Regional Description: Riding in Scotland

Dressage horserider while training in Scotland - © ride77.com / RV

Horseback riding has a great tradition in Scotland. You can go for an afternoon horseback ride with the horses. But you should also think about a more-day-trip for horseback riding. Scotland has a variety of long and short horseback riding paths which are also well signposted. Many horseback riding schools and riding academies offer instructions in horseback riding for beginners and for advanced riders. You can learn and train showjumping as well as take lessons in dressage riding. Many of the riding schools and horse farms have trainers which are certified by the BHS, which is the abbreviation for British Horse Society. This is important for you if you have the ambition to learn horseback riding either in showjumping oder dressage on an expert level.

Horseback riding holidays and horse riding vacations in Scotland are also very famous. There is a program called „Horses Welcome“. This program offers you a list of hotels and bed and breakfast locations which are certified for the equipment they offer for the overnight stay of your horse. So you can of course also take your horse with you or borrow a horse and go for a more day trail through the beautiful landscape of Scotland. You will find riding schools in Scotland not only on the coasts or in the rural regions, but also around the big cities like Glasgow or Edinburgh. So of course you can combine horseback riding on the afternoon with your stay in one of the cities of Scotland, where you can go for sightseeing.

Typical for Scotland in horseback riding is of course riding horses of the local breeds like the „Highland Horses“ or the „Eriskay Pony“. The weather in Scotland is changing often, so you should be well equipped for your horseback riding tour. The best time during the year to visit Scotland is starting in may and ending in september. At this time you should go for horseback riding more at the coast side than in the rural regions of the central Scotland. Why? This is simple, as a horseback rider you may know the problem of mosquitos. There is a special mosquito breed which is called „Midgees“. And they are really bothersome during the main traveling season between may and september. But „Midgees“ do not like wind, they love it, when it is warm and windless. You will have nearly permanent wind on the coasts of Scotland, so you better go horseback riding there during the season.

But of course horseback riding in Scotland and taking horseback riding lessons in dressage or showjumping is also possible off season in spring and autumn. So if you want to go to the central area of Scotland we recommend to be there for your horseback riding holidays between february and may and september and november. The climate in Scotland is not, as many people may think, very cold. Even the coldest month of the year, the january, has an average temperature of 7 degrees Celsius. But because of the „Midgees“ mosquitos we recommend to go horseback riding in central Scotland off season, when it is a little bit colder and the temperatures are between 9 and 15 degrees Celsius in average. You will find many horseback riding schools in Scotland, especially in the southern regions of Dumfries and Galloway as well as in Lothian and Scottish Borders.