About Us
Spending time at Wide Sky is not your normal ranch experience. You might see cowgirls riding cruiser bikes to catch horses at pasture. Your group might stop everything to watch a group of pelicans circle overhead and land on the ranch ponds. You might see your guide hop off her horse to enthusiastically dig apart wildlife scat to investigate which animals walked the trail before us.
Abby and Alex have grown through different chapters of life and careers that unfolded across the globe over the last several decades. Kenya, Iraq, China, Texas, Colorado, Japan, Kansas, Connecticut, and Wyoming before the right time and place converged to create Wide Sky. These different experiences bred an appreciation for all of the different colors of humanity.
What holds Wide Sky together? A passion for sharing the land and animals that sustain us – physically, emotionally, and spiritually. It is simple. We want to share these blessings with you. We want to make everyone feel welcome to experience the wide Montana skies, views of snow capped peaks, the feel of a good horse covering beautiful, wild country. We want people to leave feeling like they were able to focus on the joys of being human for a while.
Abby & Alex
Like many young girls, Abby grew up horse-obsessed, and has ridden since she was a teeny tiny human. Prior to creating these fun experiences with Wide Sky, Abby spent 18 years working for federal and state agencies as a wildlife biologist focusing on human-wildlife conflict. Given this line of work, she traveled thousands of miles each year covering some of the most remote and wild landscapes in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem –made possible by the strong legs, backs and minds of her horses and mules. For the past 9 years Abby has lived and worked on her in-laws’ family ranch in Big Timber, MT where she currently resides with her husband Alex, and their five-year old daughter.
Alex grew up on this ranch he still calls home, and he pursued some interesting paths in the world, coming back home with a degree in Ag Economics from Texas A & M, time working in Kansas for an international grain company, and experience serving in Iraq as a Marine artillery officer. These with other life experiences have allowed Alex to innovate and think outside the box to sustain to the land and animals now under his care. Alex currently serves as cattle and grazing manager on the Blake Ranch and works for Western Sustainability Exchange, a local food centered non-profit that works to preserve rural prosperity, ranching heritage, and fish and wildlife habitat. As if that wasn’t enough, Alex also leans in to all that is required to build and sustain Wide Sky – whether excellent guidance, cleaning pens, building fence, catching horses, greeting guests or being an awesome dad while mom works.
Our Mission
The mission of Wide Sky Adventures is to create opportunities for connection to equines, the natural world, local food, and throughout all of these, foster an association to self that is positive, fun, and accessible for all.
We provide a safe substrate for people to find their edge while pursuing purpose and finding inspiration — whether skill-building or internal route-finding that can happen most readily with immersion in pause, quiet, and the wide Montana sky.
community strengths coming together. We are nobody and we are everybody.
We are
learning and growth can be empowering. We believe that everyone, regardless of starting place, should have access to pursue their own journey towards betterment (and happiness!). We embrace everyone’s process, regardless of where they come from and who they are.
We believe
curated equine experiences featuring quality guides who operate with integrity. We offer renewed appreciation for the natural world and old-time basics like clean food and water, a good mule, and shelter as a way to focus the mind and center our two feet on the earth (or our bum in the saddle).
We offer
everyone. We are women-owned and women-led. We strive for supportive, nuanced and dang fun experiences at a comfortable pace for everyone.
Please inquire about BIPOC and other discounts. We would like to reduce barriers to nature, horses and retreats as much as we can.