Western / Reining in North Dakota

North Dakota's riding country is prairie, Badlands, and the long bend of the Missouri River, and it stays uncrowded in a way most horse states can't manage. Historic guest ranches work the Little Missouri National Grassland near Medora with a full-on Western program; trail stables ride the rolling hills of the Sheyenne National Grassland farther east. Guided excursion or private boarding barn, the draw is the same: open land, and lots of it.

The western half is the main event. The Badlands and the Missouri River breaks give guest ranches and pack-trip outfitters dramatic country to work with: sculpted buttes, hard trails, and wildlife that includes bison and wild horses. Medora is the gateway to Theodore Roosevelt National Park, where equestrian trails look down on the Little Missouri as it winds through the buttes. If you came for the ranching-heritage version of riding, this is where it lives.