Monthly Archive: December 2013

Now is prime time to begin dreaming up plans for next summer’s vacation – let Matt and Alayne at Sweet Pepper Ranch help you with that. Bring your horses and come for a high desert getaway, be it a few days or a week. Or ride one of our well-trained reining horses. Or just come enjoy the beautiful high desert area and all of the diverse opportunities—from rural, agricultural to desert mountains and wild horses! Sweet Pepper Ranch is gearing up for next summer’s fun. Recent additions and new plans for Sweet Pepper Ranch include: An improved trail course which bridges, hills, ditches, obstacles, tires, gates and more! Two new, large turn-out areas for horses. New gardens with raised beds—for yummy meals. A solar heated swimming pool—a warmer pool earlier in the year! Horse shoe pit for downtime. The fire pit means relaxing at night under the stars is always a great plan. Also available for corporate retreats or other special occasions offering a beautiful outdoor ranch setting. At Sweet Pepper Ranch we offer the following: Cowgirl/Cowboy Getaways—come for a long weekend or a week! Bed & Breakfast Work & Learn opportunities Horse Motel—traveling with equines? We can accommodate up to 10 or more horses/evening Trail rides and gourmet trail rides Venue for dinners, corporate trainings or other special occasions offering a beautiful outdoor ranch setting and opportunities to involve our horses Want more details? Cowgirl (& Cowboy!) Weekend Getaways Welcome to horse camp for adults! Arrive on a Thursday, leave on a Sunday—three nights and two full days of riding, relaxing, learning, visiting and enjoying good food and good company. Bring your horse or ride one of our well-trained reining horses. If you are here on the Cowgirl/Cowboy Getaway, we usually assign guests their “own” horse, one of the well-trained Sweet Pepper Ranch reining horses, for your stay here. Depending on your interests and abilities you can participate in their care and feeding as well as other ranch activities, such as bucking hay, mowing fields, harrowing or other tasks. Experience a bit of ranching by observing some of the work that goes on from haying, cleaning stalls and paddocks, harrowing arenas, mowing fields, turning out horses, building shelters and fences or irrigating pasture to name just a few chores. During the day you can relax with a swim in the pool or by night sit at our fire pit and listen to the howl of coyotes while watching stars twinkle. Pitch in to experience ranching responsibilities which might include haying, cleaning stalls and paddocks, harrowing arenas, mowing fields, turning out horses, building shelters and fences or irrigating pasture to name just a few. Relax with a swim in the pool or by night sit at our fire pit and listen to the howl of coyotes while watching stars twinkle. Horses & riding Depending on what you would like we can ride once or twice a day. We have three guest horses for trail rides. We can arrange for you to work cows. We have a trail course on our property and a few other fun things like horse soccer (a big ball that you kick around while horseback.) We will have ranch chores for you and your own assigned horses for you to care for. Dates  Please inquire as to dates and availability. Cowgirl Weekend Getaways are usually Thursday to Sunday, but we are flexible so if that timeframe doesn’t work, suggest something and we’ll do our best to accommodate. Numbers We have beds for 5 people (2 double beds & one single.) When we have extras we can either set up an air mattress in a room (crowded, probably best for kids) or we set up a nice tent outside by the pool with cots & camping furniture. Trail Rides & Gourmet Trail Rides Enjoy a trail ride on one of our highly trained and experienced reining horses. Tour sights and scenes from the Old West which include may viewing raptors or coyotes, ancient geology and petroglyphs, desert plants or other interesting natural history. Gourmet Trail Ride—ditto above but add in a relaxing picnic spread either during or after your ride! Here are some of the trails we can take you: Celebration Park a is beautiful desert park along the Snake River with petroglyphs, raptors, gold miners’ old rock cabins, a lake and waterfall—lots of history and beautiful scenery. Wilson Creek in the Owyhee Mountains has thousands and thousands of acres of BLM land, as well as wild horses (BLM mustangs) which live there. Kuna Butte is a great local spot to go for an evening trail ride and watch the sun set. All of the riding destinations listed on the Sweet Pepper Ranch website are wonderful and unique. Bed & Breakfast Traveling through the area—with or with your horse? We have to guest rooms available, with a shared bath. The Northwest Room, with décor from Alaska to the Pacific Northwest, has a large comfy Queen bed. The Country Room has a double bed with a single day bed and a desk. WiFi and pool are available to overnight guests. Ranch breakfasts are usually served pool-side and include special egg dishes, pastries, fresh fruit, coffee, tea, juice. We also have a refrigerator for guests, so if you want to make your own lunches or keep some cold drinks on hand you are welcomed to use it. Check out the amenities here. Area Restaurants Local restaurants are wonderful and many use locally grown, sustainable produce. A few close by that we like to recommend include: Brick 29 Bistro which uses local produce and has live music on M, Tu & Wed evenings. Copper Canyon has fabulous food and is located on a golf course. If you like sushi, you’ll LOVE Simple Sushi—fresh, beautiful and delicious! Looking for something quick and easy? Messenger Pizza offers a campy, fun atmosphere with gourmet pizza by the slice. Folks travel from all over SW Idaho to go to El Gallo Giro which is...