Horseback Riding through the Buffalo in Yellowstone

A once in a lifetime opportunity, we rode horseback through Yellowstone park.  We spent almost 8 hours on horseback, and rode along side the buffalo.  We went with family who owned the horses and go into the park quite often.

We got up at 3:30am and drove about 2 hours to Yellowstone, and then once in the park, we drove 2 hours to get to our spot to start the ride.

Right from the start, we were in the buffalo.  We walked right through the middle of where they were.  The buffalo didn’t care.

Angie had an English riding helmet.  Our experienced riders called them “lids.”

The buffalo would roll on the ground there were all sorts of these wallows that were pretty well worn.

We got to see geysers/steam pots that 99% of park visitors never see.

We went up and down quite a few hills.  For me, it was hardest on the muscles coming down the hills.  For Angie, the hardest was going up the hills.  However, throughout the ride, the toughest part on the muscles were on our knees trying to keep the stirrups right.

We rode for miles and miles through the back country of Yellowstone.

It was interesting that the horses did not want to cross even tiny streams of water.  Mine to a leap into the air and over a stream.  That was crazy!  By the end, I think I learned how to help the horse step into the small streams first and then walk through.  It felt like after the first big jump, that the horse wanted to jump more.

Just over the next hill.  The horses would want to run up the hill, so we had to hold them back a little.  Angie was on a Tennessee walker which walk a little more smoothly than other horses.

We stopped at a beautiful place for lunch.  The grass was very soft.  At lunch, we were pretty sore already.  My legs were already so tired and trembling from being exercised in a new way.

The river above got a little deap that we crossed.

The rivers were set down in the ground a bit so it was quite a dip down to get in and usually a little jump to get out.

That buffalo above wasn’t too happy about us crossing right there.  Perhaps he wanted to go first.

We had a great time, and then had 4 hours to get back to where we were staying