Texas Horse Farms

Story By Tommy Simmons

Ever since I was little I’ve been afraid of horses. So when it was decided that I would be going to a local horse ranch to check out the North Texas Horse Country Tours I was less than excited about it. My head was filled with images of the State Fair farm exhibits of my childhood.

But what actually greeted me at the Tabor Ranch in Aubrey was a well kept and clean ranch with animals that looked relaxed and natural instead of jittery and on edge. We met Izanna Villanueva, who showed us around the ranch and introduced us to some of the award-winning and world famous horses at Tabor Ranch. She also showed us how the ranch makes most of its money, which is by collecting and selling horse semen. Which I personally was not prepared for and found very… enlightening.

Many ranches like the Tabor Ranch are a part of the North Texas Horse Country Tours. These ranches specialize in anything from reining to halter horses and the tours are designed to not only educate people on what exactly goes on at a ranch, but to get people up close and personal with the people and the animals at these ranches. And believe me when I say you will be up close and personal. Many of the ranches make their money from breeding and how they go about collecting the semen is included in the tour, so if you want to bring your kids, make sure you have had the “birds and the bees” talk or else you’ll have some serious explaining to do.

But all in all, the North Texas Horse Country Tour is a great way to spend the day. I saw some of the most beautiful animals I’ve ever seen before. And even with my slight horse aversion I still found myself genuinely enthralled with the tour. After my day of fresh air and magnificent animals I even found myself a little sad to be heading back to my city life.

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Need to escape city life?  Join one of the upcoming North Texas Horse Country Tours to experience ranch life and see the new spring baby colts grazing next to their majestic moms.  The tours provide a behind-the-scenes look at life in Horse Country and include a home-style lunch.

The North Texas Horse Country 2012 tour dates are: April 7, May 5 and then September 8, October 6, and November 3. The tours are from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. and depart from Denton Historical Park at 317 W. Mulberry St., Denton, TX 76201. Tickets are available in advance from the Denton CVB for $40 or on-site-day-of for $45 and include snacks, lunch, and drinks.

Contact the Denton CVB at 940-382-7895 or 1-888-381-1818 and make your reservations today or visit www.HorseCountryTours.com.

In the heart of the North Texas Horse Country, the only work colts at Reata Ranch worry about is basking in the sun.

The Denton Convention & Visitors Bureau is excited to announce that the North Texas Horse County Tours are back and (is it even possible?) better! in 2012 with six tour dates instead of just four! The new tour dates will take advantage of our moderate spring and fall weather plus provide more opportunities to see Horse Country’s major attraction:  the babies!  Sweet little colts and their mammas frolic all over North Texas’ spring.

With the largest concentration of horse farms in the US, North Texas is the premier place to breed, raise, and train horses in the United States.  More than 350 farms and ranches with a population of 40,000+ horses make the equine industry vital to North Texas’ economy.

The impact of Horse Country reaches the tourism industry, too.  More than 2,000 visitors come to North Texas every year specifically to tour the famous Horse Country.  Groups come from as far as Scandinavia and as close as the next door neighbor, every one eager to get behind-the-scenes at very modern-day and quite elite working ranches. 

2012 kicks off with a very special group visiting in DFW during January.  More than 3,300 attendees representing motorcoach operators, tour operators, suppliers, hotel companies and other travel professionals across North America will attend the American Bus Association’s Marketplace in Grapevine.  Taking advantage of the tremendous opportunity to showcase Horse Country to them, the Denton CVB will host a Familiarization Tour to showcase Horse Country and make sure it stays at the top of their lists as they plan future group travel programs.

The North Texas Horse Country’s 2012 are:   March 3, April 7, May 5 and then September 8, October 6, and November 3. The tours are from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. and depart from Denton Historical Park at 317 W. Mulberry St., Denton, TX 76201. Tickets are available in advance from the Denton CVB for $40 or on-site-day-of for $45 and include snacks, lunch, and drinks.

Contact the Denton CVB at 940-382-7895 or 1-888-381-1818 and make your reservations today or visit www.HorseCountryTours.com.

When Qantas Airlines announced earlier this year that they were offering a non-stop flight from Sydney Australia to DFW, travelers in both countries were excited and looking forward to take advantage of the flights for both business and leisure. One group in particular that took some fancy to the new schedule was a group of superstar Travel Agents from Australia. And what did they want to see? Well the Western lifestyle in Texas of course!

The Denton Convention & Visitor Bureau was excited to learn that 12 of Qantas top sellers were headed to Texas and their first stop was the North Texas Horse Country.   Despite the jetlag, the group was ready and eager to start their True Texas experience.  Their adventure began at Lantana Lodge Resort & Marina at Ray Roberts Lake State Park where they enjoyed dinner at the Bronze Buffalo Grill and overnighted in rooms that overlooked the lake and cedar, post oak and black oak trees. 

An early rise the next day, the group was met by Monica with Black Mustang Ranch who had horses ready for a scenic trail ride through the wetlands of Ray Roberts Lake State Park. Immediately after the trail ride and as soon as the summer heat started to rise, these influential travel experts boarded a motorcoach for a driving tour of the beautiful Horse Country including a behind the scenes tour of the famous Valor Farm.

It wouldn’t be Horse Country Tour without a stop to Dennards Western Store. When the travel agents “saddled up” on the motorcoach again it was with a heap of western treasure. Many of the top sellers could not contain themselves at the sight of the child sized boots in assorted colors. Several kiddos in Australia will be bragging about mom or dad’s recent trip to Texas while adorned with Texas attire.

Dana Lodge, Sales Director with the Denton CVB, was the tour guide on the recent venture, “This was a great opportunity for Denton to be able to showcase our wonderful Horse Country to these individuals who have the capability to influence and send us many visitors from Australia.”

In true Texas hospitality before the group headed out of Horse Country there was room for one more stop at a local favorite. Lucy’s Mom’s on Main in Aubrey, had a home cooked spread that only “mom” would be able conjure up. The unique antiques that adorned the restaurant and the amazing ranches just visited were the topics of conversation while the group was introduced to Texas comfort food.

It was just a glimpse of the western lifestyle many of the Australian visitors were eager to discover. The Dallas CVB was the next host and while these top selling Travel Agents were on their way to visit some iconic Dallas attractions, the character, charm and new purchases in Horse Country will make it to the top of conversation when it comes to Texas Travel.

Story by Kim Phillips
 
 
Our heritage is a compass. It tells how we became who we are and where we have been. It is the foundation of where we will go in the future.

Our heritage is the basis of Texas pride. It is preservation and education. It is discovery. And heritage tourism is economic development.

For several decades, heritage tourism through the Heritage Trails program of the Texas Historical Commission has been an economic shot in the arm for rural Texas, to be sure. But it’s not just about the small communities.

As the Denton Convention and Visitor Bureau director, I know that heritage tourism is integral to our identity and building on it has launched Denton into the international tourism spotlight.

The Heritage Trails are “thematic” tourism that presents a holistic adventure for visitors — one that does not demand that tourists acknowledge city limit signs.

Case in point:

In 2005, Denton partnered with two other communities — Fort Worth and Pilot Point, both participating cities in the Texas Lakes Trail Region — to apply for a Texas Historical Commission Partnership Grant for development of cross-jurisdictional heritage tourism projects.

Our partnership was awarded the grant, with which we developed the North Texas Horse Country Tour, a program that invites people to experience North Texas in the Lakes Trail Region, where more than 300 horse farms and 25,000 horses make the equine industry the largest agricultural economic impact.

It is beautiful country and the only place in the United States boasting virtually every breed and every discipline of horses, plus world-famous trainers, breeders, stallions and mares. 

Three cities, all vastly different in size and budget, put the North Texas Horse Country into the tourism marketplace and have welcomed visitors from all over the U.S. as well as international locales like Mexico, Brazil, Italy, Denmark and Germany.

In Denton, we realized a boom in tourism, particularly the group tour market — going from one tour every once in a great while to almost 50 full motor coaches in 2010 — of 2,500 new tourists.

Every tour roams the region and even the state, making an impact in multiple communities: a restaurant in Pilot Point, a ranch tour in Denton, a hotel in Lewisville, a Western wear store in Fort Worth and so on. 

The Horse Country Tour is award-winning as one of the most successful partnerships ever to develop a shared tourism product and to sustain it, even making it grow.

In 2010, collateral supplies were exhausted. The project grew from the original three cities to nine communities to produce 50,000 new brochures and a website to facilitate the visitor experience in the region.

Such a partnership would have been impossible without the umbrella of the historical commission and the forum provided by the Heritage Trails for networking and developing creative collaborations built on uniquely Texas themes.

The Butterfield Overland Trail project is another great example that used the North Texas Horse Country project’s successful model and greatly expanded it. This trail commemorates and invites visitors to experience the first transcontinental mail route in the U.S.

Much like the revered Route 66 that still plays host to thousands of visitors every year, the Butterfield Trail provides a theme to gain attention and qualify visitor interest and then infuses the communities all along the route as it is today, with those visitors spending money and discovering parts of Texas they would likely never have explored.

Where the Horse Country Tour involved nine cities within the Texas Lakes Trail region — an amazingly cooperative feat to begin with — the Butterfield Trail project ended up involving 30 Texas cities and spanned four of the 10 Heritage Trails.

Today, 75,000 Butterfield brochures are in circulation and tours are beginning to gain momentum, with multi-day treks between small towns and with day trips originating at various starting points all along the trail from Sherman to El Paso.

The Texas Historical Commission is vital for the Heritage Trails program to operate effectively.

The commission provides a credible umbrella that unites the individual trails into a bigger program, a state initiative, if you will, that carries a lot of weight when municipalities are considering partnerships of any kind that require shared expenses.

The commission’s oversight is paramount, as well, to maintaining the forum through the Heritage Trails program for these unconventional partnerships to be forged, massive projects birthed, and then — most difficult of all — for them to be completed and sustained.

The Heritage Trails encompass the truly Texas experience people imagine when they think about Texas.

Our name conjures up mystique, adventure and yet-untamed places unlike any other state in the nation. And rural Texas authentically delivers on those expectations. 

Heritage tourism is revenue to Texas, one of the solutions — not burdens — within the weighty budget challenges our Legislature faces in the current session.

The Denton CVB never lets slide an opportunity to highlight what is perhaps our most unique treasure, the North Texas Horse Country. This past January, the Texas Association of Convention and Visitors Bureaus (TACVB) held their annual Midwinter Conference in Lewisville and the Denton CVB took advantage of the close proximity to invite their peers on a special Horse Country tour to see first-hand the delightfully successful tourism fuss that launched Denton into a tourism league of our own almost 6 years ago.

"While many of our colleagues have seen advertising, promotional campaigns, and various presentations about our equine gold mine, very few have enjoyed the attraction in person. TACVB’s Mid Winter Conference was the perfect occasion to show instead of just tell," said Kim Phillips, VP of the Denton CVB.

Close to 40 CVB professionals from across the Lone Star State boarded a luxury motorcoach and were wowed again and again during the 5-hour trek. Denton CVB Sales Director Dana Lodge, winner of the coveted 2010 TxDot Tour Guide of the Year award, served as official tour guide for this important group who would have had it no other way! She delivered her commentary about the history and day to day activities at modern horse ranches with the same passion and enthusiasm that has made her a star in Texas tourism.

The grand entrance at Valor Farm and the up-close-and-personal introduction to a massive thoroughbred stallion was only the beginning of the tour that proved to be the highlight of the entire conference. The group also visited Tom McCutcheon Reigning Horses where United States Equestrian Federation (USEF) 2010 Equestrian of the Year and Gold medalist at the World Equestrian Games (WEG), Tom McCutcheon himself, treated the group to a special reining demonstration. There were even a few photo opportunities with the 2010 USEF Horse of the year and WEG Gold medal winner, Gunners Special Night.

Leave it to the newborn babies to steal all the attention. The group couldn't get enough of a 3 day old foal, the first of the year at McCutcheon Reigning Horses.

"We had this great chance to share how special our main attraction is," says Lodge. "What a reward when our partners couldn't stop telling us all week long how informative, entertaining and FUN the tour was for them!" 

The Horse Country Tour is a “must-see” in Texas. One CVB colleague even plans to include her experience on the tour as an article in her own South Texas city’s Visitor Newsletter! 

The North Texas Horse Country reigns at the top of Texas’ hottest attractions.