Western / Reining in Oregon

Oregon packs beach sand, rainforest, and high desert into one riding state. The Willamette Valley, the fertile trough between the Coast Range and the Cascades, carries the densest concentration of riding academies, boarding facilities, and training barns, clustered around Portland, Salem, and Eugene. English and Western riders both compete, take lessons, and clinic here in numbers. And the coast is close enough that a beach ride along the Pacific is a day trip; local stables run guided excursions on the sand for exactly that reason.

Cross the Cascades and the whole texture changes. Central Oregon around Bend, Redmond, and Sisters is Ponderosa pine, volcanic rock, and dry air, trail-riding country built for guest ranches and pack outfitters. Deschutes National Forest and the surrounding BLM land open up hundreds of miles of trail, from the Metolius River basin to the lava fields of Newberry National Volcanic Monument, with Cascade peaks standing on the horizon for most of it.