Aaron's Equine Education: White Stallion Ranch

This year my family decided to go on a trip to a dude ranch. After a lot of research we decided to go to the White Stallion Ranch in Tucson, Arizona. This is my review of the White Stallion Ranch; it is my opinion. I will talk about the terrain, fun activities and of course, the horses. Let’s pack up and take off!!!

This was my first time being in Arizona and it was not what I expected. I thought it would be hot with cowboy looking cabins. Instead, it was sand, rock or cacti EVERY WHERE. Every natural thing I touched hurt, because every thing was so spiky. It was in the Catalina Mountains. When I was there, it was 32 degrees in the morning and 60’s in the afternoon. I got to sleep in a pueblo-like building right next to the horse corral. I learned to stay away from plants.

There was a lot to do. The game room had Ping-Pong, pool, foosball and so much more. There was a heated pool and hot tub, too. I loved when the guitar players sang all the great country songs. The food was excellent. My personal favorite was roping the roping dummies. I was never bored. There was always something to do on a horse.

Their dude horses were amazingly trained and physically built. The horses would stay right in line during the trail rides. You have to take a fast ride test if you want to team pen or go on a fast ride. The fast ride test is loping behind a wrangler down the arena. Keeping your horse 1 horse length away from the guide’s horse and stopping when he raises his hand is the test. My horse did all of this by himself. On the trail rides, all you had to do is keep your horse from eating sagebrush and they would do the rest. The horses were built like armored tanks. Their legs were super thick. Their hooves were so hard and all of them wore shoes. Most of the 160 dude horses living there were geldings and older than 9 years of age.

At first, I felt a little restricted when it came to riding horse. Everybody needs to go on a slow ride before taking the fast ride test. The wranglers do all of the horse handling: grooming, tacking, leading, and assisting with mounting and dismounting. After the slow ride, I went on some fast rides, a mountain ride, a canyon ride, and a breakfast ride. My favorite was the breakfast ride, because I got to eat in the middle of nowhere with my horse. Team penning was quite the adventure—my team was my brother Nate, sister Leah, and my dad, who rode one of the dude ranches biggest Belgian horses. By the end, I realized that a lot of non-horsey people were acting like they knew it all. The restrictions were for their and my safety.

If you are looking for a dude ranch, this is a great one.