“We want to bring back the family concept. That’s what we’ve been about,” said Stephen Dobson, owner of DH Resorts near Flemingsburg. Described as “a dude ranch in Kentucky,” DH Resorts is a getaway the whole family can enjoy.
DH Resorts opened as a horse campground in 1990 with 300 acres and four horses. Fifteen years later, it has 28 horses, 17 stalls, 1,200 acres and accommodations of all sorts.
DH Resorts offers a wide variety of activities. Guest can go horseback riding, take lessons on caring for horses, camp, fish or swim. Many guests bring their own horses, but others choose to rent the horses provided. A horse owner also can board a horse at DH and allow it to be used by other guests when the owner is not riding it.
The resort hosts school programs, youth groups and other organizations. Some groups will stay in the modern bunk house above the main barn. Up to 20 people can sleep in the bunk house. It has a kitchen, dining room and four full baths.
Guests who stay for a few days to learn about horse care are assigned a horse to care for. Those who go horseback riding can choose from five different trails on the property. If the horses aren’t enough, see the goats, rabbits and ducks at the petting zoo. Or take a dip in the pool, which opened Memorial Day weekend and is available to overnight guests only.
The Horseshoe Café restaurant was completed in 2001 and took Dobson 1 1/2 years to build. Located by the campground, it is open Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The restaurant stays open through Thanksgiving.
Unfurnished one-room cabins are located in the campground. Stalls for horses are located nearby with a bath house in the center of the campground. A playground, picnic tables and volleyball net are set up for recreation.
The 5,000-square-foot Mountain Lake Manor is on the other side of a ridge from the main grounds. This building, which overlooks a private 22-acre lake, was once a hotel and then a getaway home for the previous owner. It was remodeled and now has three rooms and two suites. Guests can go fishing, pedal boating or canoeing in the lake, which was built in the 1950s by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The manor and the restaurant both open during the holiday season for parties.
Dobson, who holds a master’s degree in engineering, built many of the facilities and maintains them himself. He has also built items such as bunk beds in the bunk house and counter spaces in the restaurant.
The ranch attracts weddings, receptions, reunions, company picnics and Christmas parties as well as individuals and youth groups. The resort has a corn maze in the fall.
“There are packages designed according to how many days guests stay, or they can pick and choose,” Dobson said. “We’re not an out-West dude ranch. We have to be flexible with our guests.”
Guests have traveled from as far away as New York, California and Hawaii. Dobson said one guest was from France and one may be coming this year from Germany. The resort has had as many as 100 people on the campground and a full house in the manor. Its mailing list runs between 10,000 and 15,000 listings.
DH Resorts employs 12-15 people. Some are guides Dobson brings in from Morehead State University’s equine program.
Dobson came from Toledo, Ohio, and started this project in 1988. His wife, Charlotte Harris Dobson, a doctor in Maysville, is from Virginia, so northeastern Kentucky “was a good in between point.” Dobson said he had been through Kentucky and loved the land and scenery.
DH Resorts came from dreams that the two put together.
“She was a big horse person and wanted a horse farm. I was interested in starting my own business,” said Dobson. And with that they created the resort, the “D” from Dobson and “H” from Harris.
Dobson loves his work because “it’s different each day,” he said. “One day I might be fixing or building something, and the next I am on TV or doing an interview. I’m always going, and I get excited about the business.”
Dobson is vice chair of the River Valley Agritourism Alliance. The group began earlier this year to attract more visitors to agritourism operations, which will benefit the agritourism business as well as the communities’ economies.
DH Resorts accepts drop-ins except on Mondays and Tuesdays. The resort is open from mid-March through the end of October.
DH Resorts is located at 1508 Indian Creek Road near Hillsboro. For more information go to www.dhresorts.com or call 1-800-737-RIDE.
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