Many who come Zion National Park or Bryce Canyon National Park decide to visit Rising K Ranch for a horseback riding vacation and their experience level is that of a beginner. Because of this common experience level amongst our horseback riders, we hear the same questions quite often. I thought I might just post some of these questions and answers right here on the Rising K Ranch website.

   Question: Do the horses know their own names?

   Answer: No

 However, a horse can be trained to come to a cue such as a whistle or the crack of a whip. (I suppose if you really poured hours of the right kind of training into it you could teach a horse his name, but I've never yet come across such a horse.) The most important aspect when it comes to communicating with a horse is your body language.

If you take one of our longer day rides (like the Mountain Ride) or if you take the Half Day Ride, we often like to teach you how to joinup with a horse in the round pen. You will see that all our horses will come one kind of body language and will move away from another kind of body language.

The take-away is, horses care a lot more about how you move and how you say things, and even the atmosphere you have about yourself (one of confidence and calmness as opposed to one of anxiety or rage). Horses by nature don't really care too much about specific words.

   If you are ever around Zion National Park or Bryce Canyon National Park, I hope you will drop by for an unforgettable riding experience on our beautiful Utah trails full of red rock mountains and hills!