Horse Riding Holidays UK and Abroad

There is no right to roam on horseback in England. The Countryside and Rights of Way Act opened moor, heath and down to walkers and closed the same land to anyone with an animal other than a dog. English riding therefore follows the bridleway network, the commons and moors where an older right survives, and routes a landowner has agreed.

Dartmoor has commons and open moor together and is the most serious riding in England. Exmoor is smaller, steeper and greener. The New Forest is gentle and busy, and the easiest place to put a nervous rider on a horse. Cannock Chase and Sherwood offer forestry tracks on sand, the Yorkshire Dales and the North York Moors give long days on hard-wearing ground, Northumberland gives emptiness, and the South Downs give ridge tracks with miles between roads. Riding in Cornwall is coast and lane rather than moor.

Wales gives a beach and a mountain in one week, and Scotland is the one place where access rights follow the ground across most land and inland water. England gives density: you are rarely more than an hour from somewhere worth riding, and a long weekend is realistic.

Five hours a day for five days uses different muscles and a different balance. Day two is the hard one, and most people are fine again by day four. Most people underestimate the ground: an hour of sitting trot on a moorland track asks more of you than a canter on sand.

Somewhere around day four it turns. You stop thinking about your hands and legs, the horse stops testing you, and you look at the country instead of at the ground ahead. That is what people go back for, and it comes sooner on the right kind of week.

The fix is booking the right kind rather than training for the wrong one. If you have never done this before, our guide to riding holidays for beginners sets out a first week.