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 The Cowboy Way
By Tamra Willett-Johnson
The Wild West of cattle drives, endless horizons
and rugged cowboys was largely gone when Cole Porter
wrote “Don’t Fence Me In” in 1944. What remained
was the cowboy image —hat, boots, taciturn manner,
wry humor, living off of wits, experience and strength.
This bowlegged, denim-clad man with weathered skin
and sky-blue eyes is a uniquely American icon, one
based on short-lived fact and long-lived fiction.
And it’s this powerful, almost sanctified, vision
of the cowboy and the West that draws hundreds of
folks to guest ranches each year. They come for a
taste of the cowboy life, to see starry skies and
hear murmuring cottonwood trees.
Dawn of the Dude
Around the 1880s, rich Europeans with a taste for
adventure opted to visit the American West. The dudes
(the word then meant an inexperienced person on a
hunt or ride) would hire scouts, often out-of-work
cowboys, to take them hunting and exploring. The
awed Europeans reported back about the endless sky,
the open prairies, the great hunting — and more visitors
came.
After World War I, the East was becoming industrialized,
noisy, crowded and polluted. Many Americans yearned
for the frontier’s wide open spaces. Plus, they wanted
to meet the cowboys like those in Buffalo Bill's
Wild West show or Zane Grey's Riders of the Purple
Sage.
At first, a ranch vacation was a non-luxury experience
for people who wanted to be a part of the “real”
West. They bunked down on a working cattle ranch,
where the main activities were horseback riding,
fishing and hunting. Some ranches let dudes help
with chores.
As time passed, ranch vacationers wanted a more comfortable
experience, and while today there are a few working
cattle ranches that welcome dudes, those that focus
more on pampering guests than raising livestock are
plentiful. It’s a win-win situation: Ranchers keep
their land and visitors experience the West.
Resort ranches combine traditional ranch duties with
resort activities, creating a hybrid where a guest
can ride miles in the morning, play tennis in the
afternoon and enjoy a massage before joining an evening
hayride.
 The White Stallion Ranch is a resort ranch outside
Tucson, open September through June. After a short
drive from the airport and one turn off the highway,
the city sprawl and malls disappear, replaced by
cacti and trees. A few minutes later, the welcoming
sign to the White Stallion Ranch appears. Begun as
a cattle ranch in the early 1900s, it first welcomed
guests in the 1940s and changed hands a few times
before the True family bought the place in 1965.
There were once 30 guest ranches around Tucson; now
because of urban development there are only three.
Luckily, the Trues planned ahead — the ranch grew
from 160 acres to nearly 3000 acres of flat land
and mountains, enough to keep the signs of the city
at bay.
The guest quarters are white stucco cabins; each
has four rooms with separate patios. Landscaping
of unusual flowers, desert plants and cacti borders
the paths to the petting zoo, corral, swimming pool,
tennis courts and the lodge.
Surrounded by a brick porch dotted with tables, fountains
and a ping-pong table, the lodge is the hub of the
ranch. Here the list of activities is posted, drinks
and hors d'oeuvres are served, and many rousing conversations
take place, usually in a genial gumbo of accents
as folks from other states and countries get to know
each other.
Those who prefer their own company can easily find
a quiet spot to watch the sun's rays create shadows
on the surrounding mountains, see a bird peek out
from a woodpecker-made hole in a nearby saguaro,
listen to the soft bubbling fountain and drink deep
the tonic of peace that surrounds White Stallion
Ranch.
The ranch offers morning and afternoon horseback
rides, which are either slow (walk) or fast (lope).
Guests have to pass a riding test before being allowed
on the fast rides.
The slow rides range from gentle walks on flat land
to challenging mountain climbs with slippery rocks,
deep ruts and just enough excitement to make a greenhorn
feel like a wrangler.
Based on ability and experience, guests are matched
to their horses (they ride the same mount every day)
by the ranch’s skilled wranglers. The WSR horses
are healthy, bright-eyed and not barn sour — guests
won't have to work like heck to get the horse out
of the corral, and then hang on for dear life as
the animal senses the ride is over and makes tracks
for home.
Some afternoons, guests can opt to practice team
penning, where, after a short lesson from a wrangler,
teams of three attempt to separate three cattle from
a small herd and put them into a small pen. The onlookers
have as good a time as the riders as they cheer on
the participants.
Non-riders can get a massage, swim, play tennis,
select a book from the library, visit llamas at the
petting zoo, take a hike or just relax. The comfortable
rooms don’t have televisions or telephones, making
it easy to let go of city tension and gather in desert
peace.
The meals are a carnivore’s delight — steak, ribs,
chicken-served with salad and several side dishes.
Breakfasts are made to order, and there are usually
muffins or cookies to quiet mid-afternoon stomach
grumblings. There's an activity every night, such
as a naturalist lecturing on lizards, an astronomer
speaking of the stars or a cowboy sing-along by a
campfire.
All components of White Stallion Ranch — peaceful
rooms, warm staff, skilled wranglers, happy horses,
unusual plants, owner Russell True's friendliness
— make it a place worth visiting.
And sometimes during an early morning ride, when
the only sounds are the occasional nicker of a horse
and the creak of a saddle; when dust kicked up by
hooves creates a gauzy curtain; and as Stetson-shaded
eyes watch the sunlight climb up a mountainside,
sometimes, the riders are joined by the echoes of
cattle hooves, the crooning of cowboys and the rattling
of prairie schooners.
And hats tip in tribute to the myths and truths of
the West — to Buffalo Bill's flamboyancy, to the
horses rode hard and put up wet, to the cowboys who
kept the cattle on the move and to the families who
refused to leave.
Then the wrangler stops the line to check the horses’
cinches, which breaks the gossamer connection to
the past. The guests are again firmly back in the
present at White Stallion Ranch —and mighty glad
to be there.
Tamra Willett-Johnson is an editor for AAA Home & Away.
Photos courtesy of White Stallion Ranch
If you go
White Stallion Ranch
9251 W. Twin Peaks Rd., Tucson
520-297-0252 or 888-977-2624
wsranch.com
$123 to $257 per night, double.
Rates vary by season and accommodation type.
Family suites, haciendas, and weekly rates available.
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