On horseback through Western Europe

remember - links to sites outside this one are in green. Although all care is taken, no responsibility can be accepted for content of any outside link.

Where does Western Europe end and "the rest of" Europe begin?

This question is difficult to answer. Should there be a separate section for Mediterranean or Southern Europe? It's a well-nigh impossible decision to make and keep everyone happy! Northern Italy is more "Austrian" than is the furthest Eastern part of Austria, which has close links with Hungary. Greece is separated from the rest of Europe by those troublesome Balkan states; it is most certainly not part of Eastern Europe, but it is difficult to consider it to be physically part of Western Europe. Wars - even world wars! - have been started on the premise that one bit of land should be part of X and not of Y ...

Horses don't care. From their point of view, we can divide Europe any way we like and call it whatever we like. Their priorities are different - fresh water and forage at each end of the day, a comfortable surface on which to move and as few extremes of weather as possible.

For this website I have divided Europe as follows:

Western Europe includes Great Britain, Ireland, France, Germany, Belgium, The Netherlands, Luxembourg, Italy and Switzerland.

Scandinavia consists of Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland.

Eastern Europe presently comprises Austria, Slovenia, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Poland. Information about other Eastern European states as I gather it.

Southern Europe comprises Spain, Portugal and Greece .

Large parts of Western Europe are, or have been, heavily industrialised and these are generally unsuitable places to ride. There are also many heavily-populated areas in this region and these, again, may be difficult to ride through.

It is clearly best to bypass cities and large towns, where possible, unless some form of special provision is made for horses. Some forward-thinking areas have turned derelict railway lines, abandoned tramways and other surplus or unusable land into greenways which bring nature into the city, and which enable riders, cyclists and pedestrians to make their way in peace through cities and towns. Unfortunately, too often these greenways do not have any useful connections to quiet, safe lanes or accessible bridleways at one or both ends, thus reducing the real usefulness that they could - and should - have to all sorts of people who wish to travel from A to B, into nothing more than a linear playground, where children can run, ride and cycle back and forth, without ever actually going anywhere ... However the European Greenways Association does work to attempt to bring some cohesion and logic to the conversion process.

However, there is still an amazing amount of relatively-empty countryside in Western Europe - some of it in surprisingly-close proximity to towns and cities. It takes little effort, other than that taken to look at a map, to find it. Sadly, though, the enormous road-building efforts of the past 20 or so years have resulted in many attractive lanes and safe tracks becoming dead-ends. These roads slice through the formerly-quiet countryside of England, Wales, France and Germany taking no little or no account of the pedestrian, cyclist or horse-rider who may need to cross them, and who certainly wishes to do so without taking a 10km detour to a dangerous roundabout or bridge.