Horseback riding in Tuscany

A beautiful trek to get started with horseback riding! Incredible guide, it is necessary to master the 3 gaits.

When I booked through Decathlon, I was forced to take a single room, adding several hundred euros to the final price. I learned from others that by booking through Caval & Go, you could stay alone without a single room. So, I was the only one in a single room, by necessity and not by choice, and I'll never book through Decathlon again. The hostel is very well located, and the people are lovely. My stay didn't go very well because the information I had wasn't complete enough or didn't match my experience. It would be helpful to specify that speaking English is absolutely essential. I've only taken one other trip in my life, in a similar style, but with a host organization that spoke my language. As a novice, if I don't see English as mandatory, I assume that you should be able to "manage." However, all the safety instructions, absolutely everything, are given in English. The riding level is described as intermediate, but it's more like beginner++. We went on a series of hour-long walks on the first day (the first hour was spent getting in the saddle and walking around an arena). There was 30 seconds of cantering on the last two days. I absolutely would not have chosen this trip if I had known what kind of rides would be offered. I was bored. The horses' living conditions in the pasture are excellent, but the equipment is inadequate. The horses all have injuries to their backs/withers; there's a Haflinger with absolutely spectacular wounds on both sides of her back that bleed after the ride, and every time the saddle is removed, the injured area is the only spot without sweating, indicating severe pressure (pressure prevents blood from reaching the sweat glands and therefore prevents perspiration). This is unacceptable to me. The instructor is quick to hit the horses. For example, her horse stopped because of some barrier tape, so she got off, pulled on the reins for a while until he took a step towards the tape, and then she hit him hard on the nose. This happened even though he had just taken a step forward. For the last three days of the trek, the horses had saddles on their backs the whole time, even at lunchtime when we stopped for over an hour, and we weren't even allowed to saddle or take care of them. I choose this type of trip to share something with a horse, not just ride on its back and walk along, get off, and come back the next day. Otherwise, I'd just ride a bike. In short, the inn was lovely, the staff were wonderful, but the rides didn't live up to my expectations. The trek leader wasn't kind to the horses, the equipment wasn't suitable, and the language barrier made the whole experience frustrating.

My trip was incredible, a wonderful experience, great encounters, and top-quality horses! I highly recommend this trip!