Best Horse Riding trips for the Year of the Horse

Okavango Delta, Botswana

Going on horseback is a great way of game viewing. The Okavango Delta is an iconic location for a safari and doing this on horseback makes it all the more special.
Participants need to be confident at all paces.

Accommodation: Mobile camps as well as fixed tents. This can be combined with alternative fixed camps at the beginning and end of your stay. Consider Xudum where you can go on the quintessential Mokoro trips as well as the more traditional game drives.

Mongolia

Famous for its horse culture, Mongolia’s vast expanses promise the experience of ‘riding without fences’. In the far west of Mongolia, one can ride with the legendary Kazakh eagle hunters on horseback.
In the far north, go on a riding expedition to locate the encampments of the tsaatans. For the more adventurous, continue on to Tuva.
Accommodation: Fly camps. Urbane Nomads offers luxury mobile tent stays in Western and Northern Mongolia.

New Zealand

So you’d located Middle Earth. If those horse-riding battle sequences in the LOTR trilogy left you wanting to experience horseriding in the same inspired scenery yourself, there are few bases better than Cape Kidnappers. A stylish and luxurious lodge set on an actual working farm, the size of the estate and staff-to-guest ratio are staggering.
Accommodation: Cape Kidnappers (photo above).
Urbane Nomads offers heli-skiing and horseriding trips to New Zealand.

Iceland

From the land of fire and ice comes the five-gaited Nordic horse. Experience the smooth tolt, the most famous of the Icelandic horse’s gait. Icelandic equestrian demonstration frequently incorporates the rider carrying a tray full of filled glasses, undisturbed, in one hand.

Atacama, Chile

The driest place in the world, the Atacama has a fascinatingly diverse array of landscapes ranging from salt pans to geysers, flamingo-ringed lagoons to gorges. Explore Andean foothills and other- worldly landscapes, bathe in exclusively accessed hot springs whilst being based in minimalist- designed hotels. The Atacama is also renowned for being one of the best places for stargazing.
Accommodation: The Explora Atacama has an incredible assortment of activities and maintains its own stable of horses, bikes, mountaineering gear and also has its own stargazing facility.

Hajar Ali

An eternal traveller – and the first woman to ever cross the Empty Quarter – Hajar Ali is also the founder of Urbane Nomads, a travel company specializing in luxury travel to remote places, combining cultural authenticity with adventurous activities.