Saddle up for a ride into the Texas Hill Country

Richard Jones saddles up and rides into the Texas Hill Country, before moseying on to San Antonio and Fredericksburg in a tour that left him with no choice but to tip his Stetson to the Lone Star State

My heart started pounding as Breaker and I prepared to negotiate another precarious rocky descent. But the energetic pinto gelding had no respect for my nerves as he trotted nonchalantly down the ridge before leaping across the dry creek and back on to the path. I was halfway through a trail ride at Rancho Cortez in the heart of the Texas Hill Country.

With rugged mountain ranges, pictureperfect prairies and far-reaching forests, it’s easy to see why adventurers have long flocked to the Lone Star State.

In the past, a trip to Texas for British holidaymakers has usually meant an expensive flight to a big city like Dallas or Houston. But thanks to Norwegian’s new route from Gatwick to Austin, with fares as low as £315 return, travelling to America’s second-largest state is now affordable.

Our base for the weekend was the Crockett Hotel, named after the legendary Tennesseean frontiersman, memorably played on screen by John Wayne.

With an outdoor pool, bar and a superb Western-style breakfast, the Crockett is ideally located just a stone’s throw from the city’s top attraction: the Alamo.

This small compound was the site of 200 settlers’ 13-day losing battle with Mexican Generalissimo Santa Anna’s troops in 1836 and is now a symbol of American and Texan defiance.

For all the history here – San Antonio is currently celebrating its 300th anniversary – what my wife Rachel and I were really looking forward to was the food.

We are both massive fans of Tex-Mex cuisine and the city is home to some of America’s best spicy, meaty and crispy dishes.

Our favourites were the fajitas at the mariachi-soundtracked La Margarita on the vibrant Market Square, along with tacos at Cafe Ole and enchiladas at Iron Cactus on the River Walk.

Although much of the food is Mexicaninspired, there are also a few upscale restaurants with a global flavour.

At Biga On The Banks, we had a memorable meal of chicken fried oysters, 11-spiced hill country venison and sticky toffee pudding courtesy of English-born chef Bruce Auden

Although San Antonio is the seventh-largest city in the US, the Downtown area never feels overcrowded and the lack of skyscrapers makes it ideal for sightseeing.

Rachel and I hopped on a City Sightseeing Bus which took us to some of the main tourist spots, including the Tower of the Americas, the Museum of Art and the Spanish Governor’s Palace.

When you mention Texas to most people, the first thing that springs to mind is cowboys and cowgirls.

So fittingly, our next destination was the Cowboy Capital of the World, Bandera, where we picked out a couple of Stetsons, before driving up to Rancho Cortez.

After checking into Geronimo – our room for the next two nights – wrangler Desree introduced us to our first trail horses – I was