Cookie, Stardust, Highlighter, Sterling, Kristie, Rock; gee, I could go on and on about all the names of our trail horses on the ranch. Sometimes the name is the best part about the horse because, real talk: Some of them suck. Of course they do; trail horses get traded around from ranch to ranch to do the same thing—walk in a line one behind the other. When one horse trots they all trot. But this doesn’t make them bad horses. Just trail horses.
The majority of the guests who stumble out to the ranch have never been on a horse. The closest thing to a horse they rode is the merry-go-round at the state fair and that’s only if they decided to ride a horse instead of an elephant or dragon; you know what I mean.
The barn is a fun place to hang out in. There is a giant haystack where the children tend to play or the mice get lost and the tack room is filled with saddles and bridals and saddle pads. Yes, I will admit it smells like horse shit. But you know that’s the smell of a barn. The wranglers’ keep it well cleaned and are always checking the horses for injures or tending to sick ones. The horses roam around in the dry lot, which really isn’t that big. Imagine some land with a patch of dirt on it, two water tanks, and then a lot of horse feeders where you put the hay; that’s about all there is to the dirt lot.
The Wranglers take out two rides a day depending on how many people have signed up. I’ve had the privilege to trail a ride and also get on a few guest rides, which honestly I give the wranglers applauses because sometimes it’s the guest that can’t handle their horses and not the horses’ fault. When a guest pulls back on their reins the horse will stop—if they keep pulling back the horses is going to walk backwards. For some reason Guest think if they keep pulling back the horse will stop, it doesn’t work like that. My favorite thing to hear is when a guest asks a wrangler for a different horse.
“Excuse me but can I have a different horse, this one just doesn’t stay in line?”
When I’m listening to these kinds of conversations I want to respond with, “Well, are you keeping them in line? You just have to pull the reins left to make them go left or pull the reins right to lead them right. Honestly it’s not that hard to keep them on the trail.” But it isn’t my job to say anything anyway. Oh and the best is when the guest says they know how to post.
So when a horse goes into a trot you basically stand up, sit down, stand up, sit down--moderately, not full standing, so you don’t flop around in your saddle because a trot can be bumpy. But for some reason people just can’t use their legs on a horse. I won’t even get into loping. Woah, that is a whole other story.
Now me, I’m usually in the back just watching the guest and they flop around on their saddles trying to post and it just is not happening. When the wrangler stops and addresses everyone to walk, the guest always shout—that was so fun! How can it be fun flopping around in a saddle? Beats me.
Another thing I can’t stand is when the guest allow their horses to eat the grass on the trail. It’s like ‘no kidding your horses isn’t moving because you’re letting it eat.’ When you get on a horse the first thing you have to do—is show it whose boss. This doesn’t have to be a beating but if your horses are acting up there is nothing wrong with kicking them. The average horse weighs about 1,200 pounds so you’re really not hurting them with a little kick to the side.
People fall off and kids cry but over all walking through the aspen trees and climbing up mountains to look out at the Tetons make it worth it. I’m pretty sure that’s why the wranglers do it. What could be better then riding horses every day with the Tetons to the West as your guide? Nothing could be more perfect. What do you do for a living? "I ride horses in Wyoming." Freaking cool!
