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White Stallion
Ranch Forget the Cleaver family. When I’m reincarnated I want to come back as a member of the True family, who own the White Stallion Ranch in Tucson, Arizona. Here is a true family, pun intended: one whose members work together, live close together, get to ride horseback every day, and eat steak at least once a week.
White Stallion is an old-fashioned, family-owned dude ranch spread over 3,000 acres at the foot of the Tucson Mountains. At dinner the first night matriarch Cynthia True, 70, warmly welcomed each of us newcomers by name from her place of honor at the head of the table, and said a sincere , heartfelt farewell to each person leaving, sharing personal stories of their week.. Her son Russell, the ranch manager, who looks more like a trusted local insurance man than a cowboy, sat nearby. “It’s a small ranch, but we own it,” he says with pride. “My folks bought it in 1965, but it’s been a dude ranch since 1945.” Thanks to the Tucson Mountains National Park that runs along its border, it’s the only ranch out of 200 dude ranches in the state which has five square miles of open desert to ride in. Riding is the name of the game here, where thanks to the 80 horses who live at the ranch, guests saddle up for four rides a day, from slow rides to fast trots, on trails through the towering saguaro cactus forest in the desert or nearby mountains. There are also breakfast rides, all-day rides and chuck wagon cook-out rides .
I heard about this early in my stay. Most of the trim white stucco cottages with simple brown board shutters look alike, and one afternoon my door opened suddenly as another guest, ten-year- old Evan, started into my casita by mistake, surprising us both. I asked why he hadn’t been on the afternoon ride that was now just returning to the main corral, passing my casita at a dignified pace as we watched. “Oh that’s a Slow ride,” he said with barely veiled disgust, noting he was beyond that now,. He had passed the test for the Fast ride, and couldn’t be bothered to go on the “pokey” one anymore. Inside cottage #4, the walls were rough- hewn pecky cedar. Horseshoes doubled as coat racks, and the double bed and a twin bed both had turquoise and pink spreads in a vaguely Indian design. Mexican leather and bent willow chairs and table were arranged by a wall hung with a Mexican rug. The overhead lamp had tiny saguaro cactuses and mountains in bas relief. Looking out the window to a desert garden, I noticed a cactus wren popping out of its nest in a huge saguaro cactus a few feet away.
Later the air filled with mesquite smoke as Russell and
Michael grilled steaks outside
on the brick patio, served with a
buffet including green beans flavored
with bacon, baked potatoes and French bread.. We ate inside seated in Mexican
chairs at long heavy wooden tables. Dessert was peach pie and ice cream.
Although I was there alone, it was easy to meet and fall into conversation with
other guests, one reason a ranch vacation is perfect for the solo traveler. At
the table there was plenty of conversation about the recent team penning , a popular ranch activity
every week where three guests on
horseback are taught out to cut three
animals out of a herd and make them enter a pen.
White Stallion is small, only 35 rooms and suites. The family feeling and reasonable rates mean the ranch gets a lot of repeat guests, so it’s best to book early, six to 12 months ahead if you want to go during the busy season from mid-December through April. Other times of year you can sometimes call on shorter notice and find a spot. Sam and Val Scopellite from Gilbert, Arizona, have been coming twice a year for five years, they told me as they dove into their steaks at dinner one evening.. “We tell ourselves it’s for the riding and the atmosphere, but actually the Trues are the main reason. They make us feel like family.”. Rates range from $208 per room per day for two for a room to $288 for a deluxe suite, during low season, from October through Mid-November. The rates are $228 to $340 per room for two people during the high season from December 19 of this year through the end of April, 1999. Rates do not include local taxes and a 15 percent service tax. Contact the White
Stallion Guest Ranch at |
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TM
Don’t worry if
But you can’t just
get on your steed and say “Giddyup!.”
On Saturday afternoon the ranch hands put on a rodeo. Since
most of us had only seen rodeos on TV,
Meanwhile, the baby longhorns, just a year old,
“Everyone loves it
Some people who come here never get on a horse. There is
tennis, hiking,