riding holiday Ireland?

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Peter7917

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I'm looking into taking a riding holiday in Ireland. Mainly because I can't seem to find anything in the UK that quite fits the bill...

I want to do lots of XC and perhaps finish with a hunt dependent on how competent I am (or incompetent as the case may be!!)

I've found Flowerhill which looks suitable. Has anyone been there that could recommend?

Or is there anywhere else in Ireland that I should look into? Or indeed here but I don't want to be chucked on some riding school donkey!
 
echo the two above , castle leslie is gorgeous. anna harvey is lovely too. flowerhill is great craic too
 
Flowerhill is great. Oliver has fab selection of jumps & horses both with varying degrees of challenge. You don't need to be ready for Badminton to go, but it is a riding holiday with emphasis on riding as opposed to holiday, so you need to be riding fit with some jumping experience to get most out of it. Program is mainly XC during summer, and XC & hunting while hunting is on. I believe Far & Ride do all their UK bookings these days, so worth contacting them to see if it would suit you. (Holly has visited FH so knows exactly what it’s like).

Castle Leslie is good as well, but very different. Probably easier introduction to XC if you haven't done much/any jumping before. It is considerably more expensive & luxurious (has spa facilities & fancy restaurant). Long weekend programme tends to vary between non-jumping hacks around the estate, flat lessons / show jumping in the arena and culminate to XC ride (unless you really push to more XC, even then they might say no). Horses are great, instructors are great, they are BHS centre.

Haven’t been to Annaharvey, but looking at their website it probably lands somewhere between the above two on scale of Granny to Gung-Ho.

In UK, look up Jill Carenza (what she allows you to do XC wise depends on your experience).
 
yeah anna harvey is more of a cheaper homely, farmhouse experience than castle leslie. No tvs in most rooms and no spas etc. At night you have the option of a shared sitting room and fire - its very friendly and homely, but if you wanted 4 star luxury it wouldn't suit. They have a proper eventing ireland track with a good surface, so if you specified you wanted to jump a more advanced height they would accomodate you if they were happy you were able for it. But they don't offer hunt style experience, so the other 2 options would be closer to that.
 
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