For those who haven’t heard of it, there’s a riding centre called FreeRein that offer unescorted trails in mid-Wales – you only go with the people you book with, and rather than having a guide, you are given maps and detailed route descriptions to follow. You can pick how many days you want to go for and the type of overnight accommodation you want them to book for you (guesthouse, B&B, farms, inns etc). I did a 3-day trail 8 years ago with my best friend, and I have a friend on another horse forum has done quite a few, so we decided to do a trail together while I was on holiday in the UK recently.
The trail we selected was a 2-day trail staying overnight at a B&B. It’s a new trail that only a handful of groups have done, and heads out in a totally different direction to all their other trails, so we were looking forward to being adventurous!
DAY ONE
We arrived on the Thursday morning, went through our maps and route descriptions, sorted out our luggage and saddlebags, and went to prepare our beasts. I had asked for a forward-going pony and they had selected Poppy, a gorgeous black mare who was about 13.2 – my friend Helen had specifically requested Obi, a skewbald mare who she has ridden on several other trails. The weather was beautiful, we couldn’t have asked for a better day!
First we headed along the quiet lanes away from the riding centre and towards the hills. We made our first mistake quite early on :lol: but managed to get ourselves back on track when we reassessed our interpretation of the route description. Other than that the morning passed without complication. There was one stretch along a wide grassy verge next to a busy road, but Poppy and Obi were totally unphased by the traffic. Other than that the route took us along bridleways, grassy verges, narrow tracks, quiet lanes, through woodland, small villages, and on several occasions took us right to the banks of the gorgeous River Wye.
The trail we selected was a 2-day trail staying overnight at a B&B. It’s a new trail that only a handful of groups have done, and heads out in a totally different direction to all their other trails, so we were looking forward to being adventurous!
DAY ONE
We arrived on the Thursday morning, went through our maps and route descriptions, sorted out our luggage and saddlebags, and went to prepare our beasts. I had asked for a forward-going pony and they had selected Poppy, a gorgeous black mare who was about 13.2 – my friend Helen had specifically requested Obi, a skewbald mare who she has ridden on several other trails. The weather was beautiful, we couldn’t have asked for a better day!
First we headed along the quiet lanes away from the riding centre and towards the hills. We made our first mistake quite early on :lol: but managed to get ourselves back on track when we reassessed our interpretation of the route description. Other than that the morning passed without complication. There was one stretch along a wide grassy verge next to a busy road, but Poppy and Obi were totally unphased by the traffic. Other than that the route took us along bridleways, grassy verges, narrow tracks, quiet lanes, through woodland, small villages, and on several occasions took us right to the banks of the gorgeous River Wye.