Walkhighlands

Hello
We are 2 horseback riders (Maureen, scottish but living in France, since... ages... and I, 100% French).
We'd like to come to Scotland with our own horses for 2 weeks trip on our own. We saw that a few paths were very boggy, dangerous then for horses. We would like to ride in the center of the Highlands (Inverness, Torridon). Well, we have some difficulties to estimate the paths we could trust for this type of trip.
We had a look at the Cape Wrath Trail but we read that this track was quite dangerous and not horses suitable.
Is there anyone who could help us in preparing our trail.
Thank you for your help
Carole

I'm a hillwalker who also rides, but as a caveat, I've never taken the horse out in the Highlands due to not owning a trailer or lorry. Anyway, you're right -- a lot of the trails are boggy, but there are plenty you could ride on. However, your biggest problem will be gates: ones that a human on foot or on a mountain bike can access, but it will be either a narrow gate, a kissing gate, or a stile, and you won't get a horse through. These are usually next to locked five-bar gates that provide the estate with vehicle access. If you had a horse, I imagine you would have to contact the estate and ask for the gate to be unlocked, but it's sometimes not easy to work out who owns what and who you have to contact.

Horse riders have the same rights, in theory, as hikers and cyclists under the Access Laws, but in practice it doesn't work out that way because while estates have to allow hikers access, they can legally prevent unauthorised vehicles from using their private tracks, so they lock the gates that something car-or quad-bike-sized could fit through, which unfortunately affects things that are horse-sized as well. Not enough people ride these trails to have thrown any kind of meaningful fit about it, so as far as the estates are concerned, they do not need to provide riders with easy access.

These people offer commercial trail rides throughout the Highlands, including (based on their website) multiday treks. You should try to contact them, as they will know how to deal with the access issues on the trails they use. http://www.highlandsunbridled.co.uk/.

I also found BHS Scotland's site, which lists many of the major long distance trails and describes access issues that affect riders (at least at the time of writing): http://www.bhsscotland.org.uk/riding-routes1.html

If you have a horse you can jump the gate or have I been watching too many movies?

Definitely watching too many movies. Jumping a gate in a western saddle... Ouch. I don't think so. That guy would be singing soprano for the rest of his life (and did you notice the way the film was cut? You never actually saw the horse jump).

In reality, most gates on land rover tracks have a landing that would probably lead to the horse falling on top of you, and most riders are too chickensh ** t to jump a five-bar gate anyway.

Thank you for your advices. Yes, jumping with all our saddlebags is not that easy...
We received some interesting information from BHSS and we tried to contact these people offer commercial trail rides throughout the Highlands, but they never answered to our request which is quite understandable.
I'm gonna try to do like an inventory of all these unsuitable gates/bridges for horses with this BHSS report but at least we know that there are plenty we can ride on, thank you.
We also received one answer from BHSS : "The problem with Scotland is we don’t know what is rideable until we ride there."
I'll probably try to get some information on mountain bikers side as well.
Tks to all of you !
Carole

Hey Carole,

I work for the Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park in Scotland and I helped create these pages - https://www.lochlomond-trossachs.org/horse-riding-routes/.

They are 10 routes in the National Park suitable for horses, complete with maps and details.

Cheers,
Vlad

EmilyD wrote:Definitely watching too many movies. Jumping a gate in a western saddle... Ouch. I don't think so. That guy would be singing soprano for the rest of his life (and did you notice the way the film was cut? You never actually saw the horse jump).

In reality, most gates on land rover tracks have a landing that would probably lead to the horse falling on top of you, and most riders are too chickensh ** t to jump a five-bar gate anyway.

Never dis John Wayne.
Legend
He jumps 10 bar gates- carrying the horse on his back !!

You could save all that effort by simply having two half coconut shells and banging them together...

Scottish Hill Tracks by ScotWays is a great source for information on paths. Not much information on gates though, but I imagine with a little creativity there should be a way around most of them.

Another source of information would be serc (Scottish endurance riding club) they've got branches in all regions including a Highlands branch. They will have members all over with local knowledge of the tracks that are equine friendly. A lot of there members do long distance routes across the Highlands too. If it can be ridden on a horse I guarantee they'll know how. They've got a website and are on Facebook.

Thank you all for your advices !
very interesting !