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TEXAS OUTDOORS: Cross G Ranch Trail Rides in Bandera

In this edition of Texas Outdoors, Barry Davis visits Cross G Trail Rides, where you can ride horses like a real cowboy, not like a tourist at a dude ranch.

Ron Griffith is living out a lifelong love affair with horses out at Cross G Ranch Trail Rides.

Six years ago, Griffith saw a need near the cowboy capital of the world, Bandera, and answered it with Cross G Ranch and Trail Rides.

“I’m living the dream and I’m sharing it with people,” he said. “We’re not a dude ranch. We don’t house people. We don’t feed people. All we do is private trail rides.”

It’s something that’s run through his blood forever.

“Well, I’ve been riding horses since I was 4 years old. My grandfather put me on his plow horses when he was plowing fields, so I got that horse sweat in my nose early,” he said.

Now, at 71 years old, Griffith provides people with the opportunity to slip into a saddle and ride back in time, perhaps living out a fantasy or maybe just taking in a new adventure.

“They come out here with the expectation of not knowing if they’ll ever be able to do it,” he noted. “Then, when they do it and they realize how good it is, that’s our repeat. Then they bring people with them.”

Six days a week, he offers a very non-typical trail ride over a 200-acre ranch filled with ride open spaces and trails that wind through woods or pastures where you can mingle with cattle. Or, perhaps if it’s in you, something a bit more spirited.

“If you know how to trot a horse, if you can cantor a horse, we have areas where you can do that in,” Griffith said. “And your dude ranches, they don’t allow that.”

He offers rides six days a week, taking groups as large as 15 people.

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