You are here: Home / Articles / Horse care

Horse-friendly UK holiday destinations

Sarah Jenkins

3 July, 2010

Why pay someone to ride your horse while you're on holiday when you could take him with you? Here are H&H's pick of horse-friendly UK holiday destinations and feedback from people who have been

East

Place: Bluestone Farm

Location: South Creake, Fakenham, Norfolk

Rider accommodation: traditional farmhouse B&B

Horse accommodation: stabling and limited grazing

Cost: B&B £80 per double per night; stable £15 a night

Gill Arnold and friends from her yard in Hertfordshire have been going to Bluestone Farm for the past three years. She says: "It's close to Holkham beach, but not right on it, so we get a mixture of rolling countryside too. We set off cantering down a farm track and then started thinking, 'Is this ever going to end?'"

Further information: www.bluestonefarm.co.uk

Central

Place: Home Farm

Location: Hallington, Lincolnshire

Rider accommodation: self-catering, renovated 19th-century barn cottages

Horse accommodation: stabling and/or grazing available

Cost: accommodation — £200-£500 per week. Grazing £100 per week, with stabling £190 per week

Kay O'Brien from Leicestershire has been to Hallington with her husband and children three times, and says: "The roads are quiet and any cars slow down. The wide verges are well maintained so you're safe to canter. You'd think the area would be flat, but being in the Wolds the views are fabulous."

Further information: www.canter-hallington.co.uk

North

Place: Auchencheyne Country House

Location: Moniaive, Scotland

Rider accommodation: self-catering holiday cottage or B&B

Horse accommodation: bedded stable and grazing

Cost: B&B £27.50 per person per night; £15 per horse per day; cottage £360-£550 per week

Di Postlethwaite, from West Cumbria, and a friend have taken their horses on holiday for the past 10 years. She says: "There weren't miles of tracks to canter on, but it's a beautiful area with lovely views. We explored the forestry on our first day's riding — fabulous."

Further information: www.auchencheyne.co.uk/holiday-cottage-horses.html

West

Place: the Brecon Beacons and Radnor Loop

Location: four-day circular 75-mile trail ride through the national park and mid-Wales

Rider accommodation: different B&B each night

Horse accommodation: grazing at each B&B

Cost: £285 per horse and rider

Pembrokeshire-based Penni Jones and three friends decided to take on the Radnor Loop in the Brecon Beacons this May. Penni says: "The sheer vastness of the place is fantastic. We did get lost a few times, but that's all part of the fun. You need to be fit to do your horses though — it's hard going, five or six hours in the sun for four days."

Further information: www.breconbeaconsandradnorloop.co.uk

For the full article on UK riding holidays, see the current issue of Horse & Hound (1 July, '10)

Related articles:

• Saddles stolen from Riding for the Disabled group
• Farrier suspended for allowing his untrained brother to shoe a horse
• New equestrian college for Somerset
• Riding stables drum up trade with special deals
• Riding stables rises from the ashes with local support
• How to go cross-county this winter
• Enjoy cross-country schooling this winter
• Do you want to learn the medieval art of 'tilting'?
• Spanish Riding School's UK tour: tickets still available
• Riding school uses 24in pony as marketing tool

Printer friendly version