Recently, I wrote a blog about how to make horse riding friends, and briefly told you guys about the amazing horse riding holiday meet-ups Hooves organises. In this post, I will go into more detail about these meet-ups and give you all the reasons as to why you should come riding on one of these amazing equestrian vacation destinations with a group of horse lovers from around the world.
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Simple. All the dates for the meet-ups can be found on the Book Your Trip section of this website. You can contact me to enquire and book your horse riding holiday for those specific dates. After you confirm your booking, we create a whatsapp group for everyone to join. Here, we get to know each other a little bit, sort out arrival times, and of course chat a bit about the horses we ride at home! Finally, at the start of the meet-up, we all find each other when we arrive at the airport and go to our final destination together. Here, the real fun starts as we get settled, meet our horses for the week, get to know each other and talk about all the amazing experiences we're going to have! I personally join most meet-ups, except our meet-up in Turkey which is hosted by the incredible Luzia. All these locations are places that I've visited before and absolutely fell in love with, and therefore the (in my opinion) best horse rides around the world you can possibly do. Below you can click on the locations to read all about each horse riding holiday, and I'll give you guys a short summary of what our meet-ups in these places look like.
Our next meet-up in the beautiful countryside of Italy is from 24 to 31 October 2022. Here, we will enjoy a week of horse riding, and we can choose the time and length of our ride each day too! We will be having dinner or lunch in their restaurant, which offers some of the best food I've ever had and incredible views, especially during sunset. If you are traveling with someone who isn't a horse rider, they are also welcome to come as this place also offers riding lessons, hiking and mountain biking. Besides our daily horse rides, we'll spend our days visiting the little town of Montieri (with an amazing traditional pizzeria), sipping Italian beers or wine by the pool, and visiting nearby markets or the beach. Here, you really have all the freedom to join whichever activity you want! Whether you want to have a rest day, a full-day trail ride or a foodie day, it's all possible on these horsey meet-ups.
We will be visiting Mexico again from 13 to 20 October 2022. This ranch is in a beautiful location and also offers loads of freedom as to which activities you'd like to do each day. They don't offer lessons, but do offer trail riding for beginners on a few of their steadier horses. For experienced riders, these rides are exciting and their more advanced horses are such a pleasure to ride. They also offer hiking and mountain biking, and their jacuzzi with a view on the waterfall is amazing for those post-ride cocktails and chats. They offer cultural day trips to nearby towns which you can join if you'd like to. Each day we can choose for how long, how many times and when we want to go horse riding through the stunning Mexican highlands.
This is an amazing opportunity for strong intermediate and experienced riders. The upcoming meet-ups are from 14 to 21 December 2022, 4 to 11 March and 18 to 25 March 2023. Unlike the trail riding holidays in Mexico and Italy, this trail is not center-based, which means we will be riding from location to location each day. For the first days, we will be riding with cattle and moving them to a different pasture. The hours are long and we all get to know each other by spending entire days on horseback together. This ride is an authentic and traditional Argentine cattle drive, through rough terrain on amazing horses, and with wildcamping in some of the most beautiful nature of South America. The friends you make on a trail like this last a lifetime.
The next meet-up in the south of Turkey will be hosted by our very own Luzia, from 8 to 14 April 2023. Luzia will ride with you over the stretched out beaches of the Lycian way, through lush forests, and through ancient cities. The rides are perfect for those of us looking for speed as you will get to gallop these endurance-trained Arabians over the beach. This also means you need to be a strong intermediate or experienced rider to come along on this trail riding vacation. Spend all day together on horseback as you explore the incredibly ancient architecture of the Lycian way on horseback.
Luxor is one of the most magical places on earth. Our next meet-up will be from 10 to 17 May 2023. On this riding holiday for experienced riders, we will be galloping through the desert, exploring valleys and mountains, riding through the city of Luxor, and watching the hot air balloons take off during sunrise. During the hottest time of the day, the horses rest, and we enjoy the pool and bar at the hotel. This truly is an amazing experience to have with a group of like-minded people. There is so much freedom as well, as you get to choose what kind of ride you want to do each day. When we were asked what we'd like to do for our last ride, we apparently had huge grins on our faces, which made them suggest to go to the desert for some final gallops on our favourite horses.
As I mentioned in my previous post on this topic, this is a great way to meet new horsey people! There are so many people all around the world with a passion for horses, but it can still be difficult to find people to go riding with. When I was a teenager, most of my friends were horse girls, so I had lots of people to go riding with. However, as we all grew up, friendships ended and a lot of them stopped horse riding. I couldn't believe anyone would ever not want to spend time with horses, but besides that, I also suddenly didn't have anyone to go riding with anymore. If you're anything like me, you live and breathe horses, and you're one of those people that points out every single horse they see. My entire life revolves around horses, they are my passion, my hobby, my work, and when I have some free time I spend it with... horses. It's therefore always nice to connect with people that have this same passion, which is one of my favourite things about these meet-ups. You get to ride, talk and breathe horses for the entire time that you're on holiday, and connect with everyone there. After these meet-ups, people often stay in touch and organise another trail riding trip together the next year!
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Lots of us have the desire to travel solo, it gives you complete freedom and allows you to meet new people more easily than when you travel with a friend or partner. I completely understand how scary it can be to travel solo for the first time, I was extremely nervous when I did my first solo trip. After years of solo travel, it can be easy to tell people to 'just do it', but it's completely normal to be nervous. These meet-ups are the perfect in between of traveling solo, but not alone, and it can be just what you need to continue on a solo trip. Something that people often do is to travel solo after the meet-up. This way, they already learnt a lot more about the country, culture and people, and it feels more comfortable to continue traveling. We are all essentially strangers to each other when we first meet-up at the airport, and you are still traveling solo to get there, but it's a great opportunity to make friends quickly so that you're solo, but not alone.
Sharing the experience of exploring nature, horse riding and culture together is incredible. I am personally very introverted and I love to spend time alone. However, even for someone as introverted as me, it's nice to spend these amazing horse riding trips with others. Also because you are able to spend some time alone whenever you feel like you need it. I traveled by myself for the longest time and loved it, but I was surprised to find out how great it is to share these experiences with other like-minded people.
If these meet-ups sounds like something you would like to join, feel free to reach out! Also subscribe to my newsletter below to stay up to date on upcoming meet-ups.
