Let’s all go to the Berke Ranch

Jessie on Dilan



OMG...Ross wearing long pants!



My mom and Dave live on a ranch in Frenchtown Montana with a menagerie of animals that includes 5 horses, 3 dogs, and a large and varying number of indoor and outdoor cats. We’ve gone riding at the D-bar-F a bunch of times so we thought that a horse riding excursion would be a great activity for everyone while in Turkey. There’s a dude-ranch outside Kemer called the Berke (Pronounced Ber-key) Ranch and they have a catchy little tune on their website that’s been stuck in our heads for a couple of months … “we all go down to the Berke Ranch ….. it’s OK” – if you want to have a song you just can’t get out of your head go to http://www.berkeranch.tr/

 

The Berke Ranch is a spa, a dude ranch, a horse training facility, and hotel. They sent a mini bus to pick us up and we chose a 3 hour ride (about two hours into it we were asking ourselves why we didn’t pick the two hour ride). We trotted around the ring for 10 minutes getting used to the horses, and then headed off to the trails with our wrangler. We did a lot of walking on roadways then on trails and into the bush.

The saddles were Australian saddles, kind of in-between a Western (big ones with horns to hold on to) and English (small ones that have no safety grip). The Aussie saddles are like English saddles but also have a strap you can hold on with – the horses are also trained a little differently – Western horses use neck reins, where you pull the neck over, these guys were bit trained so you pulled the bit gently to get them to turn. I was just holding on with my legs as tight as I could, with my hand gripping the strap firmly when we were cantering, and trying to stay on.

 Sharon wanted a slow and gentle horse … then lamented her choice when her horse was so slow that we all passed her and she had troubles keeping up. Ross’ horse was a bit of a blighter – wanting to kick anyone that came close. They gave Dave, the most experienced rider the ‘lazy’ horse because as an experienced rider, he could get the horse to keep up. Dave was surprised by his ‘lazy’ horse as it decided to take a bit of an unexpected romp down a hill … and he was not particularly impressed with its actions and reined it in quickly ... I’m thinking that if an experienced rider can be caught unawares …. it made me grip a little bit tighter.

 After about 2 1/2 hours of riding, Granny and Dave dismounted and walked their horses back to the barn. I guess that’s their normal way of riding back home and it’s probably easier on both the horses and their hips and butts. Jessie, Dave and Marina stayed with the horses and curried and washed them after the ride. Ross, Granny and I went to the restaurant and had a drink (maybe an Ibuprofen too) and ordered lunch. After lunch we headed back to Kemer and all had a long and well deserved nap.