Part II: Barb Jebson (Herd Manager)
Nestled in its own valley outside Loveland, Colorado less than 100 miles from Colorado Springs, Sylvan Dale Ranch is a slice of heaven that has different meanings for everyone. For three women who work on the primarily female-owned and run ranch, there is a sense of focus but also of respect and embrace of the wild that permeates the land balanced in the offering of a getaway that many families have been returning to for generations.
The elder stateswoman of the three women featured, Barb Jebson, has been with the ranch for 35 years as Herd Manager and Accountant and thinks back to the time when owner Susan [Jessup’s] father ran the ranch. Even though numbers are Jebson’s strength, the horses have kept her connected to the place creating a balance that is similar yet deeper as a parallel to her colleagues at the ranch: Karen Burbank and Samantha Sinsel.
“I’ve stayed because – the horses, because I love the horses. And I worked with Susan’s dad Maurice [who died in 1993] in the beginning. His passion was quarter horses. He had a type that he wanted to raise. And horses have always been my passion.” When Jebson started working at Sylvan she was impressed with the bloodlines but had gone to school to do accounting. “So that’s what I applied to do here.”
“I tell everybody I’m a Gemini so this job works for me because I can sit here and work on the books and do my numbers and make everything balanced. And then I can get up and I can go up to the mare pasture and check on my broodmares and say hi to the stallions and pet the babies for a few minutes.”
Jebson admits that’s why she’s stayed with the ranch for so long.
“The Jessups allowed me to have [that balance] – Susan [Jessup], specifically, because her dad passed away in ’93. I remember looking at her one day and saying, ‘Susan, whether you like it or not, you own 93 horses. Your dad’s gone now. These are your horses now.’ She kind of looked at me said, “I do! (laughing). I do own 93 horses.’”
Jebson says Jessup allowed her a lot of free rein on what horses they have raised and how they’ve done it. “And I think it has worked for us for the most part over all these years. We have a gorgeous herd of horses –– they’re just unmatched.”
Moments in Time
Jebson says one of her favorite things to do is, “To get up early in the morning at 4:30 or 5 and go check the mares to see if there’s a baby out there. It’s fabulous. I wouldn’t trade that for anything.”
Jebson relates an emotional story of a big buckskin mare called Pure Doc that she remembers to this day who foaled several beautiful horses (a couple which Jebson has owned). After delivering two new foals, Pure Doc ruptured her uterine artery. The horse communicated in a way to Jebson, and a mare named Rainbow to take care of her babies as she was short for the world.
Jebson recalls vividly the details of the crisp morning, the emotion felt, and a simple gesture of Pure Doc laying her head on the other mare’s back a few minutes before she succumbed. “It always makes me cry to think of that whole thing, but it doesn’t upset me because even when I think back, I can feel that cold crisp May morning with the rain…and that it’s so beautiful here.”
The Impact of Women Within the Ranch
One of the elements all three women can agree on is the impact of women on the ranch. Jebson says, “I do look back at our history, the mainstays have been women. We had a gal [Christa] that took care of our cattle program for 10 years, and she outworked and knew more about cattle than any guy I’ve ever seen on this ranch. She made a difference. She loved her cows and her cows loved her.”
Samantha Sinel, the ranch’s wedding coordinator, recalls laughing, “I was looking around one day and was like, ‘Really? No men here?’ I was like, ‘We run this ranch,’ almost all women. And Susan Jessup is a powerful woman. She is smart, educated, driven and ambitious and yet so kind.”
Sinsel says working under that tutelage has taught her “so much as far as standing on my own two feet.” Sam hails from Nebraska, which she says “is not necessarily Bible Belt but right on the edge…so women, they work in the kitchen and all of those things.
“When I moved out here, I [did so] with a 4-month-old baby and lived in one of the cabins by myself. My husband was in Nebraska – until our house could sell – and he could join me. For five months, I lived out here with a baby by myself and took him to daycare and then came to work. It was the strength of all of these women [around me] that kind of propelled me. I felt supported.”
Karen Burbank, programs coordinator at the ranch, reinforces that thought, Sylvan Dale, she says, carries special meaning to many people, especially to the people that work there. “So, what we focus on, and this is something that frequently comes up with our guests, is how much we make them feel like family.”
She says she hears that many times from guests who stay at other ranches – they feel like a number. “And they didn’t feel that connection. The really neat thing is I’ll get phone calls for family reunions. And you find out that they were here 30 years ago as a child or even as an adult. And now they want to come back and share that with their extended family.”
While it is hard for Burbank to put a finger on any one piece of magic, she says, “I mean, it does stand out that there are a lot of strong women that work here at the ranch. And maybe you can say that part of the heart comes from that.”
