I am so excited to announce that it is the first day of the 2018 season at Red Horse Mountain Ranch. The guests have arrived! …And so have the zombies? Hold on, let me back up and explain.
A group of staff members and I were making our way to dinner at the lodge from The Haven where we live. We make this half-mile trek often and enjoy finding ways to keep it interesting. Today someone grabbed a rope and we were practicing lassoing each other’s feet on our way there. Don’t worry; most of us aren’t skilled enough to actually rope someone’s foot. Regardless, we try and laugh and chatter our way up to the lodge. We go through the buffet and load up on delicious home cooked food. We gather on the back porch overlooking the ranch valley to eat. I am mostly focused on devouring my frosted carrot cupcake when, suddenly, I hear someone gasp.
I look in the same direction and see a big old chestnut horse pop out from behind a cabin. We all jump up to our feet. Another horse comes strolling towards the lodge, and another. The Zombies are coming! Guests rush out to the front of the lawn with their cameras and smartphones. “Careful,” one says to another as they try to reach out to pat one on the nose. 
By the time that I get around to the front of the lodge and swallow the cupcake that I shoved in my mouth, I see that our five old guys have gotten out of their pasture. We often times refer to these as our zombie horses as they have trouble keeping weight on. Just our luck, the guests first impression of our horses are the oldest and skinniest ones in the entire herd. Now before you go feeling sorry for these guys, just know that they are on green grass all day and get grained twice a day. They are living the life. Aging just isn’t always graceful.
All I can say is that the wranglers picked a good day to bring a lasso up to dinner. It sure came in handy as we circled and caught the five zombies. We slipped the lasso over the neck of one horse and used belts to loop around the neck of 3 others. The last one we just figured would follow, which he did, all the way down to the corrals. I bet the guests didn’t expect to get a show with their dinner! We like to keep things interesting here at Red Horse. What a way to start off the season.
Happy Trails,
~Briana
(KP Wrangler)