The North York Moors
This is a huge figure-eight shaped network which covers most of the North York Moors National Park. Its centre is in Rosedale, with rides to the west around Osmotherley, Rievaulx and Farndale. To the east, you can ride around Heartbeat country made famous by the TV series, follow a disused railway line along the coast between Scarbrough and Whitby or see the more wooded country around Newtondale. There are few gates, few roads and few people (but lots of buzzards, grouse, and curlew). There are long stretches of open moorland and a few steep and stony tracks, so you need a fairly fit horse.

This network is not very wet, but you sometimes get low cloud and sea mists coming in from the east coast, so we have low-level alternative routes in case of bad visibility.

The western side can be ridden as a big 3 or 4-day place-to-place loop. The scenery is an interesting combination of remote and beautiful moors in the north and lush, steep sided valleys in the south west, where you can visit the ruined medieval Abbey at Reivaulx. Although the dale bottoms are sheltered and surprisingly fertile, there is one long day of 20 miles plus along the western edge of the National Park which crosses several steep sided valleys.

One of the hosts near Pockley can only accommodate 2 people, which is why you have the option of either 3 or 4 days' riding. However, the 3-day ride includes 2 long days, and is best suited to experienced bridle riders with really fit horses!

The east of the network has a bigger choice of 3, 4 and 5-day place to place rides which include some easier riding along an old railway line above the coast between Scarborough and Whitby, and on forest tracks through Cropton and Dalby Forests as well as wilder stretches of open moor around Goathland, Newtondale and Rosedale. You can also see some of the locations made famous by the Heartbeat TV series.

There's a one centre holiday near Sleights in the north east of the network area which is open now, and we are planning another at Rosedale which will open later in 2008. In both cases, the terrain is hilly and the rides will take you out onto the moors, so your horse needs to be fit enough to cope with the terrain.
There are 3-day and 4-day place-to-place rides to the west of Rosedale. For this year, the 4-day ride is limited to parties of 2, and the 3-day one includes 2 routes of over 20 miles, so it is recommended for more experienced Bridle Riders. No stables.

To the east of Rosedale, there is a choice of 2 different 3-day place-to-place rides as well as 4-day and a 5-day rides back-to-start. There's also a one-centre holiday in Eskdale in the Whitby/Sleights area with 3 petal rides. Three of the five hosts have 2 stables available for visiting horses, including the one centre holiday in Eskdale - so it is possible to do a 3-day "all stable" ride.

You can combine both sides of the network to make a longer holiday with up to 9 days riding. Challenging mountain-biking.