew home to find something else until spring.

We're going the other way. Day rides through the off-season. Corporate teams out here in the shoulder and winter months for offsites that look nothing like a conference room. Ranch stays and buyouts. A real dude ranch experience in February, not a watered-down version of the one people get in July.

This isn't a season. It's somewhere to put down roots.

Before you read any further — this probably isn't you if

• You're filling a gap until the next season starts somewhere else.

• Your idea of ranch work is riding horses only.

• You need a crew big enough to hide in.

• You need to be in a scroll hole on Instagram most of the day. Service out here is patchy and we're not apologizing for it. This is about real-life living.

• February at 8,000 feet sounds like a problem for future you.

• You bring drama with you, or cleaning up after yourself is somebody else's job.

Still here? Good.

Where you'd be

One of Colorado's smallest dude ranches. 138 acres at 8,000 feet in the Colorado Rockies, backed onto 800,000 acres of Roosevelt National Forest, capped at 24 guests because that's the number where a week actually changes someone. 38-plus horses. About a dozen crew. Forty-five minutes to Fort Collins.

A crew this size doesn't get to specialize. You ride in the morning and fix things in the afternoon, and you're genuinely good at both.

Why year-round, specifically

Day rides don't stop. Riders come out when the ranch is otherwise quiet, and they deserve the same ride our week-long guests get. That needs wranglers on the ground in November, not a phone number and an apology.

The horses. We have 38 head and we're still building the herd. In the shoulder season, the same dozen do almost all the work — the bomb-proof ones a beginner can get on without a second thought. They go out ride after ride while the rest stand around getting stiff and green.

The off-season is where we fix it. We've invested real money in these horses, and the work now is moving them along the ladder — taking a horse who's currently wrangler only and bringing him to advanced or intermediate, or working with one of our older guys to make him beginner safe, putting enough miles, groundwork and desensitizing into him that he can carry a nervous first-timer by May. Most ranches never let a wrangler do that work. Here it's the job.

The ranch. Two decades of deferred maintenance is waiting for us. Fences, buildings, water, equipment, trails. This property has been loved, and it's tired, and it deserves to shine again. The day dude ranch season ends, that work starts.

How we match horses to riders

A beginner gets a horse that will look after them. An intermediate rider gets an intermediate horse, not the deadest broke one in the barn, so they actually get to ride instead of being carried. An advanced rider gets something with enough spice to give them a bit to play with. People come here to feel alive again, and a horse that gives them nothing does not do that.

Safe, all of them. But safe and boring are not the same thing, and we don't confuse the two.

The horse half

• Guide guest rides and day rides, and help match the right horse to the right rider. Nothing else you do all week matters as much.

• Feed, tack, doctor, and keep eyes on the whole herd.

• Work with the Barn Boss and Lead Wrangler to bring horses down the ladder. Groundwork, desensitizing, conditioning, miles.

• Keep the intermediate horses genuinely intermediate and the spicier ones honest.

The everything-else half

An off-season day here often looks like this: day ride in the morning, then out on the property in the afternoon with a post-hole digger and a plan.

• Fence. Building it, fixing it, walking it.

• Building obstacle courses for the horses. And for the humans, if Monty ever lets us get skijoring off the ground.

• Changing the light bulb. Unblocking the thing. Working out why the water isn't getting there. Ranch maintenance is 90% noticing and 10% tools.

• Ground and trail maintenance.

• Snow removal, de-icing, winter-proofing.

• Keeping the equipment alive. Tractor, trucks, tools, the stubborn old stuff. If you can run a skid steer, say so.

• Helping run the non-riding side: shooting, climbing, archery, hiking.

You'll work alongside our Maintenance Manager on the bigger projects. You're the hands that keep the place moving day to day.

The table

There is no back-of-house at this ranch, in any season. Meals are at the table with guests, and the dishes get done by whoever's standing there. Owners wash dishes.

We eat the same food as our guests. In the off-season, when the ranch is empty, the chef still cooks for the crew.

That's not a hazing ritual, it's the design. For one week, guests want to be you. That's the whole thing. They want to know what it's actually like to live this life, and you're the closest they'll ever sit next to it.

The thing we hear back most often isn't about the food or the cabins. It's about the crew. That's also where the tips come from, and we're not being coy about it.

What you'd be helping us create

This is a dude ranch, and we say that with our chest. It's also the start of something bigger. People arrive here fried, scrolling, running on autopilot, and they leave feeling like themselves again. We call it the Great Reconnection.

What that means on a Tuesday:

• Own the experience. Nobody here says "not my job." If you see it, it's yours.

• How you do one thing is how you do everything. A rope left lying on the ground tells us more about someone than their resume does.

• Unreasonable hospitality. We don't meet expectations, we design moments people tell the story of for years.

• Clear is kind. We say the thing. Directly, warmly, early.

• Cowboy up. The weather doesn't care. Neither does the horse who colicked at 2am.

• Be the ripple. What happens here doesn't stay here.

And one standard we won't move on: we refuse mediocre.

This is probably you if

• You've done real seasons at a dude ranch or guest ranch and finished them.

• You're done moving every six months and you want to build something you'll still be standing in three years from now.

• You're a self-starter. You see the fence down and you fix it, you don't report it.

• Unfinished projects genuinely bother you.

• You can tell us what you don't know without flinching.

• You'd rather be trusted with a wrench than supervised with one.

• You like guests. Not tolerate. Like.

• Snow sounds like snowball fights, not like a problem.

The honest part

We took this ranch over in April 2026, after twenty-six years under the previous stewards. There's deferred maintenance around every corner, the crew is small, and some weeks will take more out of you than you planned. The nearest real grocery store is forty-five minutes away. Winter here is winter.

We'll be straight with you and we'll share the load fairly.

The basics

• Pay: Starts at Colorado minimum wage — $15.16/hour as of now, and it moves when the state rate moves — up to $18.50/hour based on experience. Paid bi-weekly. Overtime at 1.5x after 40 hours in a week, 12 hours in a day, or 12 consecutive hours, per Colorado COMPS Order.

• Hours: Full-time, year-round, built around a 40-hour week. Eight-hour days with an hour break. We aim for two consecutive days off and most weeks you'll get them. In peak season that time may come to you spread across six days instead. We'd rather tell you now than surprise you in July.

• Tipping of the Hat: You share in the guest tip pool. You're paid full wage regardless, so tips sit on top and the ranch takes no tip credit.

• Housing and meals: Live-in crew get accommodation on the ranch plus daily meals — the exact same standard our guests eat. The chef still cooks for the crew when there are no guests here. At no cost, as a condition of employment (IRC §119), with nothing deducted from your wages. Prefer to commute? Same hourly rate either way.

• Other benefits: Colorado HFWA paid sick leave (1 hour per 30 worked, up to 48 hours a year). FAMLI coverage. Crew apparel provided. Crew discount on Durango boots.

• Certifications: CPR and First Aid. We run the certification here on the ranch at our cost — you just need to be willing to hold it and keep it current.

• Classification: Full-time, year-round, hourly (non-exempt), at-will.

• Contingency: Offer is contingent on a background check, since our crew works around guests under 18.

• Applications: Open until filled.

How to apply

Send a resume and your availability to office@sundancetrail.com, and answer these in the body of the email:

1. Tell us about your experience working on a guest ranch.

2. What sort of things are you good at fixing?

3. Why do you want a year-round role in the Colorado Rockies?

4. When can you start?

5. Are you looking to live on the ranch, or commute?

Take your time on the third one. It's the one we'll read closest.