Keen to try out as cowboys (and girls) Andrew Newall and his family head for the Dixie Dude Ranch Texas, just outside Bandera, ‘Cowboy Capital of the World’.
Out on the trail, Dixie Dude Ranch Texas
The Dixie Dude Ranch driveway winds through sun-dried trees, and horses stand around, momentarily looking up from grazing to watch our Uber pass by. A heatwave has sent temperatures soaring above 100ᵒ, unusually high even for Texas, so you can imagine how it feels for a family from Scotland.
In the cool of the reception lodge, we’re greeted by Kim and given a rundown on activities, lodgings and meals.
“It’s lasagne tonight,” she advises.
A reminder that we are not in a hotel, we’re in someone’s home, albeit one with very comfortable guest cabins.
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Deluxe Family Cabin, Dixie Dude Ranch Texas
There’s no chance of boredom at Dixie Dude Ranch
Although, one of the first things I note, is no TV in either of our cabins. WIFI is limited too, unless we go to reception and, given that we have two teenagers and this holiday was my idea, I worry they’ll be bored.
That concern doesn’t last, as they both seem perfectly happy lazing on the porch swing or making full use of the ranch pool and hot tub, along with activities like pickleball and volleyball, in fact almost everything you’d find in a resort.
But this is no resort, it’s a working ranch with housekeepers, cooks and wranglers who live here year-round, along with longhorn cattle, as well as Spanish goats, pigs and, of course, horses.
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The youngest dudes, Banderas, Texas
A family of cowboys in training head out on the trail
Cowboys ride horses, this is a given, and as the early Texas sun warms us on our first morning at Dixie Dude Ranch, we wait expectantly, and a little nervously, to be paired with our rides.
To get some experience under our belts, we’d taken a few lessons back home in Scotland, where the first thing we learned was how to mount the horse with a mounting block. Fast forward to Texas.
“Can I use the mounting block?” my daughter blithely asks wrangler Garrett.
“Nope, we’re not doing that,” he replies, before promptly hoisting her on to a waiting steed.
I’m paired with ‘Jet’, and my head fills with visions of my horse thundering ahead at lightning speed with me, silhouetted in the rising sun, like the true cowboy I am.
As I discover, the name ‘Jet’ isn’t short for jet-fuelled or jet-propelled. In fact, Jet turns out to be the most chilled horse ever, content to hang back and only quicken his pace when a wrangler gives his backside a slap.
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Cooking like cowboys, Dixie Dude Ranch Texas
Dixie Dude Ranch keeps the riding real, even for beginners
Rides take you up and around the Texas hills, and walking on flat ground, your body relaxes, swaying in time with the horse, as you catch glimpses of your shadow riding alongside, wearing its cowboy hat.
But admiring the scenery can wait when you’re clambering up steep, rocky terrain, solely focused on trying to stay in the saddle. And long trousers are advised for those times when your horse clippity-clops through bushes and thorns with nary a thought for its rider.
One morning, we head out early and breakfast is prepared for us on a hilltop. This gives us time to really admire the countryside, which we decide is not unlike Scotland; just a lot drier and a bit less green.
After the day’s ride, we’re allowed to feed the horses, help brush them and one evening, even assist with unsaddling. The wranglers look like standard movie cowboys, and more than once it crosses my mind they might be hamming it up a bit with the hats, boots and spurs. But after a day or two, I’m convinced they’re the real thing.
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Banderas, Cowboy Capital of the World
Labor Day weekend in the ‘Cowboy Capital of the World’
While the daily riding at Dixie Dude Ranch was the highlight of our week, the rest of the holiday felt like staying with friends. Case in point, we wanted to go into Bandera for the Labor Day weekend festivities but couldn’t get a taxi, so had resigned ourselves to missing out, then Clay Conoly, the ranch owner got wind of our predicament.
“I’ll take you in myself,” he offered.
Car service isn’t something the ranch normally provides, but as he had time, he said it was no trouble and, as an added bonus, along the way, he told us a bit about the 725-acre ranch, built in 1901 by his great grandfather and opened to the public in 1937.
Bandera is a small town with a strong community feel and the woman at the visitor centre spoke to us at length about where to go and what to see. So we caught a live gunfight show, some singing, and dropped into a local bar to play pool and sample a bottle or two of Lone Star beer.
Later in the evening we also attended a rodeo and Clay kindly arranged for us to be collected and driven home. Turns out there’s more to being a cowboy than the hat and boots.
The Dixie Dude Ranch was a holiday like no other, from home-cooked meals three times a day to close encounters with longhorns on a twilight hayride, it was an experience we would not have had in a hotel. In a hotel, there’s a distance between guests and staff. At the ranch, from the moment we arrived, we were treated with a genuine warmth, that didn’t waver for our entire stay.
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How to plan a Dixie Dude Ranch family holiday
How to get there
Direct UK flights to Austin from 10 hours, 15 minutes
Austin to Dixie Dude Ranch from 2 hours, 35 minutes
Where to stay
Dixie Dude Ranch, 7-night stay (2 adults, 2 children) from £3,312 per week Including: 3 home-cooked meals per day; 2 horseback rides per day; evening entertainment and ranch activities.