Family finds calling in riding business

July 15, 2007

By Will Elliott

Frontiersman

HATCHER PASS - Easing over potholes and flanked high on both sides by dense fireweed and spruce, visitors to Alaska Riding Adventures' 40-acre ranch on Palmer Fishhook Road get a taste of the wilderness experience awaiting them without even getting out of the car.

Turning the corner under a spruce archway to the ranch, it's evident to tourists they've left the packaged path behind and found some real Alaska, owner Melinda Briggs said.

Log corrals hold about 20 adult horses, while youngsters gallop freely across the property and nuzzle up to a crew of long distance cyclists who stopped at the ranch Friday to stay at its campground and cabins.

&#8220They think they own the place,” Briggs said of the horses. &#8220But it makes them friendly.”

A wolf-type dog watches the tourists marvel at the mountains rising up above the property while a stray goat marauds, climbing onto the back of a resting colt before its mother swats the goat with her tail.

Briggs' family-owned Alaska Riding Adventures has been in business at different locations throughout the Mat-Su Valley since the 1980s, she said. Development encroached on previous sites, compelling the Briggs to the Fishhook Road property a few years ago. The family cleared the land itself and put in miles of trails through the woods and into the Talkeetna Mountains for the horseback rides that make up the bulk of the summer business.

Along with short, guided rides, ARA also does longer trips along the secluded northern parts of Wasilla Creek with stream-side lunches to watch running salmon. Clients have also enjoyed multi-day trips into the Talkeetnas off the Glenn Highway, as well as miniature horses and ponies for children's birthdays.

&#8220We do everything,” Briggs said. &#8220Pretty much anything you can do with a horse.”

Other horse riding businesses exist in the Valley, but ARA is unique in that it offers everything form massive draft horses to miniature breeds, portly animals that Briggs said are smaller and less cantankerous than ponies. Without the draft horses, riders over 225 pounds would be out of luck, Briggs said, and the friendly miniature horses are great for people who would be nervous around the larger animals.

That nervousness often comes from bad experiences elsewhere with poorly trained horses, said Briggs, a smiling, gregarious woman who has raised and ridden horses since the 1970s. She puts a special emphasis on training the gentlest, most obliging animals possible, which she called key to making novice riders comfortable.

&#8220A lot of people start out scared to death,” she said. &#8220Then they get up on the horse and realize, 'Hey, she's actually really friendly.'”

Briggs also makes a profit selling horses to hunters and other riders who need an especially calm, well-trained, hard-working animal.

In the winter, the Briggs family guides snow machine trips and lists numerous other services on its Web site, from llama treks to frontier-themed wilderness weddings. Discounts for families, half-price rainy day specials and a walk-ins welcome policy all chink the gaps left by those headline options.

This allows her family members to live their Alaska riding lifestyle full-time, year-round. Briggs said. Her son and daughter, Chad Edmonds and Kristen Morland, are Briggs' lead guides, along with her husband, Larry.

Living a lifestyle rather than a livelihood also gives Briggs the freedom to work for something more than just her bottom line, she said.

&#8220When we came out here, we dedicated this property to the Lord,” she said.

Briggs called the business her ministry and way of paying back what she called her life's many blessings. The gentle nature of the horses is therapeutic to people who are going through hard times, so she donates rides and other services to families in need.

The Briggs family has invited other families trying to get away from drugs and alcohol to the ranch, whose peaceful atmosphere Briggs called rejuvenating for both body and spirit.

&#8220That's the greatest thing of all for me,” Briggs said. &#8220Sometimes the payment is just seeing the smiles on those people's faces. It's always rewarding.”

For more information, call Alaska Riding Adventures at 745-TROT.

Contact Will Elliott at 352-2252 or will.elliott@frontiersman.com.