Capacity: 4-12
For 200 years Spanish livestock ran wild and
multiplied. Mid 1800s settlers, freed slaves and outlaws became "cowhunters."
From camps in Florida's interior they drove herds of scrub cattle to the coasts for
shipment north and south. Wielding whips, they were known as "crackers". Follow
this tradition with a "Florida-In-Style" horse trek.
Ride beaches, subtropical backroads, and private land. By horseback, swamp buggy, boat,
and passenger van, watch wildlife and wild flowers. From Hutchinson Island on the Atlantic
Ocean, to Lovers Key on the Gulf of Mexico, routing is by way of massive Lake Okeechobee
and the mysterious Everglades.
Visit Florida’s ranches and dairies, orange groves and sugar cane fields, a Seminole
Indian Reservation, and the historic Florida Cracker Trail. Bring your sense of adventure,
camera, and riding jeans to see the real Florida in a way few visitors or residents ever
do.
Ride Western on the cowboy's favorite, an American Quarter Horse. Stay in beach and golf
resorts, a rural motel, and lakeside inns. The dining is a sampler of Florida cuisine.
TRAIL BOSS Gordie Peer, a stage, screen and rodeo star, performs and teaches
old-style gun slinging, bull whip handling and trick rope spinning that evokes memories of
Will Rogers. WRANGLERS John & Glenelen Rabon's son was the 1989 P.R.C.A. World
Champion Calf Roper.
Optional Add-on: Lake Okeechobee Bass Fishing
IRFL01 8 days/7 nights from Fort Myers, 6 days riding,incl. 3 lunches, 3 dinners.
Per person: $ 2,270
Single: + $ 180
April 18-25, October 17-24, October 31 to Nov. 7
private rides for groups of 8-10 at other times
Fort Myers, FL
Transfer: n/c
Western saddles.
Intermediate riding ablility
Day One Arrivals
Fly or drive into Fort Myers. Transfers to Jensen Beach by van. Check into the beachfront Courtyard by Marriott. Join your trail boss for an orientation.
Day Two Atlantic Ocean
At the Cowboy Club Arena you're matched with your mount. Patient instruction as needed.
Ride a pristine Hutchinson Island beach. Fresh, Atlantic seafood for dinner. Dinner
Day Three Florida Cracker Trail
Fort Pierce's P. P. Cobb General Store was the 1880s terminus of the Florida Cracker Trail. With cattle ranches and citrus groves either side, ride part of this historic route. Tour Florida's largest dairy where one parlor milks 2,100 head a day! Ride pastures to Dark Hammock Ranch for Florida prime rib and coconut squash casserole. Arrive the Days Inn-Pier 11, Okeechobee. Lunch, Dinner
Day Four Okeechobee
Awake next to 740 square miles of Largemouth Bass fishing heaven. Visit the 1989 World Champion Calf Roper's saddle shop. Saddle a boat for an excursion into a National Audubon Sanctuary. Or you may opt for fishing with a professional guide.
Sit in the buyers' arena of a livestock market. Eli's Western Wear is the best place to custom fit a summer straw hat. For dinner (... we had catfish, drank beer, listened to good country music, and played pool!) Dinner
Day Five Brighton Seminole Indian Reservation
("We were starting to think of ourselves as apprentice cowhands, wearing boots and hat every waking hour and not caring if our jeans were streaked with trail grime.') Ride the home of 700 Seminoles. Ladies of the tribe prepare your lunch. ("...we were treated to turtle stew, wild boar und pumpkin fry bread.") A storyteller shares tribal history and culture. Ride sugar cane fields and citrus groves. Arrive LaBelle, Florida's citrus center, and "Honeybee Capital" for a tasting. ( ... bought a jar of wonderful Palmetto honey.") Check into the LaBelle Motel. At Don's Restaurant, frog legs come straight from The Everglades. Lunch
Day Six The Caloosahatchee
For breakfast (., had peanut butter pie'), Flora & Ella's fame dates to 1933.Bordering Caloosahatchee River oxbows, saunter through pastoral Fort Denaud. If this, and tomorrow morning's swamp look familiar, part of "Just Cause," starring Sean Connery was filmed here. Pause for Dr. Tyrell's botanical garden. It rivals Thomas Edison's Fort Myers estate. Pick oranges from horseback. ("Lunch was on the grounds of a little Baptist school. A teacher brought her class out... and Gordie let each sit on a horse,") Ride into Lehigh Acres arriving the Admiral Lehigh Golf Resort. ('We proceeded right through the golf course to Ihe clubhouse and adjoining motel.") Lunch
Day Seven Crescent B Ranch
A special-invitation ride on a 90,000-acre ranch ("...beautiful grasslands, spotting White-tail deer along the way. Jean's horse stepped into an Armadillo hole.. but - she kept her seat. "). Brangus and Senepol beef cattle. ('...headed toward one of the biggest bulls I had ever seen ... roaminq free and could come after us whenever he felt the urge.') American bison, feral pigs, wild turkey and alligator ("...saw six all at once..."). In Everglades headwaters tour a virgin bald cypress swamp and panther blind by swamp buggy. You might become trail boss on a "puzzle ride" across the Babcock/Webb Wildlife Management Area. ("We were doing pretty well, getting back at Gordie for all his cautions. Forgot to warn him once, ond looked around to -see him with a mouthful of leaves.") Through Fort Myers, "The City of Palms," arrive the Outrigger Beach Resort. Estero Island, in time to swim the Gulf. ("The sunset was beautyful...") Your final dinner is the local fleet's harvest of fresh, plump, pink shrimp ("...best I've ever tested."). Dinner
Day Eight Gulf of Mexico
You're on Florida's "Lee Island Coast." Over 100 subtropical jewels sparkle offhore. To the south, Lovers Key is part of an island chain unique in North America. Walk two wooden bridges and follow tunneled, red mangroves to a final ride (" ... solid shells that our horses crunched over.") along ("...Charlie helped us get our horses to go splashing into the water".) the Gulf of Mexico. ("I urged 'Nick,' in a soft voice and patted his neck to show him I wasn't afraid. He blinked his long eyelashes and decided to trust me. We inched into the warm waves ond in a minute or two he was slapping the water with his hoof and I was yee-howing. We made it across the state of Florida without a hitch.") ("My eyes got pretty misty when I got off my horse for the last time.") Transfers to the Fort Myers' airport. Or extend your stay on Florida's Gulf Coast.
Epilogue: "A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike. And all plans, safeguards, policies and coercion are fruitless. We find after years of struggle, that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us." John Steinbeck. ('I was taken.")