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4 Days Fantastic Horse Riding Holiday in Exmoor National Park, UK
West Lynch Farm, Allerford, Selworthy, West Somerset, Somerset, South West England, England, UK
UK Horse Riding Holiday
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Come and join this four-day fantastic horse riding holiday for intermediate and advanced riders at Exmoor Riding in Minehead, England, UK! You can ride over challenging routes in the endless countryside of Exmoor, an area of outstanding natural beauty, or you can walk for miles. If you would like a break from the horses, you can also fly the birds instead or simply read a book in the peace and tranquility of the garden!
Key Information
- Rider Weight Limit: 209 pounds / 95 kilograms
- Horse Height Range: 14.2 to 17.1 hands
- Tack Type: English Tack
- Horse Breed: Appaloosa, Irish Sport Horse, Thoroughbred x Irish Draught, Irish Sport Horse x Welsh Cob, Thoroughbred, and Clydesdale
Meet the instructors
Cathy & Jess
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Highlights
- 3 horse riding days
- Approximate distance: a total of 40-miles
- Ride over North Hill, Webbers Post or Ley Hill
- Breakfasts and lunches will be provided daily
- Excellent riding and wonderful scenery
- 3 nights B&B accommodation in 15th century farmhouse
Skill level
- Intermediate
- Advanced
Styles
3 days with instruction
Group size: Maximum of 4 participants
Accommodation
Check-in Time:
16:00
Check-out Time:
14:00
Facilities
- Café
- Dining area
- Environmentally friendly
- Fireplace
- Garden
- Lounge
- Meditation garden
- Picnic area
- Special menu request
- Terrace
- Free parking
- Free Wi-Fi
- Internet access
- Library
- Wireless internet
Exmoor Riding is a delightful homely farmhouse bed and breakfast in Exmoor, a 15th-century national trust farmhouse within Holnicote Estate, Exmoor National Park, Porlock Vale. Exmoor Riding, situated within Exmoor National Park, steeped in history, is a house that tells its own story. It is in a conservation area, an area of outstanding natural beauty, a site of special scientific interest, and a national trust property within the Exmoor National Park.
If you are looking for a peaceful break in an old, eco-friendly farmhouse with activities and local natural history, then you will love staying there. The farmhouse was probably originally the Manor of Bossington and has many fascinating historical features, including the open-hall house design of the medieval period.
Built around 1456, roughly at the same time as the Chapel of Ease on the same ground, with reclamation and restoration through every century since, the house shows a great deal of charm and character. Dogs are welcome to stay at the bed-and-breakfast with you but cannot accompany you on the rides as the horses are not used to dogs.
Foxes Den
This room is the best room with character and comfort in mind, with a separate private shower room. The double/triple (double bed and single bed) bedroom overlooks the garden and hills beyond, while the shower room has an amazing view over the yard with the stables and horses. Quiet, peaceful, and relaxing, this room can also be let with an additional small bed or travel cot.
Badgers Sett
This is a delightful double room with beautiful views overlooking the garden, woods, and hills opposite. There is a private shower room along the corridor with a basin and a separate shower. Tea and coffee making facilities are available in-room with a TV. This room is also available with a triple room downstairs, Otters Holt, for additional family members sharing the same facilities.
Otters Holt
This is the largest room downstairs running from the front to the back of the house with plenty of space for the whole family. This room has two single beds and one double bed for larger families. Otters Holt can be let on its own with the use of the upstairs shower room or let with Badgers Sett.
Dogs
Exmoor Riding has dogs so yours are welcome to stay there too. They have a few simple doggie rules for the benefit of the birds and animals and other guests, to which you have to adhere but the dogs are allowed to sleep in your room with you. You will have to pay an additional cost of 5 GBP per night per dog.
Program
Day 1
Arrive and be welcomed at around 4 p.m. with a welcome tea and cake. If you arrive earlier, you are welcome to wander around the horse yard and meet the horses, and if available, you can mount and take a horse around the arena (especially important for unsure riders). Cathy will show you to your room and outline your itinerary for you on your arrival and discuss your riding experience.
The evening meal is available in the local village of Porlock within walking distance, Porlock Weir or the town of Minehead where there are numerous different places to eat. Most places sell a selection of vegetarian food, however, it is difficult to find vegetarian and gluten-free!
Day 2
Breakfast will be in the farmhouse between 8:30 to 9 a.m. then going round to The Yard for 10 a.m. to ride out with Hayley or Jess up the hills, through the woods, to the moor. These rides will take you over North Hill, to Selworthy Beacon or Webbers Post, Ley Hill, Cloutsham, or Grabbist Hill above Minehead. The rides are approximately 10 miles and may involve long trots and canters over the moors, as well as river work and ice cream breaks!
Return back to the yard for a light lunch of sandwiches with the afternoon Gentle Horse and Rider Workshop with Cathy or Hayley in the arena, close contact work, leading gently, asking your horse, free schooling, and horse agility. You will have the evening to yourself.
Day 3
After breakfast, make your way round to the yards and meet up with your horses. If you would like to help bring them in, then you are very welcome, for grooming and tacking up. Your second ride will be in a very different area of habitat and views, generally over Webbers Post, with views across Exmoor and north to Selworthy.
The afternoon will be free for your exploration of Exmoor either by car or on foot and relax in the garden with a book. If you wish, you may also watch the afternoon flying display in the summer months at 2 p.m. with no extra charge.
Day 4
Your final ride for further exploration of the hills on a totally different route to the other two rides, up above Selworthy and beyond to the South West Coast Path. Again, amazing views south to further Exmoor and Dartmoor and north to South Wales over the Bristol Channel. Spectacular!
On return to the farmhouse, you will enjoy your final lunch, then you are free to return home or move onward with your exploration of the wonderful SW England peninsular.
Horses
The horses are professionals and are all barefoot, some are bitless and others prefer to ride with a bit for comfort and assurance. The horses you may ride are:
- Archie - 17.1 hands, Irish Sports Horse, 17 years of age.
- Tom - 16.2 hands, Clydesdale, 9 years of age, ideal for the more nervous rider or "weight carrier".
- Theo - 15 hands, Cob, new to the yard, chunky but amazing ride and a good "weight carrier".
- Danny - 14.2 hands, Arab x Cob, a little fast at times but great for a good understanding rider.
- Ryan - 15 years old, Appaloosa Warmblood with a great personality and good for intermediate riders with positive energy.
- Paps - A real schoolmaster, an excellent lead horse, and client horse but requires a positive hand and leg.
- Juta - The main lead mare. That says it all really. Small, compact, and amazingly willing. Appaloose "Spot" by name.
- Flo - Will be following along shortly, currently three years of age but hopefully willing and ready by the summer of 2020 for rides for competent youngsters.
Included excursions
- 3 half-day horse rides over Exmoor, National Trust Honicote Estate, North Hill, Ley Hill, Webbers Post, and surroundings of Porlock Vale.
- 1 Gentle Horse and Rider Workshop (Alternative: Holistic Self Selection Applied Zoopharmocognosy Workshop also available. Shiatsu Workshop is also available at an additional cost of 25 GBP)
Instructors
Cathy Powell
Cathy is trained as a teacher and secretary, lived overseas for several years. She wrote as an environmental journalist, art, and illustration exhibitions and is a mother of two. She masters holistic horse riding and therapy for horses. In addition, she is also a visitor attraction founder and manager, book-keeper and administrator, teacher from pre-school to further education, and also animal care and management, zoo operator, and equestrian yard owner.
Jess Chalker
BTEC Level 3 Horse Care and Management; Ride leader.
Location
During this horse riding holiday, you will ride over the moors and woods surrounding Porlock Vale. Exmoor Riding is situated just one mile from Porlock and five miles west of Minehead in England, UK. Exmoor Riding has access to hundreds of miles of off-road riding through woodland and over moorland, with spectacular views of the sea and across the moor of Somerset and Devon.
Exmoor Riding is situated in the sheltered Porlock Vale, nestled at the foot of North Hill with the sea to the northwest and surrounded by glorious riding country all around. The terrain is quite challenging in places and the horses are kept working fit to cope with this. Exmoor Riding is in the heart of the National Trust Holnicote Estate, originally developed as a hunting estate, but now
leaving an amazing tapestry of trails and tracks for riding.
This too is within the Exmoor National Park, renowned for some of the best riding country in the world. Several takeaways, pubs, and restaurants are a short walk away in the delightful village of Porlock with menus to suit every dietary requirement.
Distances
- Bridgwater, 30 miles
- Minehead (the nearest town), 5 miles
- Porlock (the nearest village), 1 mile
- Taunton, 30 miles
Features
Activities
- Horse riding
General
- Dining area
- Garden
- Pet friendly
Food
During this holiday, you will be served breakfasts and light sandwich lunches. Exmoor Riding's dining room is a beautiful spacious room with 15th-century fireplace, 17th-century windows, 18th-century slate skirtings, and beams believed to have been recycled from shipwrecks off the coast.
A full English or Continental breakfast is served daily for your enjoyment to set you off on your day, including fruit juice, selection of cereals, fresh fruit, yogurt, cooked breakfast consisting of bacon, sausage, egg cooked in any way, tomato and mushrooms, white or brown toast, croissant and homemade marmalade, and honey from the surrounding fields.
The following meals are included:
- Breakfast
- Lunch
- Snacks
The following drinks are included:
- Water
- Coffee
- Tea
- Detox juices
Things to do (optional)
- Exmoor Half Day Owl and Bird of Prey Experience - 100 GBP for two
- Gentle Connection Riding Lessons - 40 GBP for one/60 GBP for two
- Wildlife Safaris
- Exmoor Adventures
- Miles upon miles of walks
- Beautiful walks to the coast and beyond
What's included
- 3 half days of riding
- Gentle Horse and Rider workshop
- Optional 1-hour Gentle Connection Riding Lesson on Day 1
- 3 nights accommodation
- Daily breakfast and lunch
What's not included
- Evening meals (Plenty of places to eat great food in the local village of Porlock one mile from the farmhouse; an easy walking or driving distance.)
- Airfare
- Airport transfers
How to get there
Recommended Airports
BHX
Birmingham Airport
186 km
Transfer not provided
BRS
Bristol Airport
62 km
Transfer not provided
LGW
Gatwick Airport
236 km
Transfer not provided
LHR
Heathrow Airport
218 km
Transfer not provided
EXT
Exeter International Airport
54 km
Transfer not provided
Driving directions from the East
- Follow this route: London - Bristol - M5 - Bridgwater - A39 - Minehead - A39 towards Porlock.
- Turn right 5 miles west of Minehead at Allerford Corner into Allerford village.
- You can find Exmoor Riding 3 / 4 mile along the lane on the left-hand side next to the Chapel of Ease.
Driving directions from the West
- Follow this route: North Devon - A39 Lynton - Lynmouth - Porlock.
- Go straight as you leave Porlock village when the main road bends sharply to the right about 1/4 mile out of Porlock.
- Travel to the end of the lane (about 1 mile), turn right over a little bridge, and you will find the property on the right.
Driving directions from the South
- Follow this route: Tiverton - Dulverton - Minehead.
- Turn left onto A39 to bypass Minehead.
- Turn right 5 miles west of Minehead at Allerford Corner into Allerford village.
- You will find 3/4 mile along the lane on the left-hand side next to the Chapel of Ease.
Arrival by train
You can arrive at Taunton Station then take bus 28 to Minehead, then bus 10 to Allerford, or taxi. They all know where Exmoor Riding is, about 5 miles from Minehead.
Cancellation Policy
- A reservation requires a deposit of 50% of the total price.
- The deposit is non-refundable, if the booking is cancelled.
- The rest of the payment should be paid on departure.
For this organizer you can guarantee your booking through BookHorseRidingHolidays.com. All major credit cards supported.
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