NORTH TEXAS HORSE COUNTRY

Here’s something you don’t get to see every day: a huge stallion working out on a treadmill in a hydrotherapy tank recessed below the floor of a barn. This isn’t any old horse, nor is this any old barn. This is a state-of-the-art facility at Tom McCutcheon Reining Horses, an 80-acre ranch just north of Denton in Aubrey. The center breeds, raises, trains, treats, and sells some of the most elite equine athletes in the world.

You don’t have to be the moneyed owner of an expensive Westernperformance or hunter-jumper horse to see such magnificent animals in this exclusive setting. Some of the premier horse farms and ranches of North Texas grant inside access to their facilities and their resident four-legged celebrities. Six behind-the-scenes public bus tours are offered each year—three in the spring and three in the fall—as well as private group tours by appointment. Winding through countryside once devoted to peanut