Horseback Riding in Texas

So… imagine you live in a place with very few touristy things you can take your visitors to see or do. However, your visitors flew a long way to be there and you want to show them some things that are totally different from what they do in their regular lives. What’s a girl to do? Get her visiting sister in the car, drive her out in the middle of nowhere to some tiny town, and take her horseback riding in Texas – Western style of course It wasn’t exactly the cowboy experience I had in Bandera, but it was pretty authentic nevertheless (think modern Texas vs. old-time Texas). Unfortunately, there are no dude ranches in West Texas (or at least none that I could find online), but after some digging through various websites, I at least found the name and number of a lady who owns horses and offers “trail rides” out in the West Texas countryside. I am using the term “trail rides” loosely since there wasn’t really a trail to follow. We were riding beside farm fields, a few trees, some grass, and a handful of  trailers (you know… double-wides?). I am assuming the homes of the farmers or just people who like to live in places where you have no neighbors in sight and land is cheap. It wasn’t quite as scenic as I’d hoped for, but as I said, it was authentic alright

We had a blast! The horses were well taken care of and seemed happy to get out. My sister and I used to go horseback riding in Germany as kids, but most places there use English saddles. So, this was only my second time in a Western saddle… and the first time in a Western saddle going faster than just walking speed. We actually galloped quite a few times and while it was kind of scary at first (really not used to the Western saddle!), by the second and third time it was so much fun! And the lady who owned the horses? As Texan as it gets: very friendly and easy to talk to, little bit of a twang, and she even used one of these typical Texas expressions that I think are so fun when we asked her where she was from: “I was born in X (insert any state other than Texas), but my momma got me here as fast as she could.” 

So, no touristy things to do where you are? Go all out local instead!

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