HACK 1000 MILES
What is the best way to get around a city? Well, it’s obviously on horseback! Mel Beale shares her latest hacking adventure that took her to the big smoke…
HOW DO MOST people get Turning onto a little cobbled street, around London? Black taxi. nestled beneath flats, behind an art Red double decker bus. studio and adjacent to a pub — aptly The Underground. On foot. named The Stablehand — is Hyde Park By bicycle. These are the Stables. The yard, consisting of 11 first methods that spring to mind. hodgepodge stables, a reception area
However, it turns out that even and a tackroom, looks out onto this in 2023 there are also still horses… quiet cobbled street.
Hidden away in a London mews are Upon arrival I am greeted and pointed several stables which house horses who in the direction of my steed, a 12-year-old cob called Topper. This handsome love their lives in the city — and I went to pay them a visit. gelding has lived at the stables for two years, and he thrives in his role of giving riders a view of Hyde Park from his back.
I mount up and have assistance from a groom with adjusting my stirrups and girth — what a treat! — and I’m clipped onto a lead rope to be led out to the park by Livvy, my guide for the day.
This is a novel experience, but Livvy explains to me that all riders who come to Hyde Park Stables, no matter what their ability, are taken to the park itself on a lead rein and are unclipped once they have proved that they are safely in control of their horse.
After a short stretch of road work we reach Hyde Park and, following a brief trot, I graduate from the lead rein.
After another trot along the beautiful sand tracks, we reach Rotton Row. And what a sight it is from horseback. With the London Eye in the distance, we pick up a steady canter, winding down to a trot and then a walk as the Household Cavalry passes ahead.
Livvy, aboard the striking Ken, leads us around the outside of the park past Marble Arch, and we enjoy a final long trot down the sand tracks before we exit the park and head back to the stables.
I am pleasa
