By CINDA CHAVICH

(Calgary, Alberta) - While I grew up on the Canadian prairies – that big sky country famed for it’s farming and ranching roots - I’m really more comfortable haggling in a Shanghai market or shadowing a top chef than straddling a horse.

Don’t get me wrong. I think horses are beautiful, majestic and intelligent creatures. I love to stroke their wide velvety noses and feed them carrots - from the safe side of the fence. But horses are really BIG and riding these massive beasts has never been my strong suit.

Like many tourists, I’ve had the usual nose-to-tail trail rides, on that specially selected nag that plods woefully all day then bolts like a bullet when the barn is in sight. But really learning to ride confidently is a skill that has always eluded me.

That is, until I met Mac MaKenny. Even at 70, with his Marlborough Man good looks and slow, friendly drawl, it’s hard not to be smitten by Mac, and to trust that he’s the guy to ride alongside.

At his historic Home Place Ranch just south of Calgary, each guest is paired up with one of his 40, well-loved horses for the week. But before you ever put bum to saddle, MaKenny makes sure you get some basic training, too.

“Remember – L, L, P, P,” he says, walking us through a lesson in reigning techniques, with the help of Woody, the wooden “horse” in the yard where you can practice your mounts and dismounts.

“Lift - reigns toward his ears, says pay attention,” he continues. “Look – to where you want to go. Push, then point, that’ll give you your turn. Horses move away from the touch. Don’t ask them to back up – but when you want to go forward, push with both heels.”

MaKenny, and guest ranch operators like him, pride themselves in taking city slickers like me and easing them into the life of ranching and riding with care. They don’t want you to be uncomfortable and they don’t want to endanger you, or their valuable horses. So by the time we stand before our own trusty steeds in the weathered split rail corral, we’re starting to feel confident (even if most of us need to stand on a box to reach the stirrup and hoist ourselves into the saddle).

“We’re riding western – keep the reigns in one hand and keep them even, in this tight circle,” he says calmly mounting his big horse, Leroy.

Riding tall, the group heads off into a crisp Rocky Mountain morning, and while we’re following in a tight string, this time I feel like I’m really riding.

Push and point – we make a slow right turn and head down a steep slope. Lean back in the saddle for balance, and the horse takes over, picking her way through the rocky trail. She never falters, even crossing small streams and muddy gullies, and before long, I have that feeling that we can go anywhere together.

“Stop – bring your hand straight back to the solar plexis, look down,” I hear MaKenny’s tutorial in my head as we pull our mounts into a semi-circle along a windy ridge.

That’s the payoff – a view from this high point across the foothills to a wall-to-wall vista of craggy blue-grey peaks. Down below, you can see a river slicing through the buckskin hued hills and a high summer pasture, dotted with livestock. These are the secluded spots we can only reach on horseback, wild places where cowboys and cattle roam.

While oil and gas is driving the hot Alberta economy these days, the province was built on ranching. It was the 1880s when the first itinerant American cowboys arrived here, trailing cattle north from Texas to populate the earliest ranches like The Bar U (now a national historic site), the Oxley Ranche, the Cochrane Ranche and the A-7. Those massive tracts of wild fescue have since been fenced off into much smaller farms and ranches, but the rolling grassland that hugs the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains is still prime cattle country and, as films shot here like Brokeback Mountain or Legends of the Fall so aptly illustrate, it’s still some of the most stunning scenery in the world.

Ranch life still revolves around driving herds up into those high mountain pastures, branding, calving and rounding up cattle in the fall, work that’s mainly done from the back of a well-trained horse. And many of today’s working ranches have opened their doors to allow visitors to experience that unique western lifestyle, in part to augment farm incomes and in part to preserve cowboy culture.

“Agricultural economics have never been great and this works perfectly with our cattle business,” says LeAnne Lane, who with her husband Keith, hosts dozens of international guests each year at their Willow Lane Ranch near Granum, a 1.5-hour drive south of Calgary.

Riding with Keith Lane through the remote Porcupine Hills on a warm summer afternoon feels like a scene from a movie – fields of blooming giant cow parsnips and rippling grass, stands of trembling aspen and tall spruce, with the Livingstone Range looming like a solid granite backdrop behind it all. We ride for much of the day, stopping to fish in a tiny lake, munching sandwiches and home-baked cookies from our saddle bags, and checking on the health of the herd along the way. No nose-to-tail trail riding here – the Lane’s well-trained “cow horses” are ranch workers with special skills, and we cover a lot of terrain before collapsing into the outdoor hot tub back at the ranch.

“Our goal is not to teach riding, but to preserve the western way of doing things, on horseback,” says Leanne Lane. “It’s a way of life that looks after the land, and leaves as little impact as possible.”

Every ranch and every riding experience is different, a function of the family, the farm, the landscape and the season.

A ranch vacation is like a B&B stay, but with horses at the core. It’s a chance to immerse yourself in that rare world of authentic cowboy life, and share simple but incredibly generous rural hospitality.

At some ranches, like the Willow Lane Ranch, you’re literally sleeping upstairs in the family ranch house, lured to the breakfast table by the aromas of LeAnne’s famous home cooking.

At The Homeplace Ranch, the operation is a bit bigger, but still expect to sit down with Mac and his wranglers over coffee in farmhouse, or get up to your elbows in flour and sugar with the ranch cook and learn to make her killer cinnamon buns.

What you make of your ranch vacation is up to you. Take a cool morning ride into the foothills, then relax back at the farm. Challenge yourself with an overnight adventure into the backcountry or plan a girl’s-only riding weekend, based at a comfortable mountain lodge.

Take the time to talk to the cowboys – and cowgirls – to learn how they work with their own horses and, if you’re happy to stack bales or muck out the barn just to be close to the action, pitch in with ranching chores. Or sit out on the porch and watch the setting sun turn those mountain peaks from fiery red to deep purple.

You may never give up the city life to become a real cowboy – but for a few days, you can truly feel like one.

SIDEBAR:

To learn more about ranch vacations in Alberta go to the Alberta Country Vacations Association website (albertacountryvacation.com) or Travel Alberta (www.travelalberta.com)

Homeplace Ranch - Priddis

This historic property, tucked into the foothills about 40 minutes southwest of Calgary, offers a real wrangler experience with a string of 50 horses and the crusty cowboys devoted to their care. Owner Mac MaKenny grew up in a guiding family in the Rocky Mountains near Jasper and says “horses have been part of our family for four generations.” It’s a ranch where you’ll learn to ride, appreciate and understand horses, in mountain foothills near Calgary. Starting at $1,058 pp/week.

(www.homeplaceranch.com; 1-877-931-3245)

Willow Lane Ranch - Granum

The Lane family hosts you at their family-run ranch east of the Porcupine Hills. Stay B&B style in their ranch house, or book into the more private historic log cabin on the property. Take it easy with a ranch stay including day rides and ranch chores, or sign on for a more adventurous package, like their six-day Cow Camp, a real working vacation, helping the family gather cattle in the Porcupine Hills. This is an intimate, small group experience (maximum six guests) on a working cattle ranch. Two-night weekend package starts at $490 pp. (www.willowlaneranch.com; 1-403-687-2284, 1-800-665-0284)

Holiday on Horseback - Banff

Warner Guiding & Outfitting provides the cowboys and horses for day trips or longer rides into Banff National Park with rustic wilderness camping or luxury accommodation in private back country lodges. This is a longtime Banff outfitter with a big operation (more than 300 horses) so there’s a riding experience for every taste, even an annual five-day, lodge-based ride for women only, special expert-led rides focusing on grizzly bear and wolf habitat, and adult-only adventures  (3-day back country lodge rides starting at $653 pp).

(www.horseback.com; 1-800-661-8352)

Sierra West Cabins and Ranch Vacation – Lundbreck

Stay with ranchers Randy and Ginny Donahue in a restored 1905 homesteader’s cabin, or one of two other log cabins on their Lonesome Pine Ranch, and enjoy roping, gymkhana and riding lessons in their arena, trail rides and overnight pack trips, and some of the province’s best trout fishing. Their four-night Rocky Mountain ranch vacation, including ranch meals, riding and your own cabin, starts at $980 pp).

(www.sierrawest-777.com; 403-628-2431)

Brewsters Kananaskis Guest Ranch - Kananaskis

Explore your inner cowgirl with Brewsters’ Giddy Up Girlfriends package, a riding holiday for women only, based at their historic guest ranch, a 45-minute drive from Calgary, at the base of Yamnuska Mountain. It’s just one of the many riding vacation packages offered for groups by Brewsters, a fifth-generation family business which has been guiding tourists in the Rocky Mountains for more than 100 years. There’s adventure beyond horses here, too – river rafting, voyageur canoes, hiking, fishing and even a golf course on the ranch.

(www.kananaskisguestranch.com)

Bent Creek Western Vacations - Fort Macleod

Gerry and Kathy Karchuk are experts in low stress, humane horsemanship and offer a personalized riding programs, from their three-night horsemanship clinics (focusing on ranch horse, pack horse or basic horse/rider communication), to the Cowboy 101 boot camp (six nights to learn traditional ranch skills). The two-night ranch vacation package starts at $460 pp.

(www.bentcreek.ca; 1-866-553-3974)

Lucasia Ranch Vacations – Claresholm

For a vacation on a classic working ranch spend a week with Wayne and Judy Lucas at the historic Lucasia Ranch. They offer cattle drives including moving cattle into the forest reserve in the spring and rounding them up in mid-October, and a June branding experience week. Enjoy accommodation in their family ranch house or new log cabin, and home-cooked meals of ranch raised beef.  Ranch weekends including accommodation, meals and riding start at $385 pp.

(www. lucasiaranch.com; 1-877-477-2624)

Lazy M Guest Ranch – Caroline

Lane and Margie Moore built a lodge on their central-Alberta cattle ranch in 1990 to augment farm income. Since then their property, right on the pretty North Raven River, has attracted guests for intensive hands-on horsemanship seminars, hoof care and fly fishing vacations.  With room for 12 (and more at the big dining room table) this ranch is perfect for groups or extended families. Day rates start at $100 pp.

(www.lazymcanada.com; 1-403-722-3053)

(This story first appeared in Westworld magazine)

©Cinda Chavich 2007

www.tastereport.com