Cantering along the very edge of a rocky ridge in Spain’s Sierra Nevada mountain range, I feel more emotionally free and physically vital than I have in months. My grin must be five miles wide and London seems a zillion miles away. I realise that I’ve really missed riding and hadn’t even been aware of it. Being in the mountains and riding along narrow tracks, with sheer drops inches from the horse’s hooves, and up very steep, incredibly rocky terrain intensifies all my senses. It also lends me a wider perspective – literally and metaphorically. I feel like a teenager at the best pony club camp in the world. Rock-climbing horses: who’d have thought it?
I am on a week-long horse-riding holiday in Andalusia and I’m having the time of my life with the sun on my back and a sturdy steed between my legs. It is day three of the stunning La Alpujarra trail ride run by our guide and equestrienne extraordinaire, the wonderful Dallas Love. I can’t remember having this much good, clean fun since spending all day, every day at the stables messing about with my ponies as a young teenager. Horses, laughter, fantastic food and wine – all my favourite things, combined with the incredible mountain surroundings, make this one of the most exciting holidays I’ve ever been on.
Dallas – yes, it’s her real name – is exactly the kind of person you want heading up an expedition like this. Cool, calm and collected and a total dudette to boot, she has been offering riding holidays on top-quality Spanish horses in La Alpujarra – the name given to the southern slopes of the Sierra Nevada where she grew up – for more than two decades. I’ve done loads of riding over the years and I can unequivocally state that I’ve never seen a group of better-behaved or more impeccably schooled horses than these. The trip is not suitable for weak riders, the unfit or the especially faint-hearted. Dallas’s brand of fun can be fast and furious and you must be able to control your horse at all paces, as well as walk while leading it for up to 30 minutes at a time over terrain too steep or rocky to ride on.
Our group of ten meet at a prearranged point in Malaga airport, ready for the two-and-a-half-hour transfer via air-conditioned minibus, away from the Costa del Sol and up into the mountains. With two men and eight women, the group is a very mixed bag as far as age, nationality and previous riding experience go, but the laughs are instantaneous as we share horse stories and discuss what we should expect from this trip. There is a mother and daughter from Stoke-on-Trent, a teacher from Arundel, Dan, from Purley, who owns his own construction business, an Oxford chemistry graduate from Chester, a middle-aged Israeli couple, and a 74-year-old Swedish woman called Tutti. She informs us this is the fifth trail-ride holiday she has taken with Dallas in eight years and that there is something wrong with us if we don’t end up enjoying it.
We arrive in Bubión, a pretty, white-painted village perched high on the slopes of the beautiful Poqueira Ravine, and are shown to the Casa la Sevillana guest house. A comfortable, seven-bedroom rural bed and breakfast, it is popular with the many groups of walkers and mountain bikers who also visit the area. We meet Dallas for dinner at a restaurant down the road and dig into tapas, cervezas and some truly delicious local cuisine. The first night reminds me a bit of first nights at ski chalets. Everyone drinks too much over dinner and then gets stuck into the Amaretto. A few tall tales and unsuitable stories later and most of us are New Best Friends by the morning.
Go to the next page to read about the real Spain and perfect picnics.
