Western Holidays
Western Holidays
If you are interested in spending your holiday with the horses, there are plenty of options, some being right here in theUK. Since Western riding is gaining in popularity in the British Isles, many farms are now offering riding holidays focused on the Western style.
The Vicarage at Churchtown, Cornwall, offers one such experience. This farm offers a Western holiday including trail rides
from one hour to the overnight campout spanning two days. They are located near the beach where you can swim your horse in the sea if you so choose. Other activities available are carriage driving, bareback riding, and natural horsemanship. There is a team of Western riding instructors at the Vicarage that will accompany you on the trail or work with you in thearena to practise your Western skills.
Bareback riding is a good way to gain confidence quickly. You do not use a saddle, but ride directly on the horse's back. Your balance will improve a great deal, so when you go back to using a regular Western saddle, your ride will be much
easier and you'll feel the advantage of added balance. This is a program the instructors at the Vicarage advocate for beginning Western riders, so they have added the bareback class to their holiday package.
Another idea for a Western holiday if you are just getting started is to book yourself a spot in a Western riding clinic or one of the schools that teach the competitive portions of the Western style. Since most of these clinics take place over a period of 2 to 3 days, you could take your holiday at that time and find lodging near the clinic site.
This might be a way for the
rest of the family to tour whatever area your clinic is in and participate in the local attractions and activities whilst you are learning more about your new undertaking.
In order to find these clinics and holidays, just type Western riding clinics UKinto your search engine. The UK riding clubs are also a great source of information and most have good websites just full ofcontent.
For those of you a little more adventurous and willing to travel farther from home, you might consider an American Dude Ranch or Guest Ranch. These places are often in some of the original cattle drive and working cowboy areas of America.
Most have very nice accommodations and many activities for all members of the family, riding or not. A Western holiday on a real working American cattle ranch might be just what you'd enjoy.
There are over 300 of these guest ranches in the US alone, so you'll have lots to choose from. They all offer different holiday packages with the focus always, of course, on
Western riding. What better place to experience your new Western interests than in the original plains of the US, home to the infamous cattle drives, lawless 6-gun towns of old, and some absolutely gorgeous scenery to ride through and camp
out in.
For information and specifics on American Western riding holidays, type Dude Ranches or Guest Ranches USA into your search engine.
 |
| Western Holidays |
