Just a stone’s throw from Britain’s shores, Ireland boasts stunning scenery, diverse terrain and some exceptional riding experiences. Julie Harding finds out from those in the know exactly what’s on offer
URSULA SCHWEIGER LOVES horses. And she has several of them, mainly Connemaras, Irish Sport Horses, Irish Draughts (some of whom are home-bred), plus cobs, and a number of these are used to take clients on rides in stunning Co Sligo. In fact, there are too many equines to mention in detail. However, a snapshot of a couple helps to illustrate how diverse and delightful the horses are at Ursula’s Island View Riding Stables, which offers holidays close to the stunning Wild Atlantic Way, Ireland’s 2,600km coastal route.
Firstly, there is Jacqueline, an 18-year-old, 17hh, dark bay Irish Draught mare with a little blood. In fact she is a “love child”, according to Ursula, who, many years ago, bought a Thoroughbred /Clydesdale stallion. He jumped four ditches in order to set up an assignation with an Irish Sport Horse mare. Ursula found them together the following morning and 11 months later Jacqueline appeared.
“As a foal Jacqueline had issues,” Ursula explains. “She had a hairline fracture in a cannon bone and then she developed ballerina syndrome, during which her tendons didn’t grow in tandem with her bones. It was a difficult time, but today she is well and very soulful. She’s a caretaker with a rocking horse canter, and she’s so careful with all of her riders that last year we trusted her to carry a blind man. She always stays behind the lead horse and we can control her with hand signals. She’s sospecial.”special.”
Almost at the other end of the height scale comes Haribo, a 14.3hh, grey Connemara, aged six, who Ursula purchased from the Clifden Connemara Sales a few years ago.
“He’s manageable, but forward going and fun. A very positive horse who enjoys the fast work if his rider is keen.”
As well as an equine love story involving Jacqueline’s parents, Island View Riding Stables produced a human love story, too.
Thirty years ago, Ursula, who grew up in Germany and became obsessed with horses from a young age, arrived in Grange, which is nestled between the foot of Benbulbin Mountain and the spectacular Atlantic Ocean. She was then a student and she planned to stay for only one summer, but she returned time after time, eventually marrying farmer Raymond O’Connor and settling in the Emerald Isle for good.
“I felt at home,” she says. “During my first year here the stables were being set up and there were only four horses. We subsequently set up a trekking centre and rid
