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EXPLORING
KENTUCKY- March 2002 by Katherine Tandy Brown Saddle Up, Buckaroos Until I heard about DH Resorts, I thought all dude ranches were out in Big Sky Country, west of the Mississippi River. I couldn’t imagine a spread in the heart of racehorse country. Cowboys? In Kentucky? Then John Wayne’s voice flashed into my mind, “Durn straight, little lady.” Near Plummers Mill on Kentucky 32 in Fleming County, DH Resorts is a 1,500-acre dude ranch just 15 minutes north of I-64’s Morehead exit, with more activities than Wayne has movies. The DH short list includes trail, lunch and dinner rides on wooded mountain ridges, overnight outback camp rides, Western riding and roping lessons and a summer youth camp, with accommodations ranging from sleeping bags in a primitive horse camp to bedding down in a bunkhouse to a luxurious lake-view bed and breakfast inn. People even get married here, some in home-on-the-range attire. For Western riding and/or flavor, this place is pure gold.
Both goals came to fruition in 1988 when they purchased 327 rural Fleming County acres bordering Daniel Boone National Forest. For a few months Steve and his brother Dan, who with his family now lives on the property full time, camped in tents on top of a ridge while building a house and barn and starting work on a campground. “We did everything ourselves, all the land work, all the ground work,” says Dobson. “It went a little slower but kind of gave us a feel for what we were getting into.” In 1990 they opened a horse camp, where people could bring in their horses and ride into the national forest. Soon they added 60 adjoining acres that were so run down, it took six months to spiff them up. A salvaged poplar log cabin became a check-in office and after a tack room was added, an old barn became horse headquarters. When folks began asking about renting horses, Dobson thought about it, then jumped in, adding four horses to several they already owned. After hiring a local man to help, he began offering trail rides that still are always led by guides, because of insurance, making sure the animals are well cared for and the unpredictable nature of horses. “Eighty to eighty-five percent of our guests either have never been on a horse before or it’s the first time they’ve ridden in twenty years,” Dobson says. “They need the comfort zone a guide provides.” Most of the staff – up to 20 during the busy summer season – are local, including several part-time students from nearby Morehead State University’s equestrian program. “My guides are cowboys who have great personalities and work with people well,” Dobson says. “I bring people in that are energetic, forward thinking and innovative. I’m always open to new ideas, even if we can’t do them right now. That’s how we develop new programs. Once the rental business was established, Dobson built an office/store structure, a swimming pool and bathhouse, a campground with hookups and five one-room cabins with electricity and a picnic shelter, turning the log cabin into a rental. Once the equine population reached 10, DH added a youth summer horse camp. For five days, 16 kids aged nine to 16 are assigned a horse, which they learn to care for and ride. They eat and bunk in an air-conditioned dormitory built over a 17-stall equestrian center, complete with an indoor viewing area, horse-washing area, tack room and two outdoor arenas. Though most come from within an eight-hour drive, the camp draws participants from as far away as Hawaii. If you’re an older teen or adult who’s always wanted to work on a dude ranch, DH has a “Guide For a Day” program. For a fee, you can arrive in the morning, help saddle and bridle the horses and be “trailer” on as many rides all day as you like, plus hob-nob with the guides. For the adventurous who would rather leave the guiding to the guides, there’s now a 300-acre back farm for overnight rides. The staff takes your sleeping bag and gear to an outback bunkhouse. You take a three-hour ride on an old cayoose back to the camp “in the middle of nowhere,” chow down on a big ol’ campfire supper, wake to a campfire breakfast and ride back. Or for families and groups who want more than a trail ride, on an Adventure Ride you meet with a guide first thing in the morning, learn how to get your horses ready, then take to the trail. Lunch or dinner can be included or not. Though the property borders the national forest and those bringing their own horses have a choice of routes, most trail rides are on the resort’s own lovely Appalachian foothills terrain. In 1997, a 400-acre tract with a bed and breakfast on the next ridge was added. Nestled in a valley thick with hardwoods, Mountain Lake Manor overlooks a 22-acre stocked lake and guests can hike, catch-and-release fish and use canoes and pedal boats, in addition to trail riding. Though the campground and open horse riding close November 1 due to hunting season, either of the inn’s five comfortable bedrooms or the whole spacious home is available year round for rental, and groups often book for family reunions and holidays. A ranch-style dining room and enormous brick fireplace provide a friendly “get together and chat” space, while a wrap-around porch with cane-backed rockers overlooking a beaver colony in the pristine lake waters invites quiet contemplation. Managed by Eva Mae Weaver, from nearby Hebron, the inn serves up an “advanced continental” breakfast of meats, cheeses, fruit and legendary baked goods from the resort’s own Horseshoe Cafe, opened in 2001. With seating for 70 and a menu that includes down-home “meat and two” and luscious homemade pies, the restaurant caters lunch and dinner for groups in the lodge, and puts on pig roasts, birthday parties, and company and church picnics. “We now have overnight options,” says Dobson. “The rustic camping cabins are our Western Village, while the Mountain Lake Manor is our luxurious upgrade. It’s a pretty nice mix.” As is the mix of annual events, weekends include all expenses except trail rides, so you can come learn to be a cowpoke and ride or not. Though the horse rental re-opens in April, most of the steeds are still in winter pasture, and the Spring Roundup in May is based on bringing them in for the season. A slew of Western activities include a lunch ride, bucking barrel, roping lessons, fun horse show, casino/carnival and pig roast. Most weekends feature family olympics, friendly team competitions with obstacle races and games. Those happen in the pool come July’s Fun in the Sun weekend, with a pig roast, line dancing lessons, or whatever other ideas roll from Dobson’s creative mind. August brings Ladies Getaway, when women take over the Manor House and are catered to all weekend, from a pool party to trail rides to boat races on the lake, their coolers toted by doting male employees. Though the county is dry, alcohol can be brought if used responsibly. “We made the decision early on we could either be a party place or a family place,” Dobson says. “You can’t be both. We’re not a party place. We enjoy being a family place.” “Family and safety are our two biggest concerns in dealing with horses,” says Dobson. “We find the day care doesn’t get used that much because families seem to often want to stay together. Many families who come here say, ‘The neatest thing about your facility is that we can bring our kids and they can play and run and jump and feel safe.’ That’s real important to us.” Dobson’s parents, John and Rosemary, who spend time here each Spring and Fall in a retirement cabin built for them by their kids, get in on the two-weekend “Frost on the Pumpkin” in October, when they host a bonfire s’mores party. Highlights of the event are a “haunted barn,” scavenger hunt, roping and archery lessons, pumpkin decorating and a no-holds-barred costume party, where families have been known to bribe the judges with Monopoly money. Real money was made this past December at the new, two-weekend “Christmas on the Ranch.” Rife with the fun and pizzaz of the other DH annual events, the entire resort was festooned with 50,000 lights, decorated trees and lighted Christmas figures made by Dobson, and featured photos with Santa, hay rides, horse lead line rides, arts and crafts, a food court and a live nativity scene, featuring the furry and wooly stars of the ranch’s petting zoo. Profits from the whole shebang went to the Flemingsburg Cancer Care Club. The Dobsons do most of their own construction and many of the construction supplies for the project were donated to keep overhead low. “These counties – Fleming, Mason and Rowan – are truly a community,” he says. “They always pull together to support projects like this.” Dobson’s contagious enthusiasm for life is at least one of the reasons that many guests make return visits. He’s a hands-on owner who’s always adding on and improving things. “I never finish anything,” he laughs. “It’s just job security. If I ever finished then I couldn’t add on to it!” And couldn’t keep growing a Western family playground that would make the Duke proud! For more information, check out www.dhresorts.com
or call (800)737-RIDE. Katherine Tandy
Brown is a staff writer for The Lane Report. |
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Copyright 1996-2002, by Kentucky Business Online. All rights reserved. Editorial content
is copyright 2002, Lane Communications Group The Lane Report is a trademark of Lane Communications Group. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. |
“Outstanding
Business of the Year 2001” by the Fleming County Chamber of Commerce,
DH Resorts is owned by Steve Dobson and his wife Charlotte Harrison,
whose work as a physician makes her a silent partner. The couple met
and married in his hometown of Toledo, Ohio, where he was in school
and she was completing a residency in orthopedic surgery. During a year
in Bright, Indiana, where Dobson got a graduate degree in engineering
and Harrison opened a practice, an ad in the “Farms for Sale”
section of a Cincinnati newspaper caught their eye. He wanted to own
a business that involved construction and design. That was fine with
her, the Virginia native said, as long as it had something to do with
horses.