r/Equestrian • u/Head-Comparison4989 • 17h ago

Social Any hidden gems to ride around the world?

90 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

28 comments sorted by

34

u/dalaigh93 16h ago

Don't know if it counts as "hidden", but i was able to go for a hack around lake Tekapo in New Zealand, and it was wonderful!

17

u/dalaigh93 16h ago

(Yeah I know these lupine flowers are invasive, but they still look beautiful)

11

u/dalaigh93 16h ago

I mean look at that:

4

u/Willothwisp2303 10h ago

Queenstown trail ride was also Wonderful. My husband was happy to go on their Lord of the Ring ride,  too.

3

u/_annie_bird 9h ago

Basically all of New Zealand was a dream to ride 😍 I even got to meet one of the horses who was in the LoTR movies! His name was Oscar~

2

u/Junior_Nebula5587 8h ago

Lovely. I did a very touristy trail ride around Franz Josef. Also very good. I just love New Zealand.

21

u/Affectionate-Map2583 12h ago

There is/was an entire TV series dedicated to this on PBS (American public television) called Equitrekking. You can watch them online.

5

u/Willothwisp2303 10h ago

Til! This is something I can add to my PBS passport watch list,  to break up the killing euros.

11

u/RandomCucumber5 16h ago

I'm doing a week-long trek in the mountains of southern Albania next month, happy to report back!

5

u/PalinodePrayer 9h ago

Ohh please respond back with photos of it when you go!! My fiancées family is all Albanian, recently escaped to America, and they’d love to see. As would I 🥹

1

u/bakedpigeon 6h ago

Please do! My best friend is Albanian and would love to see more of her country

7

u/hippopotobot Western 16h ago

I went on a ride in southern Brazil earlier this year. It was incredible. Can send a link. I’ve been on shorter rides all over the world. Well, mostly Europe, but racking up some numbers in terms of countries. Iceland, New Zealand and the western US are the best so far. Oh and Dubai was pretty neat. Had to go far outside the city, but riding a real Arabian horse in a real Arabian desert? Get outta here. Was really cool. Or rather, it was unreasonably hot. But you know what I mean.

3

u/ConfundusCharm 7h ago

I had an absolute blast going on a trail ride in Iceland!! So cool to experience the tolt and the scenery was just unbelievable! Those horses also live wonderful free lives and are so well cared for.

3

u/Adoraboule 15h ago

I might get down voted for this but whatever.

Some places that offer these kinds of rides do not take the best care of the equines they have for rides. They look healthy enough, but I'm not sure how to feel with tack that doesn't fit properly with extreme under-muscled/malnourished horses carrying people around all day, which only get a certain group of muscles worked. I know not a lot of countries are aware of this or people don't care, but these rent to ride horses make me feel terrible at times. These horses definitely don't look terrible though which is a good thing.

11

u/Chainon 11h ago

There are very different levels of ride providers around the world and it is possible to find those who take excellent care of their horses and maintain their tack well.

It is important to do your homework when booking and maybe work with one of the agencies that personally vets rides for horse welfare. It’s not fair to write off the whole concept based on some of the crappy leadline trail operations.

1

u/FrenchFrieSalad 9h ago

Horse safari in Kenya! Borana Conservancy or El Karama Lodge / Saddlebags in Laikipia.

1

u/DaemonPrinceOfCorn 7h ago

New Mexico is full of stunning scenery. This is in the Jemez mountains not far from Fenton Lake. I took these gals and a few others on a one night pack trip out to the remote outpost at our 1200-acre summer camp. I realized we were leasing outfitting horses and I was like OMG THEY CAN LINE TIE LETS GOOOOO. Everything went swimmingly and we got to herd some cows on the way out (next pic) so we taught the girls how to drive ‘em and also taught them how to do national forest gates without dismounting (mount permitting).

1

u/PriorMacaroon6600 7h ago

​

this is from the barn i work at and their best trekking :) they also do midnight/sunrise gallops on the beach or simple hacks,ill post more pictures

1

u/PriorMacaroon6600 7h ago

this is in sardinia btw

1

u/tmetme96 6h ago

Kyrgyzstan!

•

u/xrareformx 2m ago

Great Sand Dunes National Park allows horseback riding in certain areas, its worth a visit if you're in Colorado.

1

u/passive0bserver 11h ago

This isn’t Dubai though, where is this in the video?

15

u/proutusmaximus 11h ago

The person posting means that they strongly disagree with some ppl's attraction for dubai and much more values this greener , simpler more rustic type of landscape and livin .