Staying with the Fancy Guys in Sun Valley

View as we ride up a peak in the Sawtooth National Forest.

I’d spent a week skiing in Sun Valley a few years ago and had loved it.  The skiing was fantastic, the weather ideal with snow at night and sunny days, and the small town at the base of the slopes, Ketchum, a lot of fun.  Knowing we’d have to pass through southern Idaho, I’d put the Sun Valley area high on my list for a stop.  I wanted to see those mountains without the snow and show Kurt around Ketchum. 

I remembered the winter drive from Boise as shocking for the harshness of the terrain.  It looked like snow over lava for much of the way.  Summer has done nothing to soften that.  Sun Valley is beautiful but not in a lush, alpine way.  The mountains here look more like heaps of gravel covered with sage brush and topped by rocky peaks.  Willows line the creeks and rivers that snake through the valley, but the only other real greenery is the irrigated fields of hay and alfalfa.  Well, that and the manicured lawns of the very rich people who live here.

I remember this from my ski trip too – Moms with mink lined parkas and dark sunglasses stepping out of big black SUVs to collect kids whose private school in the valley had a ski day each week for each grade.  I’d heard that many CEOs have homes here in the valley and the fleet of private jets parked in the little Hailey airport seemed pretty good evidence that they summered here too.  So too did the quality of horses sharing a barn with our boys at River Sage Stables.  Now, I’m not going to pretend our boys aren’t classy — I mean, Guillermo is an Andalusian, for Pete’s sake.  But, Juneau is the first full-breed, papered horse I’ve ever owned.  And, I got him with the cash I got for my engagement ring which I sold upon my divorce.  My ex was generous, but not made of money.  These horses talking to my boys from across the aisle would have required the sale of a Tiffany tiara.

I saw a few of those Moms from the ski slopes tooling around the barn, but none of them in the saddle.  I think both they and their pricey mounts would have absolutely fallen to pieces on the ride we did out of Sun Valley – a climb up one of those heaps of gravel covered with sage brush. But, after Moab, it was easy sauce for my little peasant horses.