Overview: Horseback Riding in Nevada

Nevada is the most arid state in the contiguous United States and the state with the highest proportion of public land — approximately 85 percent of Nevada’s 110,572 square miles is owned and managed by the federal government, primarily by the Bureau of Land Management. This extraordinary public land endowment creates an equestrian landscape of almost limitless variety and scale, encompassing the red rock canyon country of the Mojave Desert in the south, the alpine granite terrain of the Ruby Mountains and the Spring Mountains in the north and south, the vast high desert sagebrush basin and range country of the Great Basin that defines the state’s interior character, and the Sierra Nevada lake and forest terrain of the Lake Tahoe corridor along the California and Oregon borders.

Nevada’s wild horse and burro population — the largest concentration of federally protected wild horses and burros in the United States, with more than half of the national wild horse population managed on Nevada’s BLM herd management areas — gives the Silver State an equestrian character shared by no other state in the West. Riding through the Virginia Range east of Reno, the Antelope and Fish Creek herd management areas of central Nevada, or the Clan Alpine and Desatoya ranges of the Great Basin interior can produce wild mustang encounters whose combination of visual drama and historical resonance — the free-roaming descendants of Spanish colonial horses on the open range of the American Great Basin — creates a riding experience of genuinely unique western character available nowhere else in the United States.

A Brief History of Horseback Riding in Nevada

Nevada’s relationship with horses encompasses the ancient rock art of the ancestral Puebloan and Great Basin peoples that preceded the Spanish introduction of the horse into the American West, the remarkable equestrian adaptations of the Northern Paiute, Western Shoshone, and Washoe peoples whose traditional territories covered the Nevada Great Basin, the Pony Express route that crossed the length of Nevada in its extraordinary 1860–1861 operation across the most formidable desert terrain in the West, and the Basque sheepherding tradition of the northern Nevada Great Basin that brought the skilled horse culture of the Pyrenees mountains to the sagebrush ranges of Elko, Lander, and Eureka counties in the late nineteenth century.

The Northern Paiute and Western Shoshone peoples adapted the horse — which arrived in the Great Basin through trade networks from the Spanish colonial settlements of the Southwest by the mid-eighteenth century — to the specific demands of the Great Basin desert landscape, developing equestrian techniques suited to the long-distance travel, the scattered water sources, and the seasonal movements across the basin and range terrain that define the Great Basin ecological pattern. The Washoe people of the Lake Tahoe and Carson Valley corridor developed equestrian traditions adapted to the pine forest and alpine meadow terrain of the Sierra Nevada eastern escarpment.

The Pony Express, which operated from April 1860 to October 1861 between St. Joseph, Missouri and Sacramento, California, crossed the length of Nevada on its route — using stations spaced approximately ten to fifteen miles apart across the most desolate and most demanding desert terrain of the entire transcontinental route. The Nevada section of the Pony Express route, traversing the Desatoya, Toiyabe, Shoshone, and Pequop mountain ranges across the Great Basin, represents one of the most challenging equestrian endurance corridors in the history of the American West and forms the foundation of the modern Pony Express Trail heritage route preserved by the BLM and state historical agencies across Nevada. The open range cattle ranching tradition established in the Ruby Valley, the Humboldt River corridor, and the mountain valleys of northern Nevada through the 1860s and 1870s created the working ranch horse culture of Elko County that remains the living foundation of Nevada’s equestrian identity today.

Where to Ride: Nevada’s Major Regions

What to Wear, Pack & Know

An ASTM/SEI-certified riding helmet is essential for every Nevada ride. The state’s terrain ranges from the rocky desert canyon floors of Red Rock Canyon, where heat, technical footing, and the remoteness of the canyon terrain create compounding safety concerns, to the exposed alpine ridgelines of the Ruby Mountains and the Wheeler Peak Wilderness where a fall in technical above-treeline terrain can be serious. A certified helmet is your most critical personal safety equipment on every Nevada ride.

• ASTM/SEI-certified riding helmet — non-negotiable for all riders on all Nevada terrain; Nevada does not have a statewide helmet law for equestrian riders but all licensed operations require helmets for riders under 18; strongly recommended for every rider of every age on every Nevada ride
• Water — the single most critical supply for any Nevada desert or high desert ride; minimum four liters per rider for any desert ride exceeding one hour; significantly more for summer and extended rides; carry water for your horse on any ride where natural water sources are not confirmed available along the route; dehydration can progress to heat exhaustion with startling speed in Nevada’s dry desert climate
• Weather monitoring app — essential for summer afternoon thunderstorm awareness in Nevada mountain terrain (Ruby Mountains, Spring Mountains, Toiyabe Range, Snake Range), for heat advisory monitoring in southern and central Nevada desert terrain, and for wildfire smoke monitoring in the Lake Tahoe and Sierra Nevada corridor; NWS Las Vegas (weather.gov/vef), NWS Reno (weather.gov/rev), NWS Elko (weather.gov/lkn)
• Boots with a solid one-inch heel — ankle protection particularly important in Nevada’s rocky desert terrain where footing is variable; heat-resistant materials recommended for any desert canyon riding in the southern Nevada corridor
• Sun protection — full-coverage clothing, a broad-brimmed hat under or over a riding helmet, SPF 50+ sunscreen on all exposed skin, and UV-blocking sunglasses; Nevada’s high desert altitude intensifies UV exposure; the combination of heat and UV radiation in the southern Nevada desert is the most demanding in the continental United States
• Great Basin rattlesnake and Mojave rattlesnake awareness — required in rocky desert, sagebrush, and canyon terrain statewide from April through October; maintain awareness in rocky outcrops, talus slopes, brushy draw margins, and the bases of cliff faces; monitor your horse’s body language as an early warning system; southern Nevada Mojave Desert terrain has Mojave rattlesnakes with more potent venom — heightened awareness warranted
• Wild horse awareness and management preparation — most important Nevada-specific equestrian management consideration for BLM terrain; know the current location of any wild horse HMAs on your planned route before departing; ensure your horse has been exposed to unusual large animal scent in training before riding in known wild horse terrain; have a calm horsemanship protocol prepared for any wild mustang encounter
• Satellite communication device (personal locator beacon or satellite messenger) — non-optional for any remote Nevada BLM, national forest, or Great Basin backcountry ride; cell coverage across most of Nevada’s vast central and eastern BLM terrain is nonexistent; the nearest medical facility in Nye, Esmeralda, Lincoln, or White Pine county may be more than an hour away
• Downloaded offline trail maps and GPS device — cell coverage across most of Nevada’s BLM interior is unreliable to nonexistent; downloaded topographic maps or GPS device with downloaded trail data is non-optional for any Nevada backcountry or remote desert ride
• Weed-free certified hay — required for all equestrian camping in Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest designated wilderness areas and in Great Basin National Park; required for all equestrian camping in all Nevada National Forest wilderness areas; strongly recommended for all Nevada National Forest and BLM equestrian camping; cheatgrass and other invasive species are significant ecological concerns in Nevada’s native sagebrush communities
• Blaze orange — carry and wear for any national forest or BLM terrain ride during upland game and big game hunting seasons in fall
• Electrolyte supplements for your horse — Nevada’s dry heat and low humidity accelerate equine sweating and electrolyte loss; electrolyte supplementation for your horse before, during, and after any warm-season desert or high desert ride is strongly recommended by Nevada equine veterinarians

Trail etiquette: Horses have the right of way over hikers and cyclists on Nevada’s designated multi-use trails — recognized by the Nevada Division of State Parks, the BLM Nevada, and the USDA Forest Service management policies for the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest. Hikers approaching horses should step to the downhill or trailside position, speak calmly to identify themselves, and wait for the horse and rider to pass. Cyclists should stop and move completely off the trail surface until the horse has passed at a comfortable distance. Gate management in Nevada’s BLM and national forest terrain requires that riders close all gates behind them. In Nevada’s private ranch country, any riding that involves access through private land requires specific permission from the landowner and strict compliance with all gate and access instructions provided.

Beginner Ride Ideas in Nevada

Intermediate and Advanced Ride Ideas in Nevada

Equestrian Events in Nevada

Nevada’s equestrian events calendar reflects the depth of the state’s working cowboy and ranch horse culture, from the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering’s celebration of the authentic working ranch tradition to the PRCA rodeo circuit’s summer and fall programming across the northern Nevada agricultural community. The Nevada Quarter Horse Association, the Nevada Cutting Horse Association, and the Nevada Reined Cow Horse Association provide working stock horse competitive infrastructure for the state’s active ranch horse community, with cutting, reining, and pleasure horse events through the spring, summer, and fall seasons at facilities across the northern and central Nevada corridor. The Backcountry Horsemen of Nevada organizes volunteer trail maintenance events and advocacy for equestrian access in the Nevada public land system, with organized group rides and trail work events at the state’s major public land equestrian destinations through the spring, summer, and fall seasons.

Riding Vacations & Weekend Getaways in Nevada

Sample Three-Day Itinerary — Ruby Mountains Alpine Long Weekend: