Our Article in the christmas Supplement of the Highland News

Highland Wildrides near Bonar Bridge, Ardgay is hoping for an early Christmas present. Work has begun on its new facilities and it hopes to open its brand new yard before Christmas. The barn will house all the horses, the feed, the tack, a new reception and the petting zoo and will provide a completely covered area to enjoy pony care and activities such as tack cleaning competitions, quizzes and talks.

The barn is part of the continued expansion of the stables which opened three years ago with just ten horses. Now Highland Wildrides has 25 horses, a petting zoo where smaller children can meet the animals while older siblings have their riding lessons, and a kennel of sled dogs which next year will offer sled dog training trips giving a taste of life of a modern musher, using a specially adapted dune buggy.

As well as riding lessons for both children and adults, Highland Wildrides offers trail rides of different lengths.

“If you can sit up, you can sit on,” said owner Stacie Macdonald. “We have first class trekking in this area and there are trail rides to suit different abilities which can held build confidence.”

Trail riding packs – the perfect Christmas present for horse lovers – include special options such as the Ride and Steak (a trek followed by hot steak dinner), or Ride and Reiki which includes a ride followed by a Reiki treatment.

For a festive celebration with a difference, join the Shortest Day trek on December 21^st.

Stacie revealed: “We set out just as it starts to get dark and ride to a viewpoint where you can watch the sunset on the shortest day of the year.”

The yard is staying open over the winter, although it’s closed on Mondays in December and on Christmas Day. However it’s open for a trek on New Year’s Day for the perfect hangover cure in the fresh air.

“We’re taking it as it comes. It depends on the weather,” Stacie warned. “Obviously over Christmas we’d rather stay in beside the fire, rather than get hail-stoned on!

“On days it’s too wet to ride, children will have pony care lessons instead. We don’t want kids to lose interest over winter and find themselves back at the beginning in the spring.

“But there will still be days when it’s just too rotten for small kids to be out at all, or weather which is too dangerous to be on the yard such as high winds when the horses become spooked. On days like these we will post a cancellation on our website.”

For details of events in December, or news of the opening day visit: www.highlandwildrides.co.uk or call 01863 766771

This entry was posted on 16/12/2008 at 05:03 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.