HORSING AROUND IN THE BADLANDS Horseback gives great view of the Badlands
Saturday dawns frosty and foggy. Initially, my daughter, Grace, and I fear our 8 a.m. horseback ride in Alberta’s Badlands will be cancelled.
But no, Rocking R Guest Ranch coowner Marvin Kinsman assures us the conditions are perfect.
“It’s definitely different than riding in the sun,” he says with a laugh.
“But riding in the mist is beautiful in its own way. It’s moody and quiet and the horses don’t have to worry about swattin’ flies and working up a lather of sweat.”
So we mosey on out, with me on quarterhorse Dakota, Grace atop Doc and Marvin riding Scooter.
With the first bit of exertion, the horses snort and we see their breath.
Cutting through the fog is, indeed, trippy.
The click-clack of the horses’ hooves is quickly absorbed into the air, the atmosphere is surreal and the only sounds in the distance are a lowing cow and some honking Canada geese flying south in formation.
When we put the horses to a trot, it’s like we’re suspended in pillowy air.
Marvin regales us with stories of the horses’ prowess.
He rides Scooter regularly when he works at the Calgary Stampede two weeks every year on the bronco roundup crew.
Doc is the former Stampede stock horse with one blue eye who was ridden by Miss Rodeo Canada 2009 Aaron