Category Trail Riding – Canada
Travel Waterloo, ON: Mantracker, heart pounding horse adventure
On the eve of your 50th birthday, do something that scares you. Something that makes your heart beat out of your chest while holding your breath. I did and big surprise, it involved horses. Imagine running on foot through bushes, hiding in tall grass and making a break for it through the woods as oilskin-coat-clad […]
Recruiting and riding in Brant County … Again
Get other people hooked on riding? I’m game. Anytime someone who hasn’t ridden horses before (or in a long time) suggests they’re interested in giving it a try, I’m more than happy to sign up a potential new enthusiast. Most of the time, they’re referring to trail riding Western-style rather than an introductory lesson in […]
Travel Ontario: Cowboy Up while horseback riding in Caledon, Ontario
I had the nerve to do it: I signed up for the ‘Cowboy Up’ two-hour trail ride and lunch option at Rawhide Adventures Inc. It’s a cattle ranch and trail riding operation along the conservation lands of the Bruce Trail in Mulmur, Ontario about 60 minutes from Toronto. Approximately 110 heads of grass-feed cattle roam […]
Travel: Georgetown, Ontario. Winter Trails and (Not So) Little Dipper
The night Little Dipper was born, his namesake constellation shone brightest in the sky. Or that’s the story my guide tells me as I ride the peppy eleven-year-old Arabian known as Little Dipper, or Dip to his friends. Really, his mother was named Star, and the stable wanted to keep the constellation theme. His lineage […]
Travel Brant County, Ontario: Riding a Horse of a Different Gait
We’re trotting up hill and I’m bouncing out of this Western saddle like popcorn on Nashville summer asphalt. Good thing it’s for a short time, just long enough for the horses to gain momentum up the inclines along this local hunt club trail. I didn’t know either were here – this trail-riding operator or these […]
Lakefield, Ontario: A Horse Named Bear is How Old?
Twenty-two years ago, I rode a horse named Bear at the Irwin Inn in Lakefield, Ontario. Imagine my surprise when I discovered he was still there. I was in my late 20’s, working my first real job at an urban weekly magazine writing about the good things in life: art, theatre, film, books, and editing […]
Waterloo, Ontario: My First Norwegian Horse and Belly High Snow Drift
Not many trail ride operators offer winter rides, and that’s looptoo bad because there’s two advantages to heading out into the sparkly snow: a one hour ride is long enough because toes start to freeze, and there’s no problem with your horse grabbing bites of grasses. Well, there’s almost no greenery around – my mount, the adorable […]
Hunstville, Ontario: Warm Saddle and Wandering Hooves Cure Winter Blahs
Riding across the snow-covered golf course streaked with cross-country ski tracks astride Static, a Belgian mare apparently crossed with a comfortable couch, is one of the most relaxing things a person can do outside in negative 12 degree Celsius weather. The sun is warming or at least creating the illusion of warmth as the winter trail ride experience at Huntsville, Ontario’s Deerhurst Resort.
Ontario: Wake Up in Ottawa … Ride in Wakefield
A visit to Ottawa, the capital of Canada, doesn’t usually include horses, unless you’re headed to the RCMP stables where the musical ride practices (though in the summer it’s on tour). Yet, there are a number of riding outlets not far from the city and that’s primarily because Ottawa, situated along the Rideau Canal and […]
Part II: Overnight with Bison while riding in Saskatchewan
We spot bison, a highlight on this trail ride through Prince Albert National Park thanks to Gord Vaadeland from Sturgeon River Ranch Adventures in Saskatchewan. This is possibly the only one in North America that can claim proximity to these rare and massive creatures that once roamed this region in remarkable numbers. Today the herd in […]
Part I: Horses, Flannel PJs and all the Bannock you can eat in the Saskatchewan Wilderness
Roughing it in the Canadian wilderness with no running water or toilets is something I refused to do … until someone said the magic word: horses. Last summer, I was presented with the opportunity to ride for two days, three hours per day into the prairie wilderness, boldly going where no motorized vehicles are allowed […]
Romancing Winter: a snow covered ride
Until now, fall has been my preferred time of year to trail ride. Well that, and spring in another country. Winter wasn’t high on the list until last weekend when I took my first (yes, first) winter trail ride in the still negative two degree temperature (balmy compared to the previous days’ negative 15 plus […]
Down but not out: the joys of rolling
Staring between the ears of an Appaloosa named Queenie, while riding through a conservation park in Saskatchewan, I’m listening to stories about horses spooked by oddities in the woods (like wild bison) when my own horse stomps the ground in front of us, possibly stumbling. “Watch your footing I warn her.” But too little too […]
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The Open Trail, Cowboy Style: Riding the Niagara Region
Experience the Niagara Escarpment on Horseback The moment I get on a horse, time stands still. The rest of the world fades away, and worries are a distant horizon. This isn’t only because it’s an experience like no other, but because it requires concentration and focus. You’re on the back of a majestic animal with […]
Global Travel for Horse Lovers 