Back in the Saddle Again

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Day after day, network crews restlessly peer down from their perch in the Santa Ynez Mountains, looking for photo opportunities at the adobe ranch buildings three miles distant that serve as Ronald Reagan's Western White House. But thick swirls of morning fog and shimmering waves of afternoon heat obscure their camera view, and the subject stays half hidden in the shade.

On doctors' orders, Reagan restricted his exercise to leisurely strolls with Wife Nancy. Then last Saturday the President obliged the network crews by appearing on horseback with Nancy and five others. Wearing jodhpurs, plaid shirt and a baseball-style hat, Reagan rode for 30 minutes. His mount was perfectly named for the occasion: Elusive Hobby.

Reagan has been following a go-slow regimen so that his body's "cement" can harden properly after major surgery last July for a cancerous polyp in his bowel. The former lifeguard, once cheerily vain about his lifelong "coat of tan," has given up his morning sunbaths and wears a broad-brimmed straw hat to protect his face. These are also doctors' orders, aimed at preventing a recurrence of the skin cancer that was scraped from his nose last month.

Reagan, who on earlier summer retreats to his beloved Rancho del Cielo chopped wood and bagged rattlesnakes with photogenic robustness, clearly had been itching to get back in the saddle again. Says one aide: "If the President had his way, he would have ridden a horse from Point Mugu (the Naval air station some 60 miles away, where Air Force One lands) to the ranch." Reagan at least had plenty of time to read the stacks of briefing papers National Security Adviser Robert McFarlane keeps feeding him in preparation for the November summit in Geneva. The papers range from an analysis of the Russian psyche to a synopsis of superpower relations over the past 15 years. Reagan also found time to indulge his taste for Louis L'Amour westerns.

The First Lady has always been a good sport about the rustic pleasures of Rancho del Cielo, but she has been unable to conceal her preference for palling about with old chums like Socialite Betsy Bloomingdale in more citified surroundings. Last week Nancy got a chance to sample the glitzy social whirl of Beverly Hills when the Reagans came down off the mountain for a three-day sojourn in lotus land. They hobnobbed at dinner parties with old Hollywood cronies like Jimmy Stewart, and ate chicken with three of their children (Maureen was in Sacramento) in a $3,000a-night presidential suite at the Century Plaza Hotel. The First Couple then returned to the 688-acre ranch for another lazy week. By the time the Reagans climb aboard Air Force One for the flight back to Washington this weekend, they will have spent 200 days --more than half a year--at the ranch since Reagan took office in 1981.

For Reagan's aides, camped out in Santa Barbara, some 30 miles down the mountain from the ranch, it was time to take marching orders from Chief of Staff Donald Regan, who has emerged as the undisputed boss in a once loose hierarchy of advisers. White House staffers have been noticeably less leaky this summer as they dine on the expense accounts of the news-hungry White House press corps. Only McFarlane has managed to retain some autonomy, by virtue of his foreign policy expertise and willingness to speak out.