Nbar Ranch – Feb 04

The Unique Adventure of the N Bar Ranch
Wide Open Spaces, Great Horses and a Chance to Live the Old West Lifestyle
By Karen Hadley

For those who love riding and wide open spaces, the N Bar Ranch near Reserve, New Mexico offers guests unrivaled adventure situated amid stunning vistas of open and forested land. Guests travel from all over the United States and Europe to live the life of a cowboy for a week on this working cattle ranch.

The typical N Bar guest is one that’s happiest with an active lifestyle without pampering. They thrive on pitching in to help round up stray cattle, or hold one steady for branding. A single day may see them ten miles out in the wilderness hunting strays, waiting out a sudden heavy rainstorm on horseback, and swapping tales by the campfire at night.

Owner Preston Bates started out training horses on the East Coast, but admitted, “Every time I was galloping down the track on a horse, in my mind I was chasing outlaws. I wanted to offer people the opportunity to get in as much riding as they could handle, in the real cowboy fashion and that’s the way we’ve set up our operations here at the N Bar. We don’t rein people in like a lot of other ranches and that’s what people like. Most of our guests are horse owners but we get a few that learn to ride after they get here.”

Despite constant ranch activity, guests commonly explain that visiting the N Bar is one of the most relaxing things they’ve ever done. Nancy Boles from North Carolina visited the N Bar in September 2002. “I felt more alive, younger, rested and more productive while I was at the N Bar. Every morning I awoke to the sound of horses thundering to the corrals for their breakfast. Even though it was chilly, I was eager to get out of my sleeping bag and over to the cook tent for hot coffee and a phenomenal breakfast. There was such a relaxed feeling, even though we had work to do.”

“It haunts you, it’s so beautiful,” remarked Dave Toher, who’s traveled to the N Bar three times from his home in Carlisle, Massachusetts. “At home, you’re lucky if you can see around the corner. Out there, you can see forever. When you’re roping and branding and you’re dirty from head to toe, you feel great and have a big smile on your face. And when you’re sitting on a great horse with the wind at your back, you’re looking down at a huge expanse of rolling grass, rocky mountains, or acres of pines, you’ll say, as I have, that it just doesn’t get any better than this.”

Alan Turner of Leeds, Sussex, England has made the long hike to the N Bar four times. “Most of my work colleagues think I’m nuts when I describe a day at the N Bar: early mornings, long days in the saddle, rolling around in the dirt wrestling a calf and no indoor plumbing. Well, I grew up wondering what it would be like to be a real cowboy. It took me until I was 40 to find the N Bar. I found a place where an English city slicker like me, who’d never done more than some of those nose-to-tail rides, could experience, in a small way, what the early pioneers and explorers must have felt. I’ve been allowed to rope calves, doctor them, and ride some amazing country. This is my passion – I’m just not suited for a lazy vacation on the beach.”

Russ Imler and his wife Andrea have visited the N Bar several times. “As soon as I arrived at the N Bar, I felt like I’d come home,” Russ said. “The staff treat you like gold and include you in everything. The horses are in excellent condition and you never run out of new territory to discover.”

What Russ and his wife like best about the N Bar is the Posse Week, an event held two or more weeks each season, exclusive to the N Bar. Posse Week is a four-day, no-holds-barred game of pursuit across hundreds of square miles of wide-open high country. Guests are divvied up into two teams: Outlaws and New Mexico Rangers. From Tuesday morning till late Friday, the two teams search for hidden stashes of loot, following hand drawn maps with riddles for clues. Ambushes with paintball guns, map theft and horse rustling are encouraged. A hit in the torso means a “kill,” putting the player out of the game for three hours. A hit elsewhere means that the player forfeits the use of that arm or leg for three hours. The team that finds all six bags of loot – or claims them in a late-night raid – is the winner. If neither team finds all the bags, the team that scores the highest number of kills wins the game.

Russ explained that since he is a police officer at home, the guests insist that he join the team of Rangers. “One trip, we had a running gunfight at the Ghost Ranch (a nearby ghost town). The outlaws were holed up, about to have a pancake breakfast. We spoiled their breakfast and caught one of the female outlaws in the outhouse. We just plunked that outhouse with paintballs until she couldn’t stand it any more and finally came out.

“Andrea and I get excited long before we even get on the plane. All the way out there, I can feel myself relaxing. I never think about work or cell phones or anything else while I’m there. I’m so busy chasing cows or bad guys, I don’t have time for anything else.”

Andrea likes planning the strategies that help teams win the Posse Week competition. “You’ve got to figure out what the other team is going to be doing, you’ve got to always be on guard, and you’ve got to solve the riddles that lead you to the hidden loot. My first year, I was nervous but I learned to be one of the more aggressive Posse members in searching out the other team. The adrenaline when you find yourself in a gun battle is incredible.”

“Posse Week taught me that I can take care of myself even though I’m out in the middle of nowhere. You’re out there in nature, you may wake up and find bear prints around your campsite. You feel like you’re really living, not just getting through the day.”

Mike Collette from Cincinnati, Ohio visited the N Bar with his teenaged daughter for one of the same Posse Week adventures as the Imlers. He explained how that environment could be so relaxing. “You can’t help but relax when you’re sitting on the porch with a cup of coffee and watching a herd of elk in the field. The air smells clean and the skies are deep blue. When you’re outdoors and on horseback and you hear the cadence of hooves, tension just drains out of your body.”

Mike’s daughter Katherine said she loved the way it made her feel to spend a week in the wilderness. “It was just so beautiful. You could see so many stars at night. I really missed it when I got home again.” Though still in her teens, she learned how to be an Outlaw and ambush the Rangers. “When we first started out, we ambushed the other team right away. Somehow they found out our plan and were ready for us. That ambush resulted in a two-hour gun battle. My dad got shot in the leg and had to hobble around with a cane. The last morning, we ambushed them again. I was shooting from behind the food tent and got shot in my left arm. I’d have to run back each time and cock my gun one-handed before I could go out and shoot again. It was so much fun. I found I could be anyone I wanted to be. And I went home a better rider, too.”

Her dad knew they had a good crew the first night while both teams were talking over their strategies. “One of our guys belly-crawled over to the other tent to listen to their strategy. He said, ‘Hey, we’re outlaws, there are no rules.’ That set us up to win the contest with 31 kills to their 17.”

Tom Becker of Kansas City commented that, “My mom always told me I was born 100 years too late. I loved everything Western. When I found Posse Week, it was just what I needed. The whole week, you’re constantly moving. You’re trying to ambush the other team and follow the map that shows you where the loot is hidden. The clues are all in riddles you have to decipher. One morning, we ambushed the other team just as they were heading out to search for loot. Well, we were winning until we ran out of paintballs. They were civil enough to invite us in for lunch before we resumed the game. The whole experience was a major rejuvenation for me.”

Guests can choose Posse Weeks, Spring Ranch Weeks with plenty of cutting, sorting, branding and doctoring, Summer Ranch Weeks with some nights spent on the range in tents, teepees or just curled up next to the campfire. Fall Gathers are when the cattle are brought in from the 125 square miles of N Bar range (or even farther if they stray through a broken fence), or Pack Trips through the Gila Wilderness or starting at the Plains of St. Augustin near Magdalena and tracking over 120 miles of old wagon and elk trails back to the N Bar.

The N Bar Ranch is situated in the middle of an area that’s remarkably rich in history. Apache Chiefs Geronimo, Loco and Victorio lived and rampaged in this area. Butch Cassidy and Sundance hired on as ranch hands at the WS Ranch in the 1880s; one cabin is an original line cabin from the 1880’s. Ghost towns and old Native American settlements pepper the area.

The guest season for the N Bar runs from early May through the end of October. Guests are welcome to stay a week or longer. Accommodations are rustic two-bed cabins unless the guests are working on the range or pursuing Outlaws. The rate for a week is $975 per person, which includes accommodations and meals, plus pickup and drop-off in Albuquerque. A sixty-horse stable offers the correct choice for any type of rider and the ranch staff are careful to match riders to their best mount.

Guests swap stories and greetings all year round on the Message Board of the N Bar website, found at www.nbarranch.com. The entire year’s schedule plus a detailed Cowboy Log of past guest weeks and Posse Weeks can also be found on this comprehensive site decorated with beautiful scenic shots of the New Mexico highlands.

About the Author:
Karen Hadley fell in love with the wide open spaces of New Mexico when she lived fifty feet from National Forest land for a couple of years. She’s lived in all four corners of the United States and has written professionally on subjects ranging from hot tubs to alternative healthcare and fiber optic testing. She is currently sweating out a stint in Clearwater, Florida.