Home / North America / USA / Oklahoma
Last Update: 06 Aug 2010

Riding Holidays | Oklahoma

Nestled between Kansas, Texas and Arkansas, Oklahoma is right amongst the huge agricultural and ranching areas of the mid west. Tourism in Oklahoma is very much focused on the outdoors with diverse geography lending fantastic opportunities for all types of adventure holidays. Horse riding is very popular and there are quite a number of Guest and Working ranch vacations available in Oklahoma, throughout the northern half of the State.

The far west around the old frontier towns of Cheyenne and Sayre are particularly good for Oklahoma riding holidays, and ranches here have very interesting trail routes taking you far onto ancient prairie lands. These rides offer fantastic wildlife viewing, with horse rides past longhorn cattle herds, and possibilities of spotting buffalo, deer, beaver and wild turkeys. Learn about Native American culture with a number of good museums to visit. Oklahoma is home to nearly forty Native American tribes.

There is a strong English style riding culture in Oklahoma too, with stables providing lessons in dressage and jumping throughout the State. These tend to offer hourly rides, rather than day trails or full holidays with accommodation. At certain times of year several Oklahoma towns run western riding events. There are western horse breed association shows, round-ups and rodeos. The National Reining Horse Association is based in Oklahoma City and organizes ‘Stampede One’, an annual three day reining show in February. Both Tulsa and Oklahoma City are good locations to pick for visiting horse events.

We are always looking for new riding destinations and regularly update the information on this site. If you have information about horse riding or trail rides in Oklahoma please do contact us.

Oklahoma’s landscape varies from high grassy plains in the northwest, dotted with sporadic canyons and isolated mesa formations; central prairie and agricultural land; to the dry Wichita mountains in the southwest, popular for rock climbing and hiking; and lowland forests and wetlands and the edge of the forested Ozark Mountains in the east. There are over 50 State Parks in Oklahoma, providing great wildlife watching and photography opportunities. Look out for white-tailed deer, coyotes, elk, bald eagles, armadillo and prairie dog in the west; and black bear and otters in the mountains. The southern wetlands are even home to alligators!