Saddl · Riding Holidays

Riding holidays
across the UK and beyond

Multi-day riding breaks from Exmoor to the Scottish Highlands, trail rides, residential training and wilderness crossings. Plus the specialist operators who run them.

What a riding holiday includes

Most multi-day riding breaks offer either a fixed-base format, staying in one place and riding out each day, or a trail ride, where you move between overnight stops on horseback with luggage transferred separately.

Fixed-base breaks are easier logistically, with comfortable accommodation and the option to vary pace each day. Trail rides are more immersive, you cover real ground and finish somewhere different from where you started. Both typically include accommodation, most meals, a guide, and horses matched to your ability.

Assessing your level honestly

Most operators grade rides as beginner, intermediate or advanced. Beginners can walk and trot comfortably but don't canter. Intermediate riders canter confidently in open country for several hours. Advanced riders are at home at all paces across rough ground.

Be honest with yourself. Most reputable operators would rather talk through a booking and find the right fit than take a rider who is going to struggle.

Questions to ask before booking

→What is the maximum rider weight, and how strictly enforced?
→How many hours per day will I actually be in the saddle?
→What breed of horse, and how are they matched to riders?
→What happens if I need to take a rest day?
→Is guiding provided throughout, or are sections self-guided?
→What is covered: accommodation, meals, tack, insurance?

First-hand accounts

Riding holidays we've been on ourselves, written up honestly.

Tuscany, Italy

Castellare di Tonda: Western Riding in the Tuscan Hills

Castellare di Tonda is an agriturismo estate near Montaione, about twenty minutes from San Gimignano and forty-five from Florence. It sits across roughly 280 hectares of Chianti hill country, the kind of place where you book an apartment with a pool and let the days slow right down. We stayed here as a family, and the reason it earns a place on Saddl is the riding. It's run on site by Scotti Quarter Horses, and they do it properly.

Holiday listings

Duration

Level

Region

9 holidays available

3 nights

Emmetts on Exmoor

3-Night Exmoor Riding Break

All abilities

Simonsbath, Somerset

Three nights at a 4-star Exmoor farmhouse with two full days and a half-day on the moor, hacking, dressage and groundwork in one of England's finest riding landscapes.

Beacons Explorer

Intermediate

Talgarth, North & Mid Wales

Four days riding through the heart of the Brecon Beacons on Welsh Cobs, a self-contained loop from the Talgarth base with all meals and accommodation included.

Grange Trekking Centre

Black Mountains Week

All abilities

Abergavenny, South Wales

Seven nights in the Black Mountains with five full days of trekking on Welsh Cobs, fixed-base B&B, packed lunches and the best ridgelines in South Wales.

Witherslack Hall Equestrian Centre

Lake District Riding Week

All abilities

Grange-over-Sands, Cumbria

Five days riding through 2,500 acres of Cumbrian woodland and fell country from a Georgian farmhouse on the edge of the Lake District.

Yorkshire Riding Centre

Residential Training Break

All abilities

Harrogate, North Yorkshire

Residential training at the yard of GB High Performance Dressage Coach Christopher Bartle, multi-day packages covering dressage, showjumping and cross-country in North Yorkshire.

The Trans-Wales Trail

Intermediate

Talgarth, North & Mid Wales

Five days crossing Wales on horseback, from the Brecon border to the Atlantic coast on Welsh Section D Cobs, with all accommodation and meals included.