posted by Catherine on Jan 16
Take a break in the countryside and leave the car at home - 4 legs is all you need!
There are thousands of places across the globe that specialise in horse riding holidays where you turn up and saddle up!
Some are only a few days long and others can last a week or two. Others just keep coming back to the same place every night, and others trek across vast wildernesses like Patagonia, Canada and Mongolia.
You can do it for pleasure, to learn a new skill or to raise money for charity - but you can do it!
Eco Friendly Transport!
You can cover more distance on a horse when you want to explore and they don’t churn out dangerous emissions and use up valuable gas!
Once you have arrived at the farm or ranch, you can relax and slip into a different world for your vacation.
Instead of sight-seeing in a town or city where you have to drive around to get to anything, you can just walk outside of your lodge and meet your partner.
Even if you want to travel many miles, it will only cost you a few swigs of water to get you there and back!
Reach Those Difficult Places:
Also on horseback you will be able to travel to those places where 4 heels just can’t fit, like up a mountain pass to see a magnificent sunset, or down steep valley sides to get to the isolated waterfall.
And being high up offers you views you might not see on your own 2 feet!
Horse trails use up far less land than car trails - and no trees need to be pulled down to make a road, or habitats destroyed to cater for wider vehicles.
Riding through the landscape therefore has much less of an impact than other forms of transport and it gives you the opportunity to enjoy the whole experience more - as you don’t need to watch your step - the horse does that!
You can watch the landscape change colour in the sunlight, observe the colourful wildlife and birds pass you by - even if they are behind you. Just hold on to the saddle and enjoy the ride!
Next Holiday?
So next time you are thinking of taking a short break close to home, or farther afield - why not consider a horseback one?
You don’t need to be an experienced rider either - unless you are hoping to ride up an active volcano - there are plenty of riding centers that take on complete beginners right up to regular riders. Just make sure the school know your real level before you book.
I once went on a ride for the day and when we started galloping along the beach the chap behind me started making a lot of noise! When we all stopped to find out what happened he said he had only ever walked on a horse before. He put down that he was ‘experienced’ because he had ridden a horse that was walking loads of times! He wasn’t experienced in the right sense - and it nearly lost him his saddle!
So, Tally-Ho I say!
