Meet our head wrangler
This winter, Heather and her newly-wed husband Garrett have chosen a new adventure for themselves, and she will be leaving the ranch. She is very involved with us in the process of hiring her replacement, and will be able to work with our new head wrangler through the spring and first half of the summer, to assure a smooth transition. If you'd like to know more about where she is headed, and get updates as things progress, we have been posting about it on our blog site: www.blogduderanch.com
Heather has been working here full time since March of 2003. Before that she spent her college summers working here as a wrangler. On brightcove.com there is video produced about Heather as Head Wrangler. She writes in her bio:
I was inspired
by and drawn to nature and horses from the get go. I discovered
these two things to be my passion while growing up on a small
ranch in southern Oregon. I always felt that I would be
involved with horses in either work or pleasure.
I participated in athletics and horse competitions through my early years and into college at Oregon State University. I landed a summer job, getting paid for what I love, at Rock Springs Guest Ranch in 1999. I spent two summer seasons as a wrangler at Rock Springs. I then ended up moving to central Oregon in 2001 after receiving a bachelor degree in Liberal Studies from OSU.
At that time, I took a job with the Prineville Hotshots and pursued a career in wild land firefighting, a field I had dabbled in before my first summer at Rock Springs. After putting in two years of work and travel on the hotshot crew, I was ready to change my life’s path. A few weeks later, I put in an application for the Head Wrangler job at Rock Springs Guest Ranch.
I am heading into my fifth year as the head wrangler at our ranch and it just keeps getting better as the years go. I am constantly challenged by the demands of the horses and to keep improving the riding program. My position here has helped me network in the horse community and now I am brokering and appraising horses as well. I feel that one should never stop learning and expanding her horizons. There are always countless horsemen and horses to learn from.
I am thankful everyday I am at the ranch. Thankful
for the people I work for, the people I work with, and the
guests that come to enjoy this place of magic. It is definitely
where I am meant to be at this point in my life. It is truly
awesome that I am able to enjoy nature everyday through the
most selfless of all animals, the horse.
I have always thought that the best place to be is on the back of a horse with the sun on my back. After a stay at Rock Springs, you may understand why! “No matter where we go, and no matter how we go, only one thing matters…that we hear the music of life.”
