About The Resort at Paws Up

The Resort at Paws Up is America's premier luxury ranch resort. Set on a 37,000-acre ranch, Paws Up embodies the spirit of the American West with constant innovation and evolution to deliver the quintessential luxury experience for affluent and influential travelers from all over the world. It's a family owned and award-winning destination that truly inspires.

Purpose

This is not, primarily, a riding position but rather an administrative one.

The Equestrian Department creates a once in a lifetime horse experience for our guests. It is the job of the wrangler staff to take guests on trail rides throughout the property and lead them on cattle drives, providing a firsthand look at what it takes to create a thoughtful and engaged bond between horse and rider.

The purpose of the Assistant Equestrian Manager is primarily to keep the guest riding schedule, guest requests and wrangler work schedules in order, while also tracking horse health, and assisting wranglers with day-to-day duties such as grooming and saddling horses and mounting and dismounting guests from horses. This is also not a training position; while the Assistant Manager is welcome to attend the mini-clinics put on by the Equestrian Manager for the Wrangler staff, the Assistant Manager will not be leaned on for colt starting, work with the mustangs or regular horse training sessions.

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  Be a decisive team leader, offer experience developing and motivating team members. Create and maintain an environment that addresses the personal and professional needs of all team members through the mission and culture of the company and department while also establishing and maintaining necessary boundaries. Monitor and communicate performance of all team members and look for coaching opportunities to help group team members as equestrians and humans, to the Equestrian Manager.
• Supervise daily guest operations through the horse facility at the Wilderness Outpost and the Equestrian Center: Coordination, scheduling and execution of trail rides and ranch activities in conjunction with Concierge requests and guest bookings, including all last-minute requests and changes. Provide a level of service that meets the highest standards in the hospitality industry.
• Create weekly departmental work schedules.
• Knowledgeable of basic horsemanship, assisting guests onto horses, guiding them on rides when necessary, and conversing about the horses, the Resort and the history of the area to provide an exemplary guest experience
• Prepare horses for trail rides and horse related activities, such as grooming, bridling, saddling, feeding, doctoring and tack repair
• Ability to match saddles/tack to horses to avoid saddle sores
• General ranch chores
• Monitor the trail riding horse herd daily for soundness and weight. Assist in daily herd health management and identify injuries or soundness issues prior to selecting horses for activities; assist in basic veterinary care as needed.
• Assist with dispatching rides and assigning horses
• Interact with team members, guests, management, and ownership in a professional and caring manner.
• Assist in overseeing team members to ensure the department practices for consistency.
• Ensure equestrian team members are in keeping with the performance factors as established in respective job descriptions, including attendance, teamwork, initiative, productivity, horsemanship, etc.
• Assign Wranglers to daily rides.
• Aid in motivating Wranglers
• Participate in and follow all health and safety standards, regulations, and policies
• Converse with the guests at a high level, being aware of their needs and fulfill special guest requests as instructed by management or the guest directly
• Ensure confidentiality of guests throughout their stay
• Monitor personal and team hours to responsibly control and fairly distribute approved overtime when necessary.
• Assist in the tack maintenance and care.
• Assume responsibilities and tasks when Equestrian Manager is off property.
• Other duties as assigned

Horsemanship Information

Candidates for this position must be interested in mastering the basics of Vaquero/Natural Horsemanship, chiefly the lineage of the Dorrance brothers, Ray Hunt and Buck Brannaman. In this program, those basics are defined as:

Feel, Timing and Balance

• Lateral flexion
• Proper breakover of the hindquarters
• Independent movement of front and hind quarters
• Familiarization to flag, tarp, rope, etc.
• Guidance with legs and minimal reins
• Vertical flexion/soft feel
• Prompt responses to seat, leg and rein cues
• Keeping horse within the rider’s rectangle

This is not a “nose-to-tail” operation. Though we do take novice riders (in addition to very advanced riders from all disciplines) out on trail rides, our aim is to change the way all of our guests think about and interact with their horses, and each other, through our use of, and conversations about, our horsemanship.

We hire first for character:

• Integrity
• Honesty and openness
• Hard work
• Accountability
• A positive, “can do” attitude
• An interest in learning and understanding new things
• The ability to see things from multiple perspectives
• Forgiveness
• And a deep understanding of and desire to RIDE FOR THE BRAND.

It is the belief of the Equestrian Department that leadership is a service position.

Additional all employees must:

• Display hospitality and professionalism to our guests and team members at all times, take pride in representing The Resort at Paws Up professionally with our guests and assure that all transactions with guests are handled in a legal, ethical, and confidential manner.
• Maintain a favorable working relationship with all Resort team members to foster and promote a positive working environment.

• Maintain a clean and neat appearance at all times, taking pride in representing the traditions and culture of the great American West, and ranching culture.
• Perform work in a safe and high-quality manner.

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  Horseback riding experience is a must, whether English or Western (riding videos will be requested during the interview process)
• Valid State Driver’s License

Team Members can look forward to:

• PTO
• Medical, Dental, Vision
• Life Insurance, Long Term and Short Term Disability
• 401K with match
• Opportunities for career development and advancement
• Carpool reimbursement $5-$20/Day
• Housing Assistance Available
• Complimentary Lunch Provided
• Employee Discounts on Merchandise
• A great work environment in a beautiful luxury resort setting

The position offered is full-time and year-round and located in Greenough, Montana.

Check it out for yourself!

Join The HERD

The Resort at Paws Up provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local laws. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation, and training.