Experienced riders
Somewhere that
earns the name.
This is not a trail string nose-to-tail through a paddock. It is high-country station work, on horses conditioned for this country, over ground that asks something of you and gives a great deal back.
Before you book
Say so plainly,
and we will match
the horse to it.
If you ride well, tell us when you book, and tell us what you are used to. We will do our best to pair you with one of our more responsive horses — one that will give you a better time of it at the faster paces.
Horse matching is done on the ground on the morning of the ride, and the more we know beforehand, the better a job we can make of it.
A group that matches is a group that can be given its head
Our top picks
for you.
Four trips, from a long day out to four days across the range. Safety comes first on every one of them — the pace and the manoeuvres are set and led by your guide.
01 · 5–6 hours · from $550
The full-day ride
Five to six hours out in the St James — wide open country, no fences, an experienced guide, and a small group of no more than four.
This ride is not recommended for beginners, which means the odds are good that you will be riding alongside like-minded people of much the same standard as yourself. That matters more than most riders expect.
The route is curated around the people in it, with ample opportunity for different paces and different terrain. We keep a few horses that will suit you particularly well, and we are confident it will be the finest day’s riding you have had.
02 · 3–4 hours · from $350
The half-day ride
If you have not a full day to give, this is the one to look at. A set loop of three to four hours, depending on the speed you make of it. The trail runs over largely flat ground on a well-formed path, which leaves real room for trot and canter.
Do note that this trip is not private. You may find yourself riding alongside others whose experience does not quite match your own. The groups are kept small, though — usually four or five — and your guide will do his best to see that everyone has their share of the fun, yourself included.
03 · 3 days / 2 nights · from $2,600
The Hot Springs wilderness trip — two nights
Our most popular trip, and a genuinely remarkable one. The better you ride, the more you will take from it.
Be clear about what it is, though: this is camping with horses, and it is a pack trip. All the supplies travel in on pack horses, and the pack horses set the pace — a walk. Day one, the ride in, and day three, the ride out, will therefore offer you little in the way of challenge or speed. We would rather say so now than have you discover it on the flats.
Day two is another matter entirely. It is given over wholly to free riding. The camp is up, the packs are left behind, and you can venture out into the wilderness of the St James and properly explore country that was once the largest working station in New Zealand. Your guide knows this land like the back of his hand, and will build the day exactly as you would wish it.
And at the end of a day in the saddle, hot springs to sink into, mountains standing all around you and a cold creek whispering alongside. There is no price on that.
04 · 4 days / 3 nights · from $4,500
The Fowlers Circuit —
a mission, not a trek.
Four days and three nights, point to point: we begin at Fowlers Hut and finish at the Homestead, so there is no retracing of ground and every day carries you somewhere new. Fowlers Pass takes you over a saddle at 1,200 metres, the highest and most exposed country of the whole route, and somewhere along the way there is a river to cross on horseback.
It is our most weather-dependent trip, because both the pass and the river must be safe on the day. Keep your travel dates loose where you can.
Origin or Freedom
Two ways to ride it,
over the same ground.
Origin moves camp every day: usually three to four hours in the saddle, but with the camp struck each morning and pitched again each evening, the pack horses loaded by your own hands, and the whole party setting out much as the early settlers did.
Freedom holds at Stanleyvale for two nights instead. Day two is yours to ride freely — packs left at camp, horses out light — and in exchange one of the days with the pack string runs longer, though still within five to six hours. Neither is the lesser trip. One has you living the work of it; the other has you riding.
For an experienced rider, our own recommendation is the Freedom edition. Lake Guyon lies close by, and there is a great deal to explore — you may bathe the horses in the lake, and yourself as well if the weather is kind. You might ride out in the hope of glimpsing the wild horse herd of the St James, if fortune is with us. Both editions finish at the springs on the last night, which is a fine way to end four days of it.
One condition
Experience, as a
condition of booking.
This is the one trip where we ask for it. You need not be a national champion, but you must hold your balance confidently on steep and uneven ground, keep control of your horse in any circumstance, and be at ease at trot and canter.
There is no easy way out of the middle of this route, and that is rather the point of it.
Ground that asks
something of you.
And what of
the rest?
Two trips do not appear on that list, and it is worth explaining why.
The 1.5-hour scenic ride. Experienced riders are most welcome on it. The views are beautiful and the hack up the hill through the pines will keep you engaged. But do remember that this ride is designed for the views rather than the speed — there is no room for trot or canter, and it is popular with beginners and with families riding with children. Come for the country, not the pace.
The Hot Springs trip with one night out. A fine option in itself, and no one has ever regretted it. But with a single night out, and with the ride in and the ride out both made behind a string of pack horses at a walk, the opportunities for trot and canter are few. There may be time for a little extra riding once camp is up on day one, or on the morning of day two — though it will be limited, and it depends on the daylight you have, on the weather, and on what is fair to ask of the guides and the horses at the end of a working day.
If it is riding you are after rather than the setting, the full-day ride will very likely satisfy that craving better than the single overnight does — no packs, no camp, just a long day out in open country. And if you can give us more time again, the two-night trip hands you a whole day of free riding, and the Fowlers Circuit rather more than that.
Tell us what you ride at home, and we will tell you honestly which of these is yours.
