riding holidays

baltitude

New Member
Oct 13, 2007
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Has anyone been on a really good riding holiday (in UK or Europe) where you are taught general horsemanship as well as riding? And where nervous novices are welcome? I am looking for a week of immersion in all things horsey to up my confidence - natural horsemanship style preferably. Any ideas?
 
If Natural Horsemanship is what your looking for...........

I went here: www.mmgranch.net

Opened my eyes to NH, and they cater for novice to experienced. I'm a novice at NH but I've been riding for 30 years. The same week I was there, a couple from the city who had never even seen a horse where also there having a great time learning to ride.

I can't praise these people enough:D
 
I can vouch for Valley Farm in Suffolk. It's not particularly geared towards natural horsemanship but small parts of it are. They teach you flatwork, western, side saddle, jumping, xc, horseball, polocrosse etc, take you out hacking, carriage driving, give lectures/demonstrations on different areas of horse care (such as first aid, lunging, long reining etc) and how to start youngsters (using NH methods). I loved it and couldn't recommend the place more highly. They also have a huge variety of horses so can cater for any level of rider.
 
I cannot praise these people in Cumbria enough. They will tailor your holiday and riding program to do anything you want from ground work, to preparing horses to travel, shows, riding on the beach/fells and lessons in the school. You say what you want to learn and they will teach you in a really friendly but totally professional manner. We initially went to learn basic riding skills and basic horse groundwork/tacking up skills. That first week we learnt about hoof picking, catching horses from fields, stable and field management, and diet of a horse. We took bridles apart, cleaned and put them together, we tacked up each day and generally got our horses ready for the ride or lesson. By the end of the week (I think we had 20 hours) we were competent to tack up, could walk trot, and (my husband cantered for the first time) and felt so much more confident around horses on the ground. We have since been back and it is still as great as ever, but has got a little busier as they now have more horses.

They do lots of adult holidays now, and they do beach rides and fell hacks out 2/3/4hour durations so its quite busy for a lot of the year. But then you can't keep great places secrets forever!:):) but the beauty is they still treat everyone as an individual with individual needs.

Cath the owner still teaches when they are really busy:D, but they have a good team there who are trained well and are just as friendly and knowledgeable.

The place is in Cumbria at a village called Silecroft. We stayed with our caravan at a CL in Port Haverigg, but Cath can arrange accommodation on a B&B basis for those who wish. Oumbagirl...


www.murthwaitegreen.co.uk
 
great ideas

Thank you! Great ideas, I am going to investigate and will hopefully report back later on in the year after a holiday.
 
newrider.com