Riding in Istria (Croatia) – Day 1

4 October 2017

In the latest installment of “riding horses on holiday”, the destination was Crotia, more specifically the region known as Istria. Like many things, I knew nothing about it before or even during my time there, but it’s the bit nearest Italy and used to be part of the Republic of Venice.

The trail was for five and a half day’s riding and we had a group of six plus one guide – pretty much the perfect size for a trail ride. The horses were excellent and so were the arrangements and accommodation.

Day one was two two-hour rides with lunch in the middle, mostly to make sure we were all comfortable with our horses and able to handle the variety of paces – all the way from walk up to gallop. The ride took a circular route over the first five days so at the end of the Sunday we were transferred back to base for the night. The trail was called “The Magic of Istria“, and while maybe not literally magic it was one of the best rides I’ve been on.

A group stop and all the horses are wondering if it’s time for eating yet

Some of the grassier and rockier landscape. The terrain varied an awful lot considering how small an area we covered.

The first piece in my collection titled “Horses In The Distance”. I was riding a gelding called Apache (although the Croatians never pronounced the final ‘e’ so I’m only guessing that it was actually there)

More horses in the distance.

We stopped at a farm that gave tours of a small cave system. They also had a large array of pumpkins on display. (Shrug.)

group_caves_1

The group, from left to right: Ann, Valérie, Patricia, Alice, Patrick, Me (Karl). In the background: the caves.

Apparently the government owns everything that’s one metre below the ground in Croatia. The programmer in me can see nothing but problems with all the exceptions to this rule that can come about, but we worked out it basically means: if you find riches, you can’t keep them.