Throughout Nagano, there are a lot of horse ranches where you can experience horse riding in variety of courses. Those horse ranches often also have petting zoos with a variety of animals for children to mingle with.
Historically, from the ancient times as far back as the 8th century, Nagano prefecture was considered a perfect place to breed horses for official use, and there were several horse ranches with the purpose of breeding horse to present to the government.
With the same perfect circumstances from before, we still have many places where you can experience things with animals. Here are some of the many, all of them located at cool highland areas.
Suetoshi-Bokujo Ranch
Located on the hillside up 15 minutes from the center of Saku City, this ranch is home to more than 50 horses, many of which are retired racehorses, and also many kinds of small animals which you can pet and some, feed.
Horse riding lessons on a path through the woods are available at several levels from beginners to intermediates, and even gentle ones suitable for the seniors. You can also stay for an extended period to take more thorough multiple-day lessons.
Takizawa-Bokujo Ranch
This ranch is in the middle of Nobeyama Kogen highland and is easily accessed from Route 141, the highway that crosses the plateau. The atmosphere is perfectly in the middle of nature surrounded by green vegetable fields and with the Yatsugatake Mountains in the background.
For people interested in life on a dairy farm, this place offers a variety of experiences; planting vegetables in their fields, harvesting them, milking cows, ice cream making, carving whistles for bird-calling, and so on, and of course horse riding. Horse riding is also available here although it is limited to riding inside their 2 courses.
The owner started the ranch at 1982 when as a dairy farmer he realized the need of urban children to mingle with animals and nature. Since then they have expanded their activities, and now hold many events including the annual festival on the first Sunday every October when many stalls with handmade crafts from surrounding shops stand, and also a dog-sled race in the Winter etc.
They also make homemade ice cream and pudding which are available at their coffee shop and at some of the shops nearby including a farmers’ market along the route141.
http://www.takizawa-bokujo.jp/facility
Kiso-uma no Sato
This ranch is in the middle of the Kaida Kogen highland which is between the Northern and Central Japanese Alps.
The horses here are traditional Japanese horses which are different from the other two ranches mentioned above or any usual other ranch in Japan. Kiso-uma, or Kiso horses were bred for ploughing and carrying loads for many hundreds of years until the late 1800s in this region. The Meiji government, from 1868, started introducing western bred horses and encouraged cross breeding them with the traditional Japanese horses, from which most of the horses today in Japan deveoloped. However, the locals in Kiso region wanted to preserve their Kiso-uma, which is much shorter and stouter in size and more suited to farm labor and carrying loads. And now they still are here in Kiso-uma no Sato.
The horse riding is one of their popular activities here, which can be experienced easier for beginners, too. Because the Kiso horses have lower heights of average 120cm, and characteristically gentler than other kinds. They even have some horse riding courses for ‘healing’, which are for healing people with back pain etc. also have courses aiming relaxation effects for the disabled people etc. The ranch is accessible year-round, even in the winter when the horses’ lustrous brown coats contrasts beautifully with the white snow.
http://www.kisoumanosato.or.jp/
