Horse Trekking - Why Scotland?

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I never considered a travel blog, ever. Almost all of my world travels were work related (yeah I know, how horrible was that lol). But travel was never extended to Scotland or Ireland. I believe some of my mom's family must have originated over in that area. While this first blog should actually have begun over 6 months ago, you will find me back-tracking some.

Why Scotland? Well this trip ties my love of horses to the series/books OUTLANDER (Starz in the US is producing the series).

Why now? I've been told I have an autoimmune disease which will eventually cripple me. And well, I'm 63 yrs of age. So now or never.

Well, with all the hoopla surrounding Outlander series being shot on location in Scotland, I decided to google tours specific to Outlander locations. Low and behold, up pops a link to Highlands Unbridled (www.highlandsunbridled.co.uk), an equine trekking business located just south of Inverness. While they offer many choices of highland rides, number of days, and times of year, it was their Outlander rides which draw my attention. The rides are specific to lands and locations mentioned in the book. The primary ride is 5 days. There is also a 3-day ride offered after a sightseeing tour of Inverness. As it was late 2014 when I began my research, I contacted them via email about their 2015 schedule. It took several more months before they had their schedule posted. As well as operating the rides, I believe the owners also run their website and business themselves, as well as manage all of their horses. I can't wait to meet this energetic group of ladies for sure. Too bad they didn't lease their horses for the making of Season 1. I understand the production was so short of horses, the same steeds were ridden by both Scots actors and the Red Coat actors!

During the period of waiting for their 2015 rides, I mentally opted for the 3-day ride, primarily due to my health or so I convinced myself. Well, the more I pondered what I could do with what I wanted to do and when I could do it, I decided to "go for broke". You ken, I have a horse of my own here in Virginia, and I ride as much as possible, weather permitting, and right now, the weather is definitely not permitting much saddle time. But last year I began riding in Judged Pleasure Rides where you complete 10 obstacles over a 10 mile trail course. 4 hours in the saddle wasn't too terribly bad. Add to that trailering the horse in both directions, and prep and clean up work, I did it and all on my own too. So I set the bar higher for my trip.

I knew airfare would be expensive, even with the Expedia prices sounding "ok: during those searches (more to come on that subject). So with that expense in mind and the fact that the Pound is eating up the Dollar and would cost me .5 times the advertised price, I took in a deep breath and chose ..... the 8 day Ride. Whoa you say. 8 days of riding? Are you nuts? Not quite. The itinerary begins with 2 days of riding. And whew, a break of 1 day for sightseeing around Inverness, in particular all the places I would have gone to because of Outlander. The next 5 days will be riding an average of 6 hrs a day, with overnights at facilities chosen by Highlands Unbridled, mostly B&B's. I am secretly hoping the beds are extremely comfy. I think with the one day break at the beginning, for both humans and horses, the rest will be rough, but the views and surroundings will make up for the butt pounding. And there are gel seat pads now for saddles!!

So, here I am with my chosen TRIP OF A LIFETIME. At this point I have planned a lot already, still have more choices to make. More to come.....

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