Equestrian Getaway: Paso Robles Wine Country

Why bother traveling to Italy when Paso Robles, California offers beautiful landscapes, world-class dining, exhilarating horse riding and vineyards galore? A few months ago a horsey friend started planning an equestrian getaway to San Luis Obispo County. She frequently goes on trips with several of her equestrian girlfriends and I was thrilled to be invited as a newbie. Her group email subject line read: “Want to go on a SLO ride?”

And my answer was, of course, YES!!!

The “SLO” stood for San Luis Obispo, and I can assure you there was nothing slow about our five and a half hour trail ride through the stunning property of Halter Ranch Vineyard! That’s not to say we traveled at top speeds such as out in the field fox hunting, but typically with a group trail ride, images of ancient horses traveling nose to tail with very little excitement pop in my head. This was not the case with Central Coast Trail Rides. But let’s start from the beginning of my girls’ riding weekend/equestrian getaway. (If you’re only here for the horse part, scroll down to the ride! It’s okay.)

How and Why to Get to Paso Robles

Paso Robles, California is a little over 200 miles from where I live in LA. Driving up early afternoon on a Friday it took about three and a half hours. If I had waited until much later, it would have tacked on an hour or more thanks to LA traffic. If you’re not local, and this blog post inspired you to do the same ride, you could fly into the San Luis Obispo airport.

The drive is fairly easy and I enjoyed seeing so much open space. I feel a little cramped during my day-to-day existence in the city. Acres and acres of almond trees with their delicate blooms flanked the road on part of my trip. Undulating hills, green from recent rains, were a lovely change of scenery from all the buildings and multi-lane freeways from my daily life.

When I turned onto the street of our hotel, the Allegretto, I thought, “Am I in Paso Robles or did I make it to Tuscany?” I checked in, and when I looked out the window of my second floor room, I wondered the same thing again.

 

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A post shared by Susan Friedland (@saddleseekshorse) on Feb 28, 2020 at 4:59pm PST

The last time I had been in Paso Robles years ago, I remember it as a sleepy cow town living in the shadow of San Luis Obispo, a close neighbor and home to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, a state university. Not so today. The New York Times proclaimed Paso Robles number 6 out of the top 52 places to go in 2020!

The Allegretto Vineyard Resort of Paso Robles

The grounds of the Allegretto are gorgeous with Mediterranean landscaping, a sculpture garden that doubles down as a dog-walking area (the resort is dog-friendly!), bocce ball court and a vineyard beyond the pool. I didn’t really get to explore the exterior too much as my stay was focused on the girls’ night out and then ride the next morning. However, the interior of the Allegretto is just as lovely as the exterior.

A roaring fireplace greeted me in the lobby along with several over-sized black and white photos from the late 1800s or early 1900s from the local area (I liked the one showing the indoor hot spring). The towering ceiling boasts what look like fresco designs and a delicate chandelier reminiscent of water spraying down from a fountain. For the record, the hotel lobby coffee was delicious.

Other than my dreamy window view, the room itself was spacious with a comfortable bed, well-lit  bathroom (no obnoxious fluorescent lights that age you ten years here!) with a tall counter and extra-large tiled shower with perfect water pressure.

Walking around the hotel there were design surprises aplenty! For example, one bathroom on the first floor had a wooden door with carvings of ancient Egyptian looking figures and hieroglyphs. The Sequoia Room, like a study, had a cross section of a ginormous tree trunk with identifying markers of historical events happening in the world such as “Great Wall of China built” or “Jesus Christ born.” This history nerd got excited about seeing a timeline shown in such a creative fashion.

There were Moroccan carved wooden door frames and Hindu or Buddhist sculptures (I didn’t take a picture and can’t remember right now). The design was eclectic–Tuscan meets California but with some international influences.

The elevator doors had cellos painted on them which I didn’t get for a while until I realized the name of the main restaurant is Cello! Now let’s talk about the food.

Cello Ristorante and Bar at Allegretto Vineyard Resort

For breakfast before the trail ride, I ordered avocado toast. I was expecting something simple like the avocado toast I make–toasted bread, avocado smeared on it with lemon pepper. The server delivered a plate with the most exalted version of avocado toast I’ve ever seen with layers of greens, cherry tomatoes, and feta cheese! It was unrecognizable with all the layers of added ingredients and oh so delish.

The evening after the ride (are you getting ready to hear about the ride?) my pony posse and I were tired, so it was perfect our ride host had arranged a dinner reservation at Cello for 7:30. I tasted the duck pizza another gal ordered (I had no choice, she couldn’t eat all of her pizza and kept passing slices to the rest of our group of about 6. It melted in my mouth.) and sampled the charcuterie platter’s tiny pickles. The chicken carbonara with English peas, pancetta and cream sauce was so fantastic I ate every last drop and left my bowl almost sparkling clean.

Trail Ride with Central Coast Trail Rides at Halter Ranch Vineyard

Saturday morning was the start of our epic equestrian adventure in Paso Robles. Now I’ve been told to undersell your riding abilities when you go on a ride in a new destination on a new horse. A friend who’s a trainer said she once went on a riding trip in Europe and told them she was a trainer–well she was given a horse with annoying habits and instead of enjoying the scenery, she was dealing with trying to get the horse to behave.

Long story short, when I spoke to Brian, the owner of Central Coast Trail Rides on the phone, I said, “I know I should undersell myself so I don’t get the tricky horse, but as far as my experience, I own an off-track Thoroughbred and I fox hunt.” I told him I was a newer fox hunter and I said I was not one of those people who goes flying over giant hedges like they do in Ireland.

I later second guessed myself after divulging, but I didn’t have to.

Click here to read one of my latest fox hunting adventures on my horse Knight!

When our group of gals met at our starting point, we signed waivers, were given complimentary Sun Bum lip balms, and told we were each set with two water bottles in our saddle bags. Helmets were mandatory (as they should be) and several were provided, but since our group had horse owners and seasoned equestrians, we mostly wore our own. I opted for my Resistol RideSafe cowboy hat helmet I wore that time I did cowboy mounted shooting. (If you want to read my review of the RideSafe, click here.)

After meeting Brian and Crystal, the husband and wife team who have been operating Central Coast Trail Rides for five years, Brian began pairing up my new friends with their steeds. Two were given Morgans, one a Mustang, another a draft cross, I think the rest Quarter Horses and then Brian said, “You’re the Thoroughbred owner so I’m going to give you Franky.”

My response was something like, “So he’s a Thoroughbred?”

The answer was “he’s a running Quarter Horse, [meaning Thoroughbred blood] he is forward and he is dominant and likes to be in front.” Those character traits later manifested as Franky and I took up the number one position on the trail–yes, we were the unofficial trail leaders for the day–and if another horse entered his “territory,” Franky would turn his head slightly, ears pinned and give a “back off” look. He took his job as leader and number one very seriously! Because of this particular quirk, I was able to snap photo after photo of between-the-ears views with only the glorious countryside ahead of us (no random other horses in the way). I feel like I need to send Franky a thank you card for getting me in the prime position.

Now most people join Central Coast Trail Rides on a two-hour ride through Halter Ranch which culminates with a wine tasting. However, my new group of equestrian girlfriends and I are not “most people.” We were the trailblazers who got to join in on a FIVE hour trail ride–a new route Brian and Crystal are currently testing out, then do wine tasting.

We spent the first half of the ride journeying to a picture perfect, hilltop picnic destination where we were served gourmet sandwiches,  potato chips, cookies and Halter Ranch wine. (I’m not a wine drinker so I couldn’t tell you details about the featured drink, but my friends seemed to like it.)

I’m not going to lie, there were a few steep inclines that really had me out of my comfort zone!

Have you ever seen those images from endurance rides where the hill is so steep the rider has to dismount and grab the horse’s tail to assist her ascent? Well, our hill wasn’t that steep, but it still intimidated me. Franky really dug in and went from walk to trot and then when it got intense, he cantered–but not like a canter on the ground, more like a “I’m giving this my best effort and this is how it’s gonna go.” Meanwhile, I was holding my Nikon in my right hand (it was strapped over my shoulder, but I didn’t want it bumping into the pommel) along with the saddle horn and my left hand was holding the reins and grabbing mane. I prayed Franky wouldn’t trip.

Franky didn’t trip. In fact, he was my personal mountain goat. When we reached our lunch destination he was breathing hard and his coat wet. All the horses were. The horses got to take a break in the shade as we drank in the beauty and some of us the wine. Our fancy sandwiches, accouterments and the bottles of wine had been in our guides’ saddlebags.

It felt good to be out of the saddle for our lunch break. We chatted about our horses and some compared notes of this ride with other equestrian getaways they’ve been on before. We were told the history of Halter Ranch and how the owner is 84 and passionate about using his wealth to preserve open spaces. He has snapped up countless acres across the globe for the purpose of making sure those environments are protected and will be safe for future generations to enjoy.

Before we remounted I asked if the ride down would be as steep as the ride up. I was assured it wouldn’t be (it wasn’t) but it was still steep for this former Midwesterner who grew up riding in flat fields and prairies.

During one section of the ride I was warned that the upcoming area had really low branches and I’d have to duck. My guide wasn’t kidding–I had to basically lie flat across Franky’s  neck to evade the trees. I didn’t get a picture of that, nor did I get a picture of the steep slopes. It was way too technical of riding to be able to casually take photos.

After we made our way down, we reached a stretch of land with cattle. Brian went ahead of Franky (I’m sure much to Franky’s chagrin) in order to shoo away the livestock.

Once the cattle were out of the way our horses had a chance to gather ’round the water cooler. Of course, Franky had to be the first one there too.

After lunch, in total we rode about another two to two and a half hours. Saw more beautiful vistas. By this time my lower back was feeling stiff and once we got on a flat straight away, I took my feet out of the stirrups and began lifting my toes and making little circles with both feet.

As we came back into civilization the vineyard views reappeared. Franky accelerated his walk again, so much so I was far enough ahead of the entire group I could turn around and take an entire group picture.

The final challenge we faced on the trail was crossing a ditch. I think it might have been a dried up stream so there was a down bank and an up bank. I’ve done this type of thing fox hunting before so it didn’t bother me. The down part was fine, but when Franky did the up, he put some ooomph into it and leaped up the bank. I wasn’t prepared for that, so again–I was thankful for the saddle horn. There was another low-hanging tree branch as we did the up section, but I was quick enough to duck for that one too.

By the time we reached the trailers, I was ready to be done riding for the day. And Franky deserved the rest of the day off. He worked hard and didn’t place a foot wrong during the whole ride. Although he was forward and bossy, whenever I heard, “Susan, hold up,” and I halted Franky to wait for the rest of the group to catch up, he stopped instantly and stood nicely. He listened to my aids, was safe and a cute bay–that’s all this horse girl needs to be a happy rider.

And along the way I made some new horsey friends who also like to adventure in the great outdoors. What could be better?

What’s been your personal favorite equestrian getaway? Share in the comments section!

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