Swathed in 6,000 hectares of secluded grassy wilderness at the top of the Córdoba hills, Estancia Los Potreros is an idyllic retreat for horsemen, hikers and nature lovers. This working ranch breeds Aberdeen-Angus cattle and Paso Peruano pacing horses. It has been in the Anglo-Argentine Begg family for four generations and offers the possibility of combining the pleasures of British-style estancia life with long-distance riding in one of Argentina's most interesting riding areas.On the distance rides, participants can camp if they wish, but lodging is generally in cozy hostels and local cottages.

The riding terrain is varied, ranging from steep rocky paths down tree-studded gullies, to open, grassy hilltops and dirt roads. One often sees condors and eagles, and partridges and doves are plentiful. Foxes and hares are also common.

Begg's horses are handsome, well kept and docile. Thick sheepskins over British army saddles make for a comfortable ride. There are plenty of opportunities to canter, although most of the riding is done at a fast walk if riders are using the ranch's superb string of paso horses.

There are also large, smooth-gaited criollo crossbreeds and peruano-criollo crosses.From the hills at one side of the ranch you can see the city of Córdoba 50 km away on the pampas below; from the other, the Punilla Valley.

For horse people, Los Potreros is the Argentine version of Olivia Newton-John's Xanadu.Getting there is not easy, as befits such a hilltop paradise. Homing in on it is like looking for a needle in a haystack. There's no sign to mark the turnoff on the rough dirt La Falda-Río Ceballos road that snakes its way over the Sierras Chicas, and the odometers of some cars don't seem to coincide with the exact spot you've been given on the phone.

Robin picks up guests at the airport; other arrangements are made for those who come in their own cars. At night the places set at the table contemplate those present and the announced arrival of latecomers. British hospitality is the hallmark of Los Potreros.Already on you're way up and up and still further up that dreadful road, the word to describe the place had been taking form in your head with the aerial views from the successive curves.

When you've driven the last stretch of the narrow access road that has led you even further out into the wilderness than that wild trans-sierra road itself, when you've pulled up in front of the medium-sized white house with its staircase and dark wood colonial front door, and you look out across the sea of pointy hill tops below you, the word comes: eyrie.

Yes, it's a real eagle's nest. Even though mounts Uritorco and Gemelas further west along the mountain chain are higher, here at 1,353 meters you feel that you're on top of the world and will have to be elbowing some eagle aside to have the perch to yourself.Inside is a long table with leather-seated chairs in the dining room, which separates the bedroom wing from the living room and study with their windows facing the hills. An old clock ticks on the mantle of the lit fireplace in the living room across from a carved wood table and other mementos from India, and a bar with a generous selection of drinks is at hand in the dining room beneath one of the first-ever etchings of Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires.

The place's unmistakably English air is echoed by the crisp accent of Robin, 42, the Buenos Aires-born third- generation owner of Los Potreros who spent his childhood summers there, worked for many years in London, and finally returned to make his carefree early experiences available to paying guests.

Robin's grandfather, also called Robin, bought Potrero de Niz, the first part of the ranch, in 1930 and built the house on the high hilltop with materials brought on pack mules from La Falda because in those times there was no road at all.

Thanks to this lack of roads, mule breeding in the generous grasslands atop the Córdoba hills was still a thriving occupation, just as it had been during three centuries of Spanish colonization, when the animals were bred here and in the pampas and driven to the mines in Bolivia. Ironically, when he received a mule order from the British government for the Burma campaign during World War II, he had to collect the animals from every other place in Argentina but Córdoba and even in Bolivia because they had to be tall enough to pull cannon. Of the 750 mules he and a group of Argentine gauchos accompanied on the ship to India, along with sheep for meat and cows for milk, only three died. That's how he came by the furniture in the living room.

For half a century, the first Robin's socialite wife Louie invited a steady stream of friends and family up from Buenos Aires. The guest book, started in 1945, contains lyrical definitions of the place - "heaven among the hill tops," "idyllic retreat" - and evoke halcyon days of shooting, riding, fishing, swimming, eating, cow-milking, egg collection, wild flower picking and looking for mushrooms.

"Many, many thanks Louie; we shall return here, in spite of your road," wrote one guest on April 5, 1964. Louie, 103, widowed long ago, now resides in London.

Los Potreros is a place for people who appreciate fine horses and know how to ride. However, there are horses for every ability, and beginners are welcome.

The ranch's forte for horse lovers is its Peruvian paso horses, which here are used to chase after cattle on the rocky hillsides like any criollo equine, giving the lie to the popular notion that they can only amble and are incapable of galloping sure-footedly. The one assigned me gave me one of the smoothest canters I have every enjoyed, in addition to the superb swift ambling walk that is innate in the breed. Robin also has his 1930 Ford A for those who like vintage cars, and a cart for rider companions who don't want to ride.

Robin's brother Kevin is organizing tours of Córdoba ranches in vintage cars.Now, as in the Ford A's days, there is no electricity at night; sun-panel torches charge their batteries in the picture window during daylight hours, and meals are eaten by candlelight.

In the main house and its adjacent cottage, six double bedrooms are heated by fireplaces and bathrooms are shared. Gas heating and private baths will be installed by the end of the year. There are another two bedrooms in a house near the pastures. The old Potrero de Loza outpost house on the Punilla Valley side of the ranch is being recycled into six double rooms with private bath, for use during distance rides. From here British Rancher Guy Keen used to supply the German-run Eden Hotel in La Falda with one cow a week; his house had a tennis court, swimming pool and windmill-irrigated vegetable garden.

Potrero de Niz has its own swimming pool with a view of the hills. A sojourn at Estancia Los Potreros makes you feel like a privileged guest in the genteel remote country home of an English family.

Adventure Today

Close to Cordoba, there's a ranch called Los Potreros which is owned by a fourth-generation British family. Set in the Sierras, it's necessarily in an isolated spot, but you want for nothing. The Begg family entertain you in the way their family has for decades. Their home is your home, and provides exquisite food, superb wines and the best of riding for beginners through to the most experienced. But among this ordered hospitality, there is the joy of spontaneity. Plans are made just to be changed. A farmhouse barbecue dissolves in the excitement of going to watch two condor circling a dead carcass. You take a ride to another part of the ranch, where a picnic is waiting and it turns out to be the day their newly-hired ranch hand is about to break a young horse. Thankfully, the gaucho youth, who drives a bus in his other life, works quietly, patiently and with respect for the animal. Within forty minutes he is in the saddle.

Paula Short