At the start of August 2019, I again organised a weekend away camping with horses as an introduction to “dobbineering” for those that hadn’t tried it before.  I wanted to try something a little more adventurous (as an introduction) than I’d organised before, but to pull it off I needed a little support.  Yvonne came along to help during the ride -she is the most excellent tail-end charlie and I could relax knowing she would be ensuring the back of the ride was well and safe.  Yvonne would also be there as an extra pair of capable hands to advise during the corralling and camping part too.   For the logistics, I enrolled my hubby Dave and the local Gamekeeper Davie to get all the camping and corralling equipment across a River and to the Bothy where we would stay for the night.

In total we were a group of 8 riders from the Moray Equestrian Access Group, so heading to the Cairngorms was a little out of our area, but it was SO worth the drive.  The weather was as spectacular as the scenery and we rode approx. 19kms the first day into the bothy up the Glen.  Unfortunately the midgies when we got there were just as spectacular too…  We could shelter and socialise in the bothy for the evening before scurrying for our tents, but the poor horses circled around in the corrals for the night trying to evade the wee beasties.  Can’t be helped I suppose if you do anything outdoors in Scotland!

For most in the group -it was their first overnight adventure with their horses, first time corralling, first time at a bothy and first time camping.  Most of this was a first for the horses too (although we drew the line at letting them try the bothy and tents lol!) but they took it all in their stride.

The second day was a little damp -but since we were riding back out again, nobody seemed to care too much.  The scenery was still spectacular which took everyone’s mind off the rain.  We came back a slightly shorter route but still managed approx. 16kms.

I hope there are now a few more people hooked on the sport of dobbineering! :o)