Almost every message I get about my horseback expeditions contains the same quiet worry, usually somewhere in the second paragraph: am I good enough to come? So let me answer the real question first. If you can sit on a horse and you are willing to be a beginner at something for a week, you are good enough for most of these journeys. The horses we ride have spent their lives working this land. They are not looking for a perfect rider. They are looking for a calm one.
That said, you can do a lot in the months before a trip to make the week better. Ride if you can, even a few lessons make a difference, because the muscles you use in the saddle are muscles nothing else trains. If there are no stables near you, walk, do squats, build a little core strength. Long days outside ask more from your legs and back than from your courage. And break in your boots before you come. Every experienced rider will tell you the same thing: blisters ruin more trips than fear ever has.
Packing is simpler than people expect. Layers instead of bulk, rain gear that actually works, gloves, sunscreen and a hat that survives wind. No one needs three outfits a day on a ranch. The land does not care what you look like, and after two days neither will you. That, honestly, is half the medicine of these weeks.
The only preparation that really matters is the inner one. Come willing to let the days be shaped by weather, horses and the people around the fire instead of by a plan. The riders who struggle are never the least experienced ones. They are the ones who try to control the week. The ones who let the week happen to them go home different. If that sounds like what you are looking for, the current journeys are on the expeditions page, and Patagonia, Uruguay and Lapland each ask something different of you. Start where your heart pulls.