This week is all about honing your skills. Showjumping, cross country, or polo, what's calling your name? 

Picture yourself in the Italian hills building your week around the jumps, immaculate arenas by day and aperitivo on the terrace by night. Or in the west of Ireland, galloping across green fields with endless cross country jumps to point at and a proper Irish welcome waiting back at the yard. Or in the South African bush, chukkas at sunrise on a string of fifty horses, game drives in the afternoon, springbok grazing outside your bedroom door at dawn.

Three glorious rides, three glorious countries, three very good reasons get in the saddle. 

What's it gonna be?

We named this newsletter Bad Pony Club as a nod to scruffy childhoods under the African sky, racing around on naughty ponies with bigger opinions than us.

We earned the thrill of the ride the hard way. Tacking up, mucking out, rolling up sleeves, getting grubby. We got bucked off more times than we can count, and learned to dust off, laugh, and get back on. Another adventure was always coming. The bad ponies, the ones with the attitude, are the ones that push you, teach you, and leave you fearless for life.

We love horses. We also love home. South Africa is wild, loud, unapologetic and breathtakingly beautiful, with people who are warm, big-hearted, and will always pull up a seat for you around the fire. If you have not been, you are missing something truly special. Add a horse into the mix and the formula is unbeatable.

Four rides, all South Africa, all completely different. Her beauty, her people, and of course, her horses.

Kol-Suu Lake sits deep in the Al-Bashy region of southern Kyrgyzstan, at roughly 3,500 metres above sea level. Formed by an ancient earthquake, it's known in summer for its startling turquoise waters, drawing hikers and overlanders during the warmer months.

We went in winter. Not because it was sensible. Not because it was convenient. But because if you're going to travel to the edge of the map, you may as well see it stripped bare.

Read about our Bad Pony trip HERE.

We fell hard for Central Asia, and now we can't stop thinking about Mongolia. So this week we've handpicked rides for each.

By Maggie Garcia Rams

The sun hasn’t risen yet and the cold of the Andes settles deep into your bones.

Horses stand quietly, already saddled, while the gauchos finish their morning mate in silence. In the distance, the silhouettes of the mountains slowly appear against a sky turning from black to deep blue.

Someone tightens a cinch.

Another checks a saddle.

A horse exhales, sending a small cloud of steam into the cold air.

That’s usually the moment I lift my camera.

We have just come back from riding the dramatic cliff tops and beaches of Cantabria in northern Spain, and last year we rode seven unforgettable days through the gorges, waterfalls and open bushveld of South Africa's Umgeni Valley. Both passed the Bad Pony test with flying colours and both left us completely converted. Cantabria for the wild coast, the incredible food and the kind of Spanish hospitality that makes you want to move there permanently. The Umgeni Valley for the raw, untouched beauty of the South African bush, the wildlife around every corner and a landscape that has barely changed in 30,000 years.

Alongside these we have two more rides we love the sound of and know you will too. Polo lessons on a private estate on the Italian Riviera, where you spend four days learning the fastest game on grass in one of the most beautiful corners of Italy. And Connemara ponies along Ireland's Wild Atlantic Way in Co. Mayo, guided by Padraig, a lifelong horseman who knows every bog track, beach and headland like the back of his hand.

All ready to book right now. The dates are moving fast and these will not hang around. 

This week: drool-worthy rides under €2,000 that honestly feel like they should cost more. Morocco is serving fresh-trail riding in the Siroua Mountains, where volcanic rock meets Berber villages and saffron fields. Italy is your gentle comeback story: a beginner-friendly castle stay near Rome, lesson hours stacked, hacking out included. Texas brings the easygoing yeehaw: Hill Country trails, wildlife cameos, and a rare "everyone's welcome" vibe, kids included. Bulgaria is the stealth luxury pick: Thracian valleys, proper gallops, then straight into hot mineral pools. And Romania is your forest-and-folklore wildcard: Icelandic horses in the Harghita Mountains, tölt lessons and the deer rut echoing through the valleys. Five rides, five moods, one rule: unforgettable and under €2k.

We’ve rounded up four rides that hit four very different buttons, all of them festive filled. Portugal’s Golegã is pure horse chaos in the best way, where tradition spills into the streets and the whole town feels like it’s been taken over by hooves (because it has). Spain’s Jerez Feria turns equestrian culture into a full-glitter spectacle, with the lights firing up at midnight and the city committing hard for the whole week. Mexico’s Día de los Muertos is marigold-bright and deeply moving, a celebration of life and remembrance that lands differently when you experience it from the saddle. And Mongolia is your off-grid reset: big skies, the legendary Orkhon River, remote camps, and a finale at Naadam, where the country’s three national sports go loud.

Different worlds. Same energy: ride straight into culture, celebration, and wilderness and come home with stories that refuse to be small.

Dreaming of spring in Europe while you’re still thawing out from winter? Consider this your escape hatch. The kind where you swap grey skies for green hills, stiff limbs for saddle legs, and “maybe later” for “book it”. This week’s rides are a full seasonal glow-up, each with its own flavour of magic.

Tuscany is your Easter reset: cypress lanes, vineyard trails, ancient villages, and nights in castles, with long Italian lunches that somehow turn into dinners (as they should). Albania is for strong-and-fit riders who like their scenery with a side of accomplishment, tracing old caravan routes, crossing gorgeous stone bridges, and finishing on a big, dramatic climb that makes you feel wildly capable. 

Galicia, at the Spain–Portugal border, is the quiet green one: rolling through the Gerês–Xurés biosphere reserve where the landscapes are lush, the trails feel secret, and the crowds simply… don’t show up. And then there’s the Azores, built for beginners and confidence-builders, where lessons and gentle trails stack up over the week until you’re ready for the full-day ride to Sete Cidades, volcanic crater lakes and all, like you’ve stepped into a postcard that learned how to gallop.

This week is equal parts wild and wow: India by horseback, starting in the electric buzz of a legendary horse fair, then threading through fortress country, luxury camping, and finishing with leopard territory. Kyrgyzstan brings the big mountains energy, with long rides through multiple regions, yurt nights by Song-Kul and Issyk-Kul, and the kind of cultural flex that sounds made up until you’re there: riding out with eagle hunters.

Then there’s Cappadocia, the local way, not the selfie-stick parade, with six autumn days of cooler temps, sporty forward horses, fairy chimneys, cave churches, and the chance to track the semi-wild Yılkı horses across open country. You’ll finish with the only sensible ending: a hammam, melting back into your human form.

And if you want maximum adventure points, there’s a camp-under-the-stars ride where the days are big, the nights are wilder, and a photographer comes to make sure this adventure doesn’t live only in your memory.

What if your next ride wasn’t just “pretty trails and a nice lodge”… but full cultural immersion with hoofprints? This week we picked the wonderfully out-of-the-norm adventures: Iceland, where you knit your own lopapeysa, soak in hot springs, and saddle up every day (yes, really).; Mongolia, a beginner’s dream with supportive lessons, wild landscapes, nomadic life, and a big finish at the Naadam Festival; plus a few more culture-soaked curveballs that prove riding holidays can be more than just saddle time. And because even the most feral itinerary needs a solid base layer, we’ve also included our What to Pack for a Riding Holiday guide, so you’re comfy, capable, and quietly smug from airport to stirrup.

Then listen to the Wild — it’s calling you.*

There is nowhere quite like Africa. No matter the country, there is always a true wildness that is tangible in the air. Be it the smell of the cold Atlantic creeping into the desert on an early morning; cicadas serenading you as the heat of the day sinks into the earth; the deep belly laughs heard over an open crackling fire; the beautiful chaos of a city waking up to the call to prayer, comforted by the smell of freshly baked bread on the street; and nothing matches those sunsets as the fire hits the horizon for a few breathtaking moments. There is something magical when you hit the continent. She is alive, she is loud, she will embrace you (whether you like it or not), proudly extroverted … She is wild and will reshape you.

This is our love letter to the African rides that will rearrange your soul.

Pure pony brain chaos. Serbia brings big views and technical trails that make “gentle hack” sound rude. South Africa’s Umgeni Valley gives you wide canters with game, shady riverbanks and waterfall lunch stops. Northern Patagonia is a mountain dream with gauchos, tent nights and a last day that lets your horse fly. Idaho is for YEE HAW riders, moving young horses over 110 km of open range with real wranglers. Somewhere in here is your 2026 main character ride and, if anyone asks what you want for Christmas, send them this and say “that one”.

This week is all about the feral stuff. Desert gallops with Bedouin horsemen, yak country in Kyrgyzstan, gaucho territory in Brazil and wild horses in Galicia. You tack up your own horse, eat what the locals eat and ride at the pace of the land, not the clock. These are rides for when you want dust in your teeth and stories you cannot tell your non horse friends.

We’re planning 2026, and it’s all about getting you back in the saddle. For anyone who once lived to ride but hasn’t found the excuse to dust off their boots, here it is. From cattle drives to desert gallops, here are some rides worth coming back for.

If you needed a sign to escape before the year’s over, this is it. Argentina, Colombia, Morocco, or Turkey. The trails are open, the horses are ready, and the stories are waiting. Book fast, ride hard, and finish the year with a bang (and a bit of dust).