Steve and Anne Dubrovsky are horse people, the kind who never really retire from it. He’s a four-time First Frontier Rodeo Circuit Champion. She’s an accomplished equestrian and a sharp hand at barrel racing. So, when it came time to slow down, there was no golf cart in a gated Florida driveway waiting for them.
There was a dirt driveway instead, and it leads to 200 acres of Southern Catskills, framed by white pine and maple, where peepers fill a pond at dusk and longhorn cattle graze beside champion horses. In 2025, Steve and Anne turned that land into Driftwood Ranch Resort, built on everything they loved about rodeo life: the dust, the hard work, the laughter and the friendships that don’t fade.
- What it is: relaxed rustic luxury with an active western edge, shaped by real cowboy culture.
- What it isn’t: a petting zoo. Guests ride horses here, but only after learning to saddle one first.
- Where it’s at: 90 minutes from New York City, at 49 Kilcoin Road in White Lake, NY.
“Driftwood looks and feels a lot like people who watch Yellowstone probably think it should,” Steve says. “Only we don’t kill people.”
We spent a few days at Driftwood with a camera and let the ranch do the talking. Press play for the dust, the longhorns and the sound of a place with nowhere to be.
Craft & Comfort: The Lodge
Start with the suites, because everything at Driftwood begins there. Steve is a retired architect. Anne trained in interior design. Together they built four distinct 1,000-square-foot suites, each with hand-laid fieldstone fireplaces, exposed post-and-beam ceilings and custom-built beds.
“From the moment we arrived, everything felt peaceful, welcoming and beautifully curated,” says guest Sylvia Ciapinska. “Seeing the longhorn cows up close was such a unique and special experience. They’re majestic and unforgettable. The horseback riding was truly the highlight.”
Longhorn Suite: A king bed built from native white birch, its branches forming a canopy strung with tiny lights like a private constellation. Hand-hewn logs support a reclaimed wood ceiling over a dining nook, sitting area and private office, each divided by sliding barn doors.
Western Barn Suite: Wrought iron fixtures and a king bed built from original barn stall boards, with a stone fireplace at its foot. Wide windows let pasture light drift in and settle.
The Museum Suite: Furnishings once part of a 1992 exhibit at the Rochester Museum of Science and Nature fill the room with a sense of history: a rich leather couch, a substantial wood dining table and a four-post king bed built from logs that reach floor to ceiling.
The Cattle Drive Suite: A spacious two-story suite where wood, stone and leather conjure western folklore, anchored by a hand-carved Cattle Drive sculpture and a full kitchen for longer stays.
Grit & Grace: The Ranch Life
Picture Montana, Idaho, or Wyoming, the wide western plains of old lore. Now put it a short drive from New York, Philadelphia or Boston. That’s Sullivan County, where the air runs as clean as the free-flowing Delaware River.
Driftwood is a working horse and cattle ranch, built for a slower pace. Guests ride past glacial rocks and through cedar forest, but they also saddle and care for the horses themselves, learning each one’s name along the way.
Days start with breakfast in the bunkhouse, followed by time with the horses. After lunch comes feeding the longhorns, whose favorite meal happens to be leftover bagels and donuts from a nearby bakery. Afternoons open up for hiking, fishing, paddling the pond or a nap before a chef-prepared dinner and a campfire under real dark sky.
“We don’t have what most people think of when they hear the word ‘playground,'” says Anne Dubrovsky. “What we do have is a ranch lifestyle that makes guests part of our family. We play by riding horses, fishing, feeding cattle, by dining together and sometimes by singing around a campfire.”
Stay Awhile: Settling In
Most guests stay three to four days. Some choose an à la carte plan with private accommodations, breakfast and full run of the grounds. Others go all-in: every meal, including a chef-prepared family-style dinner each evening, daily horseback riding and a few surprises best left undiscovered until arrival.
“Breakfast is what you’d imagine having if you got up at 5am and worked a full morning of chores: eggs, bacon, biscuits, fruit, sausage, cinnamon rolls, yogurt, toast,” says guest Frank Barley. “Lunch was typically soup, bread and a protein bowl, and they were excellent. Dinner was huge, varied and absolutely delicious. Everything was prepared by the fabulous Chef Craig.”
Beyond the Fence Line
Ranch life feels miles from the nearest stoplight, but there’s plenty close by. Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, hallowed ground of the 1969 Woodstock festival, sits less than 10 miles away.
A short drive further, the river towns of Narrowsburg and Callicoon offer Main Streets full of shops, farmers markets, and riverfront cafes.
Seminary Hill Orchard & Cidery is worth the trip on its own; a tasting often turns into staying for dinner.
In Jeffersonville, Sullivan Sundries and Cuppie Cake Desserts make an easy afternoon pairing and Resorts World Catskills is a quick roll east on 17B, if you’re feeling lucky in the casino.
The People Behind It
However guests spend their time at Driftwood, the constant is the people: Steve and Anne, who feel like old friends within minutes of meeting them; Mark and Mona Kreutziger, who watch over the horses; and Chef Craig Duffy, whose cooking speaks for itself.
“Anne likes to say that if we were driving and broke down anywhere in the country, even if we didn’t know the person who stopped to help, we’d know somebody who knows somebody who knows them,” Steve says. “That’s pretty much how we think about the people who stay with us at Driftwood. It’s one big family.”
Ask Steve why he and Anne built this place, and he’ll tell you it was never about slowing down. It was about finding the pace that fit. At Driftwood, that pace is set by horses at dawn, longhorns at noon and a fire that burns long after the stories run out.
Driftwood Ranch Resort is located at 49 Kilcoin Road, White Lake, NY, 90 minutes from New York City.