Any "Fun rides" in central Scotland / Borders? Hireling needed.

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Biscuit

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Am on a mission to plan some fun days out in summer. My horse cannot be ridden and is on broodmare loan. I would love to do a "fun ride" , ideally with small, optional cross country jumps.

Does anyone know of a fun ride in Central Scotland or the Borders, where it is possible to rent a horse from for example a local riding school?

Would also consider riding schools that offer cross country jumping lessons, though a "fun ride" would be ideal.
 
The common ridings look fun, but ideally I'd like a fun ride with optional jumps.

Also, hirelings for the common rides are pretty expensive from what I can see, around 160... for some of them
 
There is a Diamond Jubilee Ride at Bowhill Country Estate on the 10th June.

Also as part of the Borders festival of the horse there are a few guided rides, not sure who you could go to for hiring horses though
 
gillianfleming said:
There is a Diamond Jubilee Ride at Bowhill Country Estate on the 10th June.
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There is indeed :) Not sure if my YO will be hiring horses out for it but you can try her
http://www.bowhill-stables.co.uk/

There are not a lot of fun rides here though, why would we have them when the common rides are a million times more fun? :D There is a charity ride at Newcastleton on the 29th, but that's the only non CR I can think of :confused:

If you do decide to hire there are loads of places, I'm Selkirik based so there is the Linglie or Dryden, Tower farm is further north, I used Kimmerston last year and they have some lovely horses (http://www.kimmerston.com/), Lasswade...

You are talking £150 ish for the common rides though :(
 
Rhino what sort of horses do they hire out - are they nice and calm and cool? I am tempted by this but can be nervy in new places so would want something safe and calm!! :D
 
There are a few rides and common rides of course if you do not want to do one of them there is the brag ride, most of the hunts have rides if you look on their websites.
The st cuthberts ride is later in the year the roseden hill ride is every april you just missed that,there is a ride being run by the borders branch of the endurance club at fishwick at the end of the month open to all.

There is a guided ride end of this month in hawick if you go on to facebook to horsey stuff for sale in the borders and post on their asking you will get lots of info to what is going on.

The borders festival of the horse runs from 18-27th may there is half a dozen giuded rides during this as well as lots of talks demos on all sorts logging demos one by sylvia loch and loads of other stuff there is also a list of who does hirelings they have booklets im most feed stores there is also a website.

If you look on dlt photography website they have a calender of events on their and on mng photography,hope this helps if you go to any of these you may well bump in to me as will be at most and all the common ridings.:)
 
thank you everyone. What are the "guided" rides - is that like a group hack with a leader?

Do any of these rides have small optional cross- country jumps ? :-D
 
I am thinking about doing some of the common rides this year, so if anyone is desperate I can bring the cob along too. She was from riding school so it quiet and well schooled, but no complete Novices, and I will expect some petrol money etc.
 
_CJ_ said:
thank you everyone. What are the "guided" rides - is that like a group hack with a leader?

Do any of these rides have small optional cross- country jumps ? :-D
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hi, i did one of these last year with my loan mare, was great fun. it is just like a big hack with someone leading the way.
http://www.bordersfestivalhorse.org/index.html
if you have a look at the events list and find something you'd like there's an email address for more info when you click to go into more detail. :)

would highly rate kimmerston at milfield
http://www.kimmerston.com/
and lesley douglas at langlee riding stables outside jedburgh, sorry no link for lesley as they dont have a website.
Most of the RC like you to ride a few times with them before you hire so they can match a horse/pony to your ability, but i dont think its mandatory
I would be doing it this year but no horse anymore :(
 
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dominobrown said:
I am thinking about doing some of the common rides this year, so if anyone is desperate I can bring the cob along too. She was from riding school so it quiet and well schooled, but no complete Novices, and I will expect some petrol money etc.
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Please can you let me know which ones you are doing :) I am reasonably competent :D
 
rhino- which ones do you reccomend?
And when do they started. If Bonnie isn't booked you are welcome to ride her.
bonnie.jpg

The Cob in question. I have no normal photos of her!
 
I'm another one who'd like to give it a go someday, but my horse would be an absolute lunatic in a situation like that and I'm a wuss :o

Have thought about trying a hireling place before, but like Moomin1 I also get nervous with new places/horses. If anyone can recommend a place that has horses that are likely to look after a gibbering wreck, I'd be interested in giving it a go :D
 
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dominobrown said:
rhino- which ones do you reccomend?
And when do they started. If Bonnie isn't booked you are welcome to ride her.
bonnie.jpg

The Cob in question. I have no normal photos of her!
Click to expand...

I did Selkirk and Edinburgh last year (Edinburgh is ticket only though and I'm not sure if there are any left for this year). I really fancy the Hawick ride, and Lauder, Duns and Coldstream are also meant to be good.

This is the website with all the dates etc
http://www.returntotheridings.co.uk/selkirk.html

My Selkirk helmetcam last year:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJTAZJkaLfk

Puddock said:
I'm another one who'd like to give it a go someday, but my horse is an absolute lunatic and I'm a wuss :o

Have thought about trying a hireling place before, but like Moomin1 I also get nervous with new places/horses. If anyone can recommend a place that has horses that are likely to look after a gibbering wreck, I'd be interested in giving it a go :D
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Kimmerston that has been mentioned a couple of times has some real steady eddies! I did it with a couple of friends last year on their horses; one of the riders was very nervous and novice and she was fine :) They are pretty much set up to cater for the once-a-year-fairly-inebriated farmer types :) :rolleyes:
 
there are a few places to hire horses out for the common rides and most can find a horse that suits your needs

but there are a few i would be not as keen to get horses from only saying as used to work for a couple of them and lets just say the horses are not treated right
 
dominobrown said:
Those ones are nearer to me. Really want to do Duns, always used to go as a child.
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Duns is supposed to be good :) Plus it's always a Saturday which helps, I've managed to get the day off for Selkirk this year but it's a pain being on the Friday - I need to do it though as I'm determined to retain my ladies race title from last year :eek: :D
 
Oh flapping. Heard of that, though if you take part in flapping you are not allowed to take part in licenced racing, training or point to point I think, do the lack of rules in flapping. :(
 
dominobrown said:
Oh flapping. Heard of that, though if you take part in flapping you are not allowed to take part in licenced racing, training or point to point I think, do the lack of rules in flapping. :(
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The 'fun' races don't count, think more 'donkey derby' than proper racing ;) The horses are supplied by one of the hireling places. Good fun!
 
gillianfleming said:
Rhino i've just watched your hat cam and that looks brilliant, spent most of it trying to spot people i knew lol
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I did Edinburgh too
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yDgN7sh6H8

There are at least 3 other HHOers in the video :p though as last year was my first common riding season in the borders I don't know that many other people.

_CJ_ it's fun but slightly mad :D
 
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