Colombia horse riding holiday

Unfortunatly as with all travel there is no zero carbon way to get to Columbia. We ensure our travelers note the Responsible travels comments on airline travel. Once in Columbia what more zero carbon way to travel than on the back of a horse, a mode of transport that is also sensitive of the environment it moves in.

The stables we use do have sustainability and environmental policy including recycling. We try to avoid single use plastics as much as we can, by supplying rigid plastic bottles to riders to refill with water. They have planted 40.000 trees in a plantation in Oiba, near the starting point of Ride. This was in an area that had been deforested, the impact has been that animals and life re-emerged in what had been a desolate area.

As for the horse welfare, we are frequently asked how we select our partner stables, and we do indeed have an Assessment Document that runs to a dozen-plus pages. But actually it’s usually a pretty immediate task and your nose leads the way! A ramshackle stable building with uneven flagstones doesn’t necessarily mean bad husbandry; it means a restricted budget. What counts more is how the place smells! There is no excuse for that whiff of ammonia and there is a direct relationship between the smell of a stable and the quality of horse husbandry. Get the basics right and the foundation is set. Over the centuries there has been dilution of many breed standards and we search for in-country stables that support their local breed, where feasible. Joining a ride and using the local breed puts income directly into the right hands to achieve this aim.