D of E Expedition on horseback

[Just2MoreSeasons]

Hi,

My daughter who usually is less than interested at trying new things has expressed an interest in doing her Bronze Duke of Edinburgh Award next year- but wants to do the expedition in horseback.

I should add I'm not a rider and neither do we own a horse. My daughter has been having lessons for around 7 years and when I checked on line it seems she has all of the skills she needs to do it already (the only one she needs to practice is opening and closing a farm gate without dismounting- but she has a whole year to sort that).

Does anyone know how we would go about sorting it? Any riding centres that offer it? Approximate cost of loaning a horse for the weekend and paying for the supervision (I'm guessing it's eye wateringly expensive but we have a year to save and I'd love to make it happen if we could).

I'd really like to set expectations early on if this just isn't practically possible.

Thanks for any advice or tips in advance.

The only time I've heard of this personally is at gold level. And we know lots of riders and d of e people. I think they have to be in a group don't they?

Dd has been talking about this but From the limited info it is at gold award only. There was a rumour in their yard that you could do it from bronze.

oops pressed send by mistake...

I think it would have to be done through a riding centre / school in a group, not just hiring a pony for a weekend and going off camping!

Thanks. Yes, only supervised and in groups god forbid!

www.cantref.com/horseback/

The above centre say they offer it for bronze silver and gold, but they emailed back to say they now only offer it for silver and gold. No idea why this is- maybe the guidelines have changed?

Very scant info about it online. If anyone has more thoughts I'd be grateful!

I think it is for Silver and Gold only and a friend paid around 1.5K for her DD. The key thing is that they need to have the skills to handle a horse outside of the safety of an arena, so be able to comfortably handle a horse in the open. My friend's DD has her own horse, competes XC and hacks weekly. She said some others in the group struggled as they were only used to weekly 1 hour lessons so weren't riding fit for long days in the saddle.

I think it's probably because it's not common for people to want to do their bronze on horseback so it's not worth their while offering it unless it's a pre-arranged group (your DD could ask her friends at the yard if they're also interested, if she can find 4 others sounds like the people on your link would potentially put her an expedition together)? Plus also for bronze they are usually under 16 I think, that will make it much harder for insurance and risk assesment purposes.

If you do find somewhere the approx costs others have mentioned sound about right - I would have thought c.£500 per day for 6 hours horse hire and riding (think at bronze they have to do 2 days with camping overnight?) plus a surcharge for the camping kit, looking after the horses overnight and supervision - although to meet DoE guidelines do they not have to plan the route and navigate themselves - so it won't be like a normal hack with a guide leader showing them the route? That could be quite a challenge if she's not used to riding outside an enclosed arena full stop, never mind on an unfamiliar horse that may not be as well behaved as the riding school animals she's used to, carrying her own kit, on new terrain etc? Plus like others say, riding for an hour and riding for 6 hours, 2 days in a row is very very different!

Personally I think I'd separate out the two things, she's interested in doing DoE, brilliant, she wants to do a horseback expedition, also brilliant, but she doesn't have to do the two together. For myself I think doing the DoE bronze expedition the traditional way, on foot with backpacks is a bit of a rite of passage, yes it's tough and they get lost and cold and annoyed with one another but it's all character building and great life experience. But if she's really unsure I'd let her join the group and do the community service and skills based stuff but promise she doesn't have to do the expedition on foot if she really doesn't want to. She might change her mind if she gets to know the people in her group and so on better, but there are always drop-outs IME, and it will still have been a good experience for her even if she doesn't complete the full certification for the end.

On the horse expedition front there are lots of riding holiday experiences in the UK and abroad that will do you an extended point-to-point ride over scenic but challenging terrain and camping out or staying in basic B&Bs overnight so that would give her the expedition feel she's after, but led by an experienced guide and perhaps with more like 3-4 hours a day riding rather than 6+ and without the constraint of having to meet the DoE requirements - finding somewhere that takes unaccompanied under 16s for this kind of ride is probably a challenge but perhaps if it was part of a family holiday and she returns to stay with you at night that might help. Then if she enjoys it she could look at doing a ridden expedition for her silver or gold DoE award?

Really good point about the amount of time in the saddle Thankyou

@maxelly Thankyou that's really really helpful.

I hadn't thought about the insurance possibly being prohibitive.

And also that we could divide this up into D of E and a different trip for a long ride. Although since the rest of the family don't ride I wonder if it's better to wait until she's 16, more confident and has a good friend to do it with. Though possibly she could do a long day circular ride somewhere.

I'm trying to build her confidence after a shaky year 7 and horses seem to be her thing. So many of her friends/not so friends have their own horses (we live rurally) and it makes me sad to feel her left out of her passion. I'd just really like to tie the horse passion and the raising confidence thing together. But I can totally see this can be done another way. Thanks for pointing that out.

And you're right - the walking expedition is such a right of passage - I remember my own from <ahem> 35 years ago!!

I did unaccompanied horse holidays when I was 12 or about 16. In those days it was called trail riding, we covered about 30 miles a day and stayed at a different inn each night. Worth looking into, I was a weekly rider so a bit sore but youth helps and we had a trail leader. The most fun I have ever had so worth looking into.

I wanted to do this for my DofE but it was just unaffordable and so limited as to dates etc. there definitely was a company offering bronze award (possibly free rein) but I have no idea if they still do or even if they exist.

As a compromise I used my riding for the skill and service sections of the award. I set some realistic goals to achieve rising wise and I 'helped out' at the yard all weekend every weekend to earn my service section.

I my this, bronze D of E on horseback, but it was in the 90s. Group of us in the same year at school and with our own ponies, found a parent with a horse to supervise and asked the school if we could. They were surprised and assumed it wasn't possible but couldn't find any rules against it so we did. Great fun if a little mad!

Assume the rules are tighter these days....

I highly doubt you would be able to do this now below the age of 16 due to liability insurance etc. At our yard under 16s have to be accompanied at all times so I doubt anyone would be allowed to organise unaccompanied trail rides nowadays.

As PP said maybe your daughter could incorporate the horse riding into her award without it being part of her expedition? She could use it for the skill element or volunteer at her yard instead. This may be a more manageable way of including what she loves without it being very costly & complicated to organise?

Aren't you supposed to camp out? If so who carries the tent?!

We did camp. Everything carried in saddle bags!

The horse

Omg this is amazing! If you can only find it for silver, your dd could wait until year 10 and not do bronze. But I appreciate that’s a long way off. Dd did bronze last year and the walk and camping really is a rite of passage though.

If your daughter isn't used to hacking out I would look at it as a possibility for silver ot gold but get her out on a few trail rides/2 hour hacks first. Riding in open countryside is very different to a lesson in an arena and she could get put off day 1.

How? An inexperienced rider on a horse in open countryside carrying a tent in a saddle pack sounds like a recipe for disaster 🫣

We've had bronze groups do it in the past but not recently. So things may well have changed.

Some groups applied for grant funding to cover the expedition and organised it all through a riding school who supported them.

One group had theirs organised through RDA (Riding for the Disabled).

I know of a couple of rural schools who have organised riding expeditions but most of the participants had their own horses already. I know the group had to pay a fair amount for insurance and suitably qualified supervisors and assessors.

Short version- if you have a group with the right skills, equipment and experience (and money) then you can make it work. If you're just one kid who likes horses then it's really hard.

If they have a supervisor with them then it totally misses the point of the expedition, no? It's just a nice hack. Aren't they supposed to do it on their own?

I know it was the last century- but our supervisor knew our planned route (that we planned across the new forest) and would pop up occasionally, one or twice, to see where we were. Light touch.

I agree - my daughter’s friend has just done this for her D of E bronze (through her private school) and TBH listening to it, while it was obviously great fun as a horseback expedition, it didn’t require the same skills & resilience as the standard bronze hike would do due to the level of guidance & supervision they were given.

A friend of mine runs the company that works with Cantref. There’s more detail about it here: www.expeditionswales.co.uk/dofe-horse-riding/
They only do horseback for silver and gold but perhaps encourage your daughter to do the bronze with a goal to doing the silver and gold on horseback? It’s part of the spirit of DofE to build resilience and she could get some more experience hacking out in the meantime.

She could always go straight to silver when old enough. I think you can miss out bronze.