Riding through Europe

Peter van der Gugten rode through the Alps from the Meditteranean Sea to Switzerland, following the Grande Traversata della Alpi as closely as possible in the summer of 2007

If you are wondering what all this is about, wonder no longer, go to this page and have the dream of trekking from the shores of a warm blue sea through high alpine meadows, across snowfields and over remote mountain passes, brought to life in front of your eyes in words and pictures.

Remember - links to sites outside this one are in green. Links to other pages of this site are purple. Although all care is taken, no responsibility can be accepted for content of any outside link.

All over Europe there are paths, trails and tracks on which you can safely travel with your horse as your means of transport,  entering a different, yet equally valid, world of long-distance travel.

If you are one of those riders who loves to journey from place to place or explore an area with that best of companions and the ultimate in ecologically friendly means of transport, you can travel much further afield than your local bridleways. Do you regret "going away on holiday" each year, as it takes precious time away from riding? Simple solution - go on holiday WITH your horse!

Whether you dream of riding in the footsteps of Archbishop Sigeric on the Via Francigena - a new guidebook to this having been recently published by Lightfoot Guides - whether you want to ride along ruts formed by Roman chariots 2,000 years ago, or whether your horse is going to take you from the Baltic to the Mediterranean, there are a host of routes that you can take. Family members could accompany you on horseback, bike or on foot, or perhaps drive the family car to act as a luggage-carrier from place to place - which would take a measly hour or so a day, so they can spend the rest of the day in their preferred pursuits, while you ride over that mountain or through that forest.

Are you tempted to ride from Land's End to John o'Groats, or take the Pilgrim route to Santiago? You can! Europe is more open to you and your horse than it has been for many hundreds of years. Your dreams are not impossible, and I hope that this site can bring your dreams and ambitions a little closer, by offering some practical help and directions. Of course, if you just wish to dream, that's OK too. Armchair travellers have a long and respected history.

I, too, dreamed for years before I first took off into the distant yonder with my two ponies, my dog and a tent one hot English summer day. Little by little I am breaking the bonds that have tied me to the everyday life of duty and work for so many years, and  in 2008 I will be setting off on a journey for the rest of my life, first all around Britain, and then to France and through Europe. I want to visit Santiago de Compostella, I want to cross the Alps and I have found a route that will take me on horseback from Munich to Venice. I could ride to Rome, or to Budapest ...from the Atlantic to the Adriatic or from the Baltic to the Balkans. My Greek friends demand promises that I will visit them, and even though I ask how my horses will fit on the ferry, they only say, "Don't worry, just come - and bring the horses!".

The variety of culture and and the vagaries of history, though, have left the now largely-united Europe with widely-differing rules and regulations about where one may, or may not, ride or drive your horse. Where information is readily available about this, there seems to be heaps of it and one quickly becomes overwhelmed when trying to negotiate through it and pick out the information relevant to one's own ride. Where there seem to be no official rules and regulations regarding horse access, it can be even more time-consuming contacting private persons or local civic associations to find out if tracks and trails are accessible or not. And doing all this in languages which are not your own adds the spice of uncertainty to route planning! I am fortunate that, with a background working in different countries in Europe, and a lifelong love of languages, I can find my way through most European languages and extract useful information about riding routes through Europe.

I hope this site will become a meeting place and a source of information for riders from all over Europe and beyond, who wish to plan a ride on our beautiful continent or the islands surrounding its coast. Each country/region will have an overview of equestrian access, and any legal aspects which I have been able to discover, and there will be as many useful links provided that I can find, with information given about each link, where the link is not in English. I plan to check on the links at least once per month, as clicking on what looks like a useful link only to find that it is dead is SUCH an annoyance.

If you wish to email me with queries, links  or with hints, please click HERE