The night's first stars have started to glow ever so faintly in the big cloudless Western sky above. I twist my neck to take them in from the saddle of my horse. Just ahead of me, Creed Garnick removes his dusty cowboy hat and reclines, resting his head on his horse's back and making the saddle seem like the most comfortable lounge chair. The lifelong horseman and owner of 3 Spear Ranch, a 1,200-acre property in Dubois, Wyo., doesn't need to watch where he's going. He and his chestnut mare, X, ride as one.
In the distance, the boom of an announcer's voice and an eruption of whoops and cheers break the silence and interrupt Garnick's stargazing reverie. He sits up, replaces his hat and gives X a kick as he turns to me and shouts, “Gotta pick up the pace! Rodeo's started!” And suddenly we're loping toward the arena lights.
I've stayed at dude ranches that shuttle guests to the town rodeo and some that host their own private event where staff show off their calf-roping and barrel-racing skills. Those experiences have always made me feel like a city-slicker spectator. But arriving at the Dubois Friday-night rodeo on horseback alongside Garnick, a former rodeo star who hails from one of the American West's oldest ranching families, I hold myself less like an outsider and almost like a local. The bronc- and bull-riding events provide plenty of thrills, but the adrenaline rush of the evening is the 90-minute trip home beneath a sky so clear that the Milky Way is in full view. The journey, it turns out, is the main event, the experience guests will keep forever lodged in their
