The B&B/trail riding holiday

By Your Horse

Seasonal guides

21 July 2010 14:48

Avril Shorney took her Thoroughbred mare Beauty, along with a friend's advanced horse, for a Bridlerides break in the Cotswolds.
"My friend and I started by wanting to ride the Ridgeway in Buckinghamshire and the idea snowballed from there," she exlpains. "Bridlerides took care of the accommodation in B&Bs, and as it was June, the horses lived out, though there were stables available. We were given meticulous maps, which were brilliant - there was no way you could get lost.
"We rode out every day and, in the course of our four-and-a-half day holiday, we only saw one other rider. It was wonderful riding along old drovers' trails and there was very little roadwork to do. My friend's eventer was about to compete the next week, so it was lovely for him to do some calming. Both horses were beautifully behaved."
Bridlerides offers trail riding holidays throughout England and Wales. The package price for one day's ride and one night's accommodation is around £70 per person per day, which includes farmhouse B&B, an evening meal, grazing and non-heating coarse mix for your horse, tack storage, use of grooming kit, lorry parking, detailed route notes for each day of your ride, and a list of local farriers and vets.
- For more details: call 0121 445 6998, email Bobbie@bridlerides.co.uk or go to www.bridlerides.co.uk

You can also have a go at something totally new while on holiday - what about Trec? Lanarkshire's Corehous Farm B&B is also a Trec centre. Corehouse hosted the BHS Trec Scottish Championships in 2001 and offers training for all levels. B&B in a double room costs around £25 per night, and around £10 for your horse gets him a rubber-matted stable, access to a grazing paddock and haylage, but you must supply your own feed and bedding. Call for details of availability and pricing of Trec triaing sessions:
- For more details: call 01555 661 377, email info@corehousefarm.co.uk, or go to www.corehousefarm.co.uk

If you've always hankered to gallop through the waves, Norfolk's Home Farm Stable could be the place to visit. Located by the sea, you can ride on the beach without restrictions, although manager Mary Ransom advises before coming, to "make sure your horse has seen water before, and when you're on the beach keep well away from children and families. And don't ride out too far when the tide's out - these are all common-sense measures,"
B&B in high season costs around £44 per night for a double room, and a stable with bedding and access to unrestricted grazing is another £10 per night. If you book seven nights you only pay for six. There's a heated tack room, rug racks and 60m x 20m outdoor school, as well as plenty of inland riding. Call for details of other seasonal prices
- For more details: call 01485 525 350, email nick.davis@tinyonline.co.uk or www.homefarmstables-norfolk.co.uk