Guest Ranching No One-Horse Industry

Guest Ranching
No One-Horse Industry

Fairforce Communications

Recognized as the Guest Ranch Capital of Canada, the South Cariboo is home to some 20 such enterprises.

As an admitted and not recovering guest ranch junkie, I have been wondering why visitors choose any particular ranch. After all, do not most ranches offer the same basic services? Most have horseback riding, rustic cabins, swimming and other activities.

Others might offer guided or unguided trail rides, upscale accommodation, a variety of culinary delights on extensive menus while promising great scenery, fresh air and the time of your life.

Recently I set out to get some answers and decided to start visiting guest ranches in our immediate area. For my first visit I chose Meadow Springs Ranch just north of 70 Mile House off Highway 97 on Stormy Road.
I chose the ranch mostly because it is located on a route that takes me past it about three times a week. Meadow Springs, also happens to be a working ranch and home to Kathy and Mark McMillan a couple who are deeply immersed in the history and culture of the region.

Both are involved in the B.C. Cowboy Heritage Society of which Mark is Vice-president and Kathy, secretary treasurer. They are also keen supporters of the Kamloops Cowboy Festival and the B.C. Cowboy Hall of Fame. If that was not enough mark is editor of The Cowboy Times newsletter and both are on the executive of the Watch Lake/Green Lake Resort, Guest Ranch and Business Association.

How they manage to run the ranch, including caring for a herd of a dozen horses is beyond me. When I first stopped in to meet with Mark (Kathy works in town a couple of days week) I was shocked to find out the bearded fellow sitting in front of me in well-worn ranch clothes also builds websites for a living through his company, MSR Web Design. Go figure.

In any event, I called Mark before I showed up to introduce myself. After giving me directions he asked if I would mind putting back a wire gate I would have to open on my way in. I figured he was making me earn my keep right off the bat.

Arriving at the main gate to the ranch, I was welcomed by a couple of friendly dogs and a typical post and beam archway. I noted the fences were constructed of logs, common to the Cariboo.

The yard in front of the main house was host to a collection of typical farm equipment, tractors and other odds and ends, much like one would expect of a working ranch. The accommodations were rustic and appeared to be spotted around the property in no particular order.

Ambling up to the house (when you live in the Cariboo one does not walk, one ambles) knocked on the door much to the protests of the dogs and waited for Mark. He showed up a few minutes later riding an ATV from the direction of the log barn, original to the ranch.

Mark is easygoing and laid back which made for a comfortable interview. We did a brief tour of the cabins, bunkhouse and a really interesting little museum he keeps on the property. I took his picture with a couple of old photos of his great-grandparents. If you go to the ranch insist on seeing the museum.

I thought the cabins were adequate for a working ranch. They have all the amenities, are clean and fit well with the surrounding geography.

As it turns out, Mark and Kathy are transplants from Vancouver Island to the Cariboo. They have had the ranch for about nine years and live the life of which they have always dreamed. If you visit the Cariboo you will run into all kinds of people who have been smitten by this country, myself included, who gave up their former lives to start anew.

Getting right to the point I asked Mark what kind of people stay at Meadow Springs and why. Without hesitation he tells me he has a lot of families coming in with some staying several days at a time.

Meadow Springs’ customers keep coming back and some have been vacationing at the ranch as long as the McMillans have owned it. One thing that really impressed me was the fact that guests can get to do real ranch work if they want to.

The work can include anything from repairing fences, to haying to roaming the property looking for cattle at roundup time.

Still, I did not feel these were the main reasons people kept coming back. Mark’s answer might surprise you, but I won’t tell you his answer until later in the story.

It was a few days before I could meet Kathy although I spoke to her a few times on the telephone. I decided my wife and I, along with our visiting niece from Vancouver, would stay a couple of nights with the McMillans. No, we did not stay for free.

Kathy is one of those genuine people you like immediately. No airs, no pretense, what you see is what you get. The first thing I sensed was she knows and loves horses.

I had the chance to observe her with guests as she took them down to collect the horses for a coming trail ride, which is Kathy’s domain at the ranch. While they followed her down to the pasture Kathy was busy explaining how to round the horses up, peppering her instructions with anecdotes and interesting tidbits about the personality traits of the horses.

At the barn, guests groomed their horses and worked around them before the horses were saddled. It was obvious to me that Kathy was quite adept at matching the right horse by size and temperament to the appropriate rider.

Before leaving the yard, each rider would have instructions and demonstrations to enhance their riding skills, confidence levels and to ease their fears, if any. It then occurred to me that while Kathy cared very much for the well-being of her gentle-broke horses, that caring was equally dispensed to her guests.

While I will not go into details on our own ride, I can tell you Kathy kept an eagle-eye on horses and riders the entire two hours. Her horses are a dream to handle.

After the riding we helped with a barbecue on the patio of the McMillan’s home where we had the opportunity to talk with fellow guests, have a great meal and swap horse stories.

It was more like a family reunion than a holiday at a commercial establishment. And therein lies the secret of why people keep coming back to Meadow Springs. The visitors are not guests. They are friends. They are family.

Mark tried to explain that to me in our first interview, but it was not until I experienced it myself that I was able to grasp what he was talking about. I watched how both he and Kathy easily mixed, talked with and socialize with their guests.

This is not something that can be put on or faked. For friendships to take hold and endure they must be based on genuine fellow feeling and a real love for people and that is why Meadow Springs guests keep going back.

There is a downside to this approach, but I will let Mark explain. “The part that I don’t like about this is I still have to give them a bill when they leave.”

Bill McIntyre
Communications Specialist
FairForce Communications
e-mail: billmci@telus.net