From Nelly's desk
Ride In Style and Comfort, Argentina
I was very impressed and had great fun! Click for their site
We have 2 new escapes – totally different from each other: a true wilderness escape in the Gorge Country near Uralla NSW and a new true luxury escape in Victoria near the Great Ocean Road. What they have in common is excellent riding, seclusion and great scenery.
We thought it might be a good service to enable you to link straight through to some of our favourite operators. They each have a very comprehensive website of their own, giving prices and schedules, travel and contact information. You can easily access their sites by clicking their highlighted names in our ride descriptions.
They are tried and proven operators and will look after you well, we would not work with them otherwise. We will still of course help with any bookings you wish to make, inform you about our other riding venues, or arrange special rides for you whenever possible. As a few of the people we work with do not have their own website, we are their only information source.
Since we last updated this page a lot happened. Because of the problems the world is experiencing -man made as well as natural disasters - the insurance industry has had to re-assess their risk coverage (so they tell us!). They re-assessed and determined that horseriding is extremely dangerous (so they tell us) and it is now difficult to get an insurer to cover horse related pursuits and when they do, the cost is very high.. The consequence is that many operators have closed down, and some of the others have had to increase their rates.
The recent outbreak of Equine Influenza in many Australian locations has interrupted some operations – we hope to be clear of this problem soon.
We have found a wonderful eco-ride in Brazil.
The National Trail is still rideable at most places, although some sections have been so badly drought affected that we recommend not planning trips until later. Other sections have just recently had and still have a flood problem…
The section Julie and I rode is described in Julie's account of the trip in “The Outback” Magazine issue No. 19, page 72.
My version of it can be found here...
True Queensland Cattle Drive
A wonderful annual event. A true Cattle Drive: Link to Harry Redford Cattle Drive
Brumbies
On a recent occasion I had a chance to gain a little insight into brumby handling – fascinating, you learn so much about the true basic instinctive nature of the horse. I am determined to organise a long weekend clinic at Uralla – we can take up to 12 participants – get in touch if you are interested.
For those of you who don't know the word, brumbies are feral horses. they are the descendants of the very horses the early settlers brought with them. They are descendants of the horses from 200 odd years, which worked for settlers and explorers and died for them, sometimes even with them, opening up this great country, which we now enjoy. They became feral because work horses when they were no longer needed, right up to more recent times, were just let go to fend for themselves. It is a matter of honour that we look after them. True, in great numbers they can severely affect a local ecology, just as people do! For their own sake, their numbers have to be controlled otherwise many die of starvation and thirst along with other wildlife. To achieve this control brumbies are now rounded up and ‘recycled’ into riding horses. I have a friend who successfully competes in dressage with one - so why don't you get interested and help which-ever way you can. How about adopting one?
