Horse riding holidays

Some holidays have an expedition feel to them, where you will be out riding for a week or more, perhaps camping out with a team of porters and wranglers accompanying you. These trips are best suited to those with plenty of horse riding experience already. Other horse riding tours see you returning to your accommodation every afternoon, perhaps to a hotel or ranch. These can be more appropriate for those just getting used to life in the saddle.

There are small group trips where you might be riding alongside eight or more others – these holidays are brilliant for solo travellers, couples and friends to join. On tailor made trips, where you have a private, bespoke itinerary, you will typically still have support throughout, including a guide, especially in more remote areas. And though your guides may not always know a great deal of English, you can bet they know horses. You can ride off into the sunset in complete confidence.

Our horse riding holidays promise you an immersive take on your destination, as you pass through remote communities that may see few visitors, and fewer still arriving on horseback. Your guides will make introductions, allowing you to experience traditional ways of life far off the regular tourist beat.

You could set off for an expedition into the wilderness, in sparsely populated Kyrgyzstan or Mongolia’s Zavkhan Mountains, where the skies seem to go on forever. In Mongolia’s Gobi Desert you might also stay a night in a ger tent with a nomadic family hosting you, perhaps switching from horse to camel for a day.

Elsewhere you can learn about life as a gaucho in the Andean foothills and vast pampas of Argentina, or enjoy a unique spin on Africa’s national parks with riding safaris in places like South Africa, Kenya and Zimbabwe. And then there is the volcanic Catalan countryside of Spain, ideal for beginners and less-experienced riders, where you can develop your abilities under the watchful eye of a skilled instructor.