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Our Barn Crew at The Hideout Lodge & Guest Ranch
When it comes to horses, hospitality, safety and creating a unique and exciting riding experience surrounded by a warm and caring culture of hospitality vacation, we have a loyal and experienced team in place. While our guest season runs from late March through early November, our team continues to work, play with, ride and train our horses when the ranch gates are closed to our guests.
The results are what make your riding experience at The Hideout so special.
Our kernel staff are employed year-round and many of our wranglers return every season. They help us recruiting, hiring, and training our seasonal teams season after season.
Marijn and The Barn Crew
This is your barn team responsible for everything related to horses, barn staff, training, activities, cattle work, clinics, care of horses, record-keeping, cleaning and organizing and just about anything else you can think of!
We recruit, hire, and train the new wranglers in all areas important to run a worry-free, safe, and enjoyable guest vacation regarding horseback riding and other activities we offer.
Off-season, we work with new horses, keep riding the rest of the herd and take lessons ourselves to constantly improve and fine-tune our own skills to our benefit, as well as that of our guests, our seasonal staff, and our horses. We all continue to look for ways to improve your horsemanship and riding experience at The Hideout.
Marijn Werquin
Marijn is one of our Hideout owners and the wife of General Manager, Peter De Cabooter. Marijn’s introduction to riding and horsemanship started in 2007 when she moved to Wyoming together with Peter and their boys, Edward, and Victor.
Marijn loves outdoor sports like skiing, waterskiing, sailing and especially swimming. However, prior to moving to Wyoming she was a city girl, who enjoyed the comforts and amenities of city life. Initially, she was intimidated and even scared of horses. She was not really the ranch girl used to handle horses, cattle and trucks pulling horse trailers!
Being the strong personality she is, from day one moving to The Hideout, she indulged herself in horsemanship, horses, day after day riding, help move cattle on the range, trail riding, taking guests our riding, take lessons and especially work very hard. For the last several years now, she has spent between five and eight hours a day in the saddle during eight months a year. Today she holds a Level 4 Parelli, leads the barn and horse program, and continues to take lessons and learn as much as she can.
Marijn especially enjoys playing at Liberty with her horses and teach others.
Marijn comes with a calm, firm, and strong independent personality. Many riders enjoy her company as she is careful and does not take risks when it comes to safety.
With the long journey in horsemanship fresh in mind and continuing this journey, she will always give credit to those she learned from. At the same time, she will hold anybody accountable to deliver on what they claim to be. If you are interested to learn more, she will generously share her knowledge and learnings in addition to her frustrations during her journey in horsemanship!
Our Seasonal Wranglers
Every year we hire 6 to 8 season wranglers. Several of our wranglers return season after season. Some wranglers stay throughout the season, while others stay for two or three months. All wranglers must be at least 21 years old, have both horse and people skills and be open minded. As we trailer out 95% of the time riding on approx. 650,000 acres, loading horses in trailers, they also need to have a clean driver’s license.
Hiring Wranglers and Staff
We hire the best people for the job, who match our 3 C Culture, are both people and horse people, open minded, caring, and respectful. Wranglers who can keep you safe, can help you and can also carry a conversation.
Most of our Wranglers are female, independent and have both an English as Western background. Some have worked in abroad and have international experience. And most of them are excellent riding instructors.
We hire for Character, Conduct and Competence and look for people with horse- as well as people-skills and a strong work ethic.
Ramon Castro
Vaquero Ramon Castro is our horse trainer and farrier. He shoes, starts, trains and fine tunes all our horses. Starting with groundwork, working with the feet of the horses, and working on lightness, our goal is to bring consistency and predictability to our horse program. All new wranglers need to learn the basics of how Ramon and Marijn handle and train our horses as well as our Authentic Horsemanship principles. Consistency is vital as it makes it easier on our horses, which translates into happier and safer horses, resulting in more docile horses for our guests to ride.
Much as Marijn and our Wranglers, Ramon is a perennial student of horses. Ramon has participated several times for The Hideout in The Extreme Mustang Makeover and Supreme Extreme Mustang Makeover.
Peter De Cabooter
Occasionally you will find Peter on horseback. He is an ok rider but not to be compared with the pro’s at the barn. However, having a conceptual and strategic mind, Authentic Horsemanship, our horse strategy and concept at The Hideout are his brainchild. Through reading, observing, and benchmarking he focused The Hideout on establishing a quality and continuously improving horse and riding program.
Other outside trainers and coaches
The goal of our AH Horsemanship program is to continue to improve ourselves. Over the years many different trainers have worked and continue to work with our crew to help us in our journey of quality horsemanship.
During our off-season, you can sign up for dedicated clinics at The Hideout. Please contact info@thehideout.com for clinic dates.