Mendoza's arriero tradition traces back to the muleteers who hauled supplies across the Andes to Chile, navigating 5,000-metre passes on horseback before the Transandine Railway opened in 1910. Today's trail rides follow fragments of those colonial routes — dusty switchbacks through the Precordillera foothills, riverbeds lined with álamo poplars, and high-altitude meadows where criollo horses graze beneath the southern face of Aconcagua. The province's 1,500 square kilometres of rideable terrain stretch from the wine valleys at 900 metres to the base camps of the Cordillera Frontal, and outfitters from Potrerillos to Uspallata maintain century-old estancias as staging points for day rides and multi-day pack trips. Horseback riding in the Andes Mendoza operates year-round, though the calendar splits cleanly between seasons. Summer rides from December through March climb higher — guides lead groups to 3,200 metres along the Horcones Valley, where condors nest in the basalt cliffs and snowmelt streams carve channels through scree fields. Winter restricts routes to the lower Precordillera, where June frosts harden the clay trails and riders bundle in ponchos borrowed from the estancia. Spring brings wildflower blooms across the piedmont scrubland — yellow retamo, purple senecio — and outfitters schedule longer rides to coincide with the October snowmelt, when waterfalls cascade off the ridges above Vallecitos. The experience centres on Argentina's gaucho culture as much as the geography. Riders mount criollo horses — compact, sure-footed descendants of Andalusian stock brought by the Spanish in the 16th century — saddled with recados, the layered sheepskin rigs still handmade in Luján de Cuyo. Guides are working arrieros, many fourth-generation horsemen who summer their herds in the cordillera and winter them in the valleys. Most rides conclude with an asado cooked over lenga wood, the lamb or beef butterflied across an iron cross and slow-roasted for three hours. Some operators pair trail time with bodega visits — riders descend through Malbec rows in the Uco Valley before tastings at high-altitude wineries like Decero or Zuccardi. Mendoza's terrain demands intermediate riding skill for anything beyond the valley floor. The Precordillera climbs steeply — 400 metres of elevation gain over five kilometres is typical — and trails cross loose rock, narrow arroyos, and exposed ridges where wind gusts off the cordillera. Outfitters supply helmets and boots, but riders provide their own stamina; a half-day ride covers 12 to 18 kilometres, and full-day expeditions often exceed 25. The reward is solitude: even popular routes see fewer than a dozen riders per day, and backcountry trails into the Tunuyán drainage or the Diamante headwaters can go weeks without traffic.