Horse riding holidays U.K.

[pistolpete]

Any experiences recommendations. Ideally south coast or south of Birmingham. Doesn’t have to be beach based. Just nice horses happy hacks and comfortable accommodation.

 

[Evie91]

Following with interest!

 

[nikicb]

Free rein in Wales - 100% recommended and I know others will also recommend them as well.

https://www.free-rein.co.uk/

 

[cold_feet]

Free rein in Wales - 100% recommended and I know others will also recommend them as well.

https://www.free-rein.co.uk/

Absolutely agree. They are fantastic.

 

[ester]

another follower as a lot of the better options seem to be the wrong side/end of the country ?

 

[GreyMane]

Free rein in Wales - 100% recommended and I know others will also recommend them as well.

https://www.free-rein.co.uk/

Another vote for them

 

[Evie91]

Ooh not even my thread but ive had a look and seriously tempted to book!

 

[SO1]

I did the 2day trail in the Brecon Beacons with Unicorn Trails last year. I went here did the two day two night trail and it was fab http://www.ellesmereridingcentre.co.uk/trail.html

Price has gone up over £100 it was £415 when I went last September.

 

[Bobbit]

Transwales Trails also very good. They do weekends and longer trail rides across Wales.

 

[Becc]

And another vote for Free Rein. Great horses and a beautiful area for riding.

 

[palo1]

Both Free Rein and Trans Wales trails can offer wonderful riding that has been described as 'world class' by some of the really big equestrian travel companies. (I keep getting encouraging communications from some of these even though I have told them that this is my local riding thank you lol). Free Rein probably has a slightly more 'relaxed' vibe. Trans Wales trails markets itself as being for competent riders and certainly some of the terrain crossed on the longer rides might be challenging for some. Horses from both are fit and sane. This part of Wales is astonishingly lovely. If you don't fancy Wales the Liberty Trails company based on Dartmoor look nice too. These bits of the UK really are hugely underrated too. Hope you find something great OP!

 

[Amun]

So glad I found this topic! Looking into free reins now ? I'm just checking their trails and I've never been on a horse 6 hours a day. Is this also for novices? Btw is it common to just come alone or people usually book together with at least one friend? None of my friends do horse riding so I'm a bit worried that I would be the only person there "alone." Thanks a lot!

 

[Widgeon]

So glad I found this topic! Looking into free reins now ? I'm just checking their trails and I've never been on a horse 6 hours a day. Is this also for novices? Btw is it common to just come alone or people usually book together with at least one friend? None of my friends do horse riding so I'm a bit worried that I would be the only person there "alone." Thanks a lot!

Their site says "You must be happy and confident cantering in open spaces to join this ride" - so not really for novices. But they also appear to offer a "Learn to Ride holiday for adult beginners and novices" - maybe try that?

https://www.free-rein.co.uk/learn-to-ride/

 

[GreyMane]

So glad I found this topic! Looking into free reins now ? I'm just checking their trails and I've never been on a horse 6 hours a day. Is this also for novices? Btw is it common to just come alone or people usually book together with at least one friend? None of my friends do horse riding so I'm a bit worried that I would be the only person there "alone." Thanks a lot!

Yes people usually go as a group. For safety reasons nobody would be allowed to ride unaccompanied on their own, but you could do one of their guided or instructional holidays as a solo traveller. There's normally a single supplement to pay, if you are not sharing a bedroom.
The horses Freerein use are good as gold, carefully chosen for each rider's experience, and used to being ridden by many different people. You need the experience to cope with the "unexpected" things that may come up: in our case these were nearly all caused by other people's horses! on different trips we had; a bolshy aggressive colt making us take a sizeable detour to avoid the field he was in; some overexcited horses that we (cough) let into another field as we were concerned ours were going to get kicked; both our geldings refusing to be caught in the morning as there was an in-season mare in the same field who was squealing and kicking out at everything that came near. Oh, and one night both our horses got out of their paddock, into a river and were half a mile away next morning! All part of the adventure!
Maybe if you speak to the company they might be able to book you on a guided/instructional holiday with clients from the same part of the country as you, then if you all got on well you might be able to share trips later? This question must surely have come up before, so I'd ask the company.

Edited to add. Ooh this is making me want to get out there again. I've been known to whimper at the sight of their panoramic brochure photos. *sigh*

 

[sportsmansB]

I can't speak for these specific holidays but I've always gone on riding holidays alone (until I met a group of lovely people on holidays and now we often go on the same ones).
That is one of the things I like the most about it.

If you book through an agent they can find out who else is in the group or recommend a week that they have also sent other people who are travelling alone. I use Zaras Planet but Far and Ride (Holly is on here) and In the Saddle are also excellent.

 

[Amun]

Yes people usually go as a group. For safety reasons nobody would be allowed to ride unaccompanied on their own, but you could do one of their guided or instructional holidays as a solo traveller. There's normally a single supplement to pay, if you are not sharing a bedroom.
The horses Freerein use are good as gold, carefully chosen for each rider's experience, and used to being ridden by many different people. You need the experience to cope with the "unexpected" things that may come up: in our case these were nearly all caused by other people's horses! on different trips we had; a bolshy aggressive colt making us take a sizeable detour to avoid the field he was in; some overexcited horses that we (cough) let into another field as we were concerned ours were going to get kicked; both our geldings refusing to be caught in the morning as there was an in-season mare in the same field who was squealing and kicking out at everything that came near. Oh, and one night both our horses got out of their paddock, into a river and were half a mile away next morning! All part of the adventure!
Maybe if you speak to the company they might be able to book you on a guided/instructional holiday with clients from the same part of the country as you, then if you all got on well you might be able to share trips later? This question must surely have come up before, so I'd ask the company.

Edited to add. Ooh this is making me want to get out there again. I've been known to whimper at the sight of their panoramic brochure photos. *sigh*

Thanks for a long post! Oh so if I understand it right, it's not like there are 8 places and random people book in, it's usually 8 friends who book together?

 

[Amun]

I can't speak for these specific holidays but I've always gone on riding holidays alone (until I met a group of lovely people on holidays and now we often go on the same ones).
That is one of the things I like the most about it.

If you book through an agent they can find out who else is in the group or recommend a week that they have also sent other people who are travelling alone. I use Zaras Planet but Far and Ride (Holly is on here) and In the Saddle are also excellent.

Oh that sounds like something for me! So you can tell them that you are alone and they would find a group with other people that don't have company? I really dread the situation of being alone with a group of old friends. Not going anywhere yet as I need to level up a bit, just browsing future options ?

 

[GreyMane]

Thanks for a long post! Oh so if I understand it right, it's not like there are 8 places and random people book in, it's usually 8 friends who book together?

I had thought so, but I am very glad to read sportsmansB's post that it's possible to go alone, have a good time and find some new riding buddies. When OH came with me it was brilliant, but I did worry a lot about him as he's novice and had a couple of falls... not sure he'd be up for that again. And like you I would not want to be the only solo traveller in a group.
Maybe you will find somebody via the new riding stable you mentioned on the other thread, if you don't mind me mentioning this.

 

[criso]

Thanks for a long post! Oh so if I understand it right, it's not like there are 8 places and random people book in, it's usually 8 friends who book together?

I've done a few riding holidays in the uk and abroad and it's always been a mixture. So you might have a couple, a group of 3 friends and 3 lone travellers. Where I've gone alone I've flagged that I was willing to share but when it came to it had a room to myself.

 

[HollyWoozle]

I can't speak for these specific holidays but I've always gone on riding holidays alone (until I met a group of lovely people on holidays and now we often go on the same ones).
That is one of the things I like the most about it.

If you book through an agent they can find out who else is in the group or recommend a week that they have also sent other people who are travelling alone. I use Zaras Planet but Far and Ride (Holly is on here) and In the Saddle are also excellent.

Thanks for the mention. At Far and Ride we send a lot of single travellers on trips and it's a great way to meet new people! Definitely don't be put off from travelling alone, it's just a question of picking the right destination and you can always ask if there are other people travelling alone on the same date. We and the other agencies like Zara's Planet and ITS mentioned here also run escorted rides where one of us goes along to help form a more cohesive group. Some of my best friends are customers who I met on rides and you end up building a lovely little community of like-minded people and many of them/us have travelled together several times since meeting.

Trans Wales Trails are excellent - I have been there twice (I once drove 4 hours each way for a pub ride with them) and we send riders to them with great success. Whilst we don't send riders on Free Rein trips, we do know that people love their holidays. I do think Free Rein tend to get more groups booking as far as I know, whilst TWT often receive single travellers, but I am sure people would be made to feel welcome on both.

We are also selling trips to Springhill which is on the Welsh border and was highly recommended to us by trusted customers.

TWT tend to get booked up quite far in advance as they have limited dates and are very well-known, but they do have some availability still throughout the season, most likely as foreign riders are having to pull out because of COVID.

 

[Wishfilly]

So glad I found this topic! Looking into free reins now ? I'm just checking their trails and I've never been on a horse 6 hours a day. Is this also for novices? Btw is it common to just come alone or people usually book together with at least one friend? None of my friends do horse riding so I'm a bit worried that I would be the only person there "alone." Thanks a lot!

I went to Transwales alone for my birthday a couple of years ago, and had a great time. There were two other ladies there alone, and the others were also friendly!

That said, Transwales are probably not really suited to a complete novice- I had great fun, but I was very riding fit and confident at the time.

I would suggest trying to book some longer (2-3 hour) hacks in your local area first, and see how you cope with those!

 

[Mrs B]

I went to Cae Iago in Wales a few years ago - loved it and would go back in a heartbeat.

http://horseridingholidaysgb.co.uk/

 

[palo1]

I went to Transwales alone for my birthday a couple of years ago, and had a great time. There were two other ladies there alone, and the others were also friendly!

That said, Transwales are probably not really suited to a complete novice- I had great fun, but I was very riding fit and confident at the time.

I would suggest trying to book some longer (2-3 hour) hacks in your local area first, and see how you cope with those!

Paul Turner at Transwales is well known for loving faster riding so the rides there are fab for more advanced/confident riders. Having said that they will always do their best to cater for less confident riders. But really, some of the going is so wonderful on these hills that you really do want to feel the wind on your face!!

 

[Wishfilly]

Paul Turner at Transwales is well known for loving faster riding so the rides there are fab for more advanced/confident riders. Having said that they will always do their best to cater for less confident riders. But really, some of the going is so wonderful on these hills that you really do want to feel the wind on your face!!

Yes, I had an amazing time riding across some gorgeous countryside! It's on my bucket list to go back and do the full Transwales trip!

I remember my horse being absolutely lovely too (all of them seemed great, to be fair), forwards and responsive but safe and very sensible when we had to deal with traffic!

If that's your local riding country I am very jealous!

 

[palo1]

Yes, I had an amazing time riding across some gorgeous countryside! It's on my bucket list to go back and do the full Transwales trip!

I remember my horse being absolutely lovely too (all of them seemed great, to be fair), forwards and responsive but safe and very sensible when we had to deal with traffic!

If that's your local riding country I am very jealous!

Yes, although I would love to travel and do riding holidays abroad the local riding is truly brilliant. There is enough challenging stuff to mean you have to think and ride with a degree of skill and horsemanship as well as really world class views and going. We all ride in our family and find it easy enough to do 30 odd miles on a nice day with only 1/2 mile of road work and occasional minor road/lane crossings. The horses need to be, and become very fit and agile!

 

[SussexbytheXmasTree]

Transwales Trails also very good. They do weekends and longer trail rides across Wales.

Second this. Did the Hay Triangle last year for my 50th courtesy of my sister. 3 day ride great overnight accommodation, fast and interesting. My sister and BiL did the Trans-Wales the year before and loved it and so have been back several times. The on-site accommodation is lovely and food really good too.

 

[SussexbytheXmasTree]

Thanks for a long post! Oh so if I understand it right, it's not like there are 8 places and random people book in, it's usually 8 friends who book together?

On the Wales trip I did last year the only people together were me, my sister and BiL. The other 3 women were all travelling alone. We did a one day ride to start and there was a lone male on that. Most had non-horsey partners left at home.

All the riding trips I’ve done there have been men and women travelling completely alone. I’ve done ones previously in Iceland and Spain.

 

[Amun]

I went to Transwales alone for my birthday a couple of years ago, and had a great time. There were two other ladies there alone, and the others were also friendly!

That said, Transwales are probably not really suited to a complete novice- I had great fun, but I was very riding fit and confident at the time.

I would suggest trying to book some longer (2-3 hour) hacks in your local area first, and see how you cope with those!

Thank you! This sounds amazing, I can't wait to go on a horse riding holiday one day! When the time comes, I will probably check with the agent to see if there are others travelling alone. Though not anytime soon, I just love having something to look forward to ? so yeah definitely a lot of hacking before this happens

 

[Orangehorse]

At FreeRein you get off and walk a bit. This is to help the horses if going down a steep hill, and also so the riders don't get completely stiff.

 

[Becc]

I’ve done many Free Rein holidays over the years and to begin with I went by myself on their guided rides. It was a mix of couples and other single people so I never felt uncomfortable going by myself. The nice thing was I made friends on these holidays and in subsequent years we did the self guided trails at Free Rein and as we were all a similar ability it worked really well. The ‘learn to ride’ trail is fine for novices (as I was when I first went), although I would recommend some riding experience to make the most of it. They take it really steady and there’s opportunity to get off and walk to have a leg stretch. The other group trails, you do have to be confident to canter as where there’s a grassy track you can guarantee a good canter! Fab holidays and the only reason I don’t go any more is I ended up buying one of their horses!