Elyne Mitchell is best known as the author of the much-loved children’s book series, The Silver Brumby. I’m sure I am not the only globetrotter who can say that the silver brumby galloped through my childhood dreams! But there was far more to Elyne’s life than children’s books. Born in Melbourne in 1913, Elyne Mitchell […]

Golegã Horse Fair happens every November in the town of Golegã, known as the horse capital of Portugal. Overnight, the normally sleepy town is transformed into a buzzing hub of Portuguese horse enthusiasts converging to celebrate their much-loved native breed, the Lusitano. If you’re booked on one of our rides in Portugal in October or […]

Name of breed: Mustang Origin: United States of America Breed origin: America’s wild horse, the mustang, is not in fact native to America. When Spanish explorers brought the breed’s ancestors to the New World in the 16th century, horses had been extinct in North America for almost 10,000 years. These Spanish or Iberian horses that […]

Name of breed: Barb. Also called the Berber or Barbary horse. Country of origin: North Africa Breed origin: The Barb is a northern African horse known for its great hardiness and stamina. The exact origins of this breed are unknown, although it was written of in the second century BC and was certainly well-developed by […]

Name of breed: New Forest Pony Country of origin: England Breed origin: The ancestors of the New Forest pony roamed the woods and heath of the New Forest before the last Ice Age! The forest itself has been protected since William the Conqueror reserved it as his ‘new hunting forest’ in 1079, and the development […]

On the 31st of October, 1917, the Fourth Australian Light Horse Brigade charged the city of Beersheba in what was then Ottoman Palestine, storming through the Turkish defences. This is widely remembered as the last great cavalry charge. It resulted in the capture of Beersheba and, ultimately, victory for the British Empire’s allied forces in […]

Name of breed: Icelandic horse Country of origin: Iceland Breed origin: The ancestors of the Icelandic horse were probably brought to Iceland by Norse settlers between 860 and 935 AD. Only the best horses were chosen to undertake the voyage and those that survived became indispensable to the settlers as they eked out a living […]