Western / Reining in Vermont

Ride Vermont for a week and you'll cross three different states of mind: the open farmland of the Champlain Valley, the steep wooded shoulders of the Green Mountains, and the quiet, half-forgotten roads of the Northeast Kingdom. The horse operations follow the same pattern: guest ranches tucked into valley bottoms, trail-riding stables running guided loops through state forest, and riding academies teaching everything from a first walk-trot lesson to serious competition work. Vermont has been farm country for two centuries, and the horse culture never left; boarding and training barns here serve English and Western riders in roughly equal measure.

The Green Mountain National Forest covers a broad swath of central and southern Vermont, and its designated horse trails are the backbone of the state's backcountry riding, this is where the pack-trip outfitters work. Towns like Woodstock and Stowe, with their historic estates and postcard village centers, tend to attract the polished end of the spectrum: facilities that pair old-school horsemanship with modern arenas and amenities. Down in the valleys the riding runs along the Connecticut River; up high it opens onto long views across the ridgelines.