Itineraries
8 Day Trails & Equitation Workshop
(7 nights)
Arrive at La Combe for Lunch or early afternoon and once welcomed by your hosts Marthe, Jake and Chris and having settled into the accommodation you will be introduced to the horses. After an Introductory lesson with Marthe you will be taken on an early evening ride around the top of the farm before returning to the homestead for an aperitif and your 4 course evening meal.
The course of three workshops begins with Marthe after breakfast, this morning starts with the theory. This includes learning theory and the basics of Marthe's training methods. After lunch and a short rest you will take a guided ride with Jake on a different route around the farm, through oak and pine woods, having a chance to really get to know your surroundings. Return to the farm for drinks and another the delicious home grown and home prepared meal.
Once breakfast is happily finished you will get to put your newly learned theory into practice with Marthe and the horses. Be closely tutored through how to to teach your horse basic tricks or exercises, the bedrock for further learning. During lunch discuss your successes and failures of the morning with Marthe, Chris and Jake. In the afternoon a ride this time off the farm along tracks, passing several other farms including Fondereuse, sat at a meeting point of ridges that boasts views over Drôme-Provençal, arriving back to the farm just before dark, in time to ready yourself for the evening.
Today is a day off learning and strictly about enjoying the riding. We leave the farm mid morning and follow randonnés (public bridle-ways) onto summer grazing pastures leading to the high ridge path of the 'Couspeau', the highest hill to the south east of La Combe. You then descend through evergreen forest to arrive at gurgling brook where we stop for a picnic lunch, giving you and your horse a chance to rest and eat. The ride back is a little shorter after the excitement of the morning and you pass through the softer lower meadows and farmland of the area before arriving back at the farm well exercised and content!
After the riding of the day before unless you're feeling very energetic a morning off riding might seem more enticing! Rise at an hour that suits for a large breakfast of of eggs from the chickens, yoghurt from the cow and freshly baked bread. Then spend the morning doing whatever you wish from trying out your newly acquired horse training skills with the aid of Jake, to taking a walk around the farm or even just relaxing in the sun with a book. After lunch take it easy until taking an early evening ride around the Gourdon, an excellent spot at which to stop on the near farm to see the sunset. Best enjoyed with an aperitif of the delicious sweet and bubbly Clairette de Die.
After breakfast today continues with the final instalment of Marthe's workshops, this time equitation, so you'll be spending time in the saddle and learning how to improve communication with your horse and style. After lunch you may either continue to work with your horse in either the indoor or outdoor ménage, or try out your new riding skills on an afternoon ride over various terrain that takes you to the beautiful viewpoint of the 'tour de Bezuadun', a ancient ruined look out point from the Catholic Protestant wars.
A full day of riding, an excellent opportunity to use your new skills and develop your relationship with you horse during the course of the day. After breakfast you mount and ride out of the farm to the west, taking tracks that hug the outer hillsides of the Forêt de Saou (Saou forest). With vast views of the lower lying farmlands and valleys of the area these open tracks lead you down to the opposite end of the geological formation that creates the cliffs above La Combe. You then enter the forest, with tracks that are broad and great for canters you make your way to an open parkland for a picnic lunch. We then climb the interior slopes of the Forêt de Saou, through Mediterranean Pine and Beach woods, cocooned in the atmosphere of the forest, till you pop out at the top of an escarpment high above the pass you took earlier. You then take a steep path down testing your riding skills and your communication with your horse, back to the farm for a very refreshing drink and last evening festivities!
Your final morning and now that you know the horses and are well acquainted with were you are this will be spent as you wish, either working with the horses in the ménage or taking a gentle ride in a direction of your choice, returning with time enough to say good-bye to your hosts and to the horses before you depart.