First time in the saddle

Nobody expects you to know anything

The ride opens with a short instruction on the ground: where your weight goes, what the reins do and do not do, how to ask the horse to stop. It is the practical minimum, not a lesson — this is a ride, not a riding course.

You are not sorted by ability and you are not left to work out which horse you have been handed. Somebody at the centre chooses it for you — for your build, and for how confident you look standing next to it — and a guide rides with the group for the whole hour.

The part people find hardest

Getting on. It is the one moment that feels awkward, and it is over in seconds — a staff member is there for it. A nervous rider or a young child can also have somebody at the horse's head out on the trail, for as long as that helps.

After that the difficulty drops away, because the pace is a relaxed walk and the horse knows where the group is going.

The part people remember

The stretch where the trees open out. The route crosses shaded pine-forest trail and open countryside behind Side before it reaches the shoreline, and coming out of the pines into that much light is the part worth looking up for.

A riding helmet is available for every rider, handed out at the centre before anyone mounts, along with a short word on how the group will ride.

What to settle before you go

• Comfortable clothes and closed shoes — trainers are enough, sandals are not
• Tell us anything that matters: a back problem, a pregnancy, a nervous first-timer, a child's age
• Children generally ride from 6, at the guide's decision on the day
• The recommended maximum rider weight is around 100–110 kg, for the horse's sake

Riding is never risk-free and we will not pretend otherwise. What we can say is what happens on every ride to keep it calm.