Hunter / Jumper in Kansas

The flat-Kansas cliché dies fast on horseback. Ride east-central and you're in the Flint Hills, where unplowed tallgrass rolls to the horizon and ranching has run in families for generations. Push southwest toward the Arkansas River and the ground breaks up into rougher, more interesting country. Guest ranches and trail-riding outfits work both landscapes, putting riders into a prairie ecosystem most people only see through a windshield.

The state's riding life doesn't stop at the fence line, either. Riding academies and boarding barns cluster around Wichita, Topeka, and the Kansas City suburbs, covering everything from Western pleasure and reining to show jumping and dressage. The Glaciated Region in the northeast (good pasture, close to the population centers), carries an especially dense stock of private barns and training operations.