Everything you need to know
Half-day trip details
To see current prices for each rate (adults, children, students and infants), select your preferred date in the booking calendar. The price shown in the calendar is always the final price.
Check the available days and times directly in the booking calendar: it updates in real time according to the season.
You are picked up at your hotel or accommodation in central Seville, and dropped off there at the end. If the vehicle cannot reach your address, the pick-up is at the nearest accessible point.
Pick-up at your accommodation is only available if you are staying in central Seville. If you are staying outside it, choose C. Rastro 12A, 41003 Seville as your pick-up point when you book and make your own way there. · View on Google Maps
Once you have booked, the exact time and pick-up point are confirmed with you by email or telephone. We recommend being ready a few minutes early.
Private return transport between Seville and the equestrian centre.
A short introductory talk on the basics of handling and looking after a horse, before you mount.
A guided ride through the countryside.
Food and drink are not included. This is a half-day activity and there is no meal stop.
No riding experience is needed. The introduction covers the basics and the ride is led at walking pace by staff from the centre.
Equestrian centres apply their own conditions on minimum age and on rider weight, for the welfare of the horses. If anyone in your party is close to those limits, or is a young child, write it in the comments box when you book: what you put there reaches the organiser.
Long trousers and closed shoes with a small heel are the practical choice. Shorts and trainers are uncomfortable in a saddle and sandals are not usable.
Long trousers, closed shoes and something you do not mind getting dusty.
Sun protection and a hat in the warmer months. Much of the route is in pine shade but not all of it.
Bring some water.
Leave loose scarves and dangling bags behind: anything flapping unsettles a horse.
It is a four-hour activity, so you are back in Seville with most of the day still ahead of you.
Free cancellation up to 24 hours before the activity. You can cancel from the confirmation email you receive when you book.
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Eduardo BallesterosSeville local and author of the guideThe half-day trip
Andalusia at the pace it was built for
For most of its history this landscape was crossed on horseback, and the region has one of the deepest equestrian traditions in Europe. This half day takes you out to a riding centre in the countryside outside Seville and puts you in the saddle, whether or not you have ever ridden.
Out of the city
A private vehicle takes the group out of Seville to the equestrian centre. It is a short drive into the countryside west of the city, where the ground turns sandy and the pine woods begin.
Meeting the horses
Before anyone mounts, the staff give a short introduction: how to approach a horse, how to hold the reins, how the animal reads what you do. It is brief and practical, and it is aimed at people who have never done this before.
The ride
The route goes out through the countryside at an unhurried pace, led by the centre’s own riders. Sandy tracks, pine and scrub, and the particular quiet that comes with being above the ground and moving slowly. There is no trotting to keep up with and no experience assumed.
Why here
Along the way you hear something of why Andalusia is what it is for horses: the breed, the working traditions that shaped it, and the fairs and festivals where the region still puts its horses on show. Then back to the centre and the drive to Seville.
Important: the order and format of the route may vary depending on the time of year, the weather, road conditions and each town’s local holidays. Your guide will organize the trip in whatever way works best for the group.
Your questions answered
Frequently asked questions
No. The introduction covers what you need and the ride is led at walking pace by the centre’s own staff. Most of the people who book have never been on a horse.
Around four hours in total, including the drive each way and the introduction. It is a half-day activity, so you are back in Seville with the rest of the day free.
The ride itself is the core of the visit and the rest is transport and preparation. The exact length is set by the centre on the day and depends on the group and the weather.
Equestrian centres set their own limits, for the welfare of the horses as much as the safety of the rider. If anyone in your party is close to those limits, or is a young child, say so in the comments box when you book: what you write there reaches the organiser.
Long trousers and closed shoes with a small heel, which stops the foot sliding through the stirrup. Avoid shorts, sandals, loose scarves and dangling bags.
Spanish, English, French and Italian. You choose when you book. Usually the guide runs the day in one language, although it is sometimes run in two at once, with the guide alternating between them.
You are picked up at your hotel or accommodation in central Seville, and that is also where the trip ends. After you book, the exact time and pick-up point are confirmed with you by email or telephone. If you are staying outside central Seville, choose C. Rastro 12A as your pick-up point instead and make your own way there.
It depends on the bookings for each date, and groups are usually small. In high season the group is split into two or more subgroups: as a rule, groups are no larger than 30 people.
No, and there is no meal stop. At four hours this is a half-day activity.
We would not recommend it. Mounting and dismounting require a degree of mobility, and the ride is on uneven ground.
Yes. Cancellation is free up to 24 hours before the activity.
Planning your ride
Practical questions about horses and Andalusia, useful background before you travel.
Because the animal was central to how the land was worked and fought over for centuries, and because the region produced a breed the rest of Europe wanted. Cattle were herded from the saddle here long before they were in the American west, and the techniques crossed the Atlantic with the ships that left from Seville.
The working riding style of the Andalusian stockman, developed for handling fighting bulls on open pasture. It is ridden one-handed, with the other hand free for the pole, and it asks the horse to turn and stop sharply. It is now also a competitive discipline with its own championships.
The countryside west and south of the city, towards the Aljarafe and the edge of the marshes, is where most of the riding centres are. The ground is sandy and largely flat, which is easy going for a horse and forgiving for a beginner.
On a led ride at walking pace, on a horse chosen for the job, it is about as safe as this activity gets. Riding centres keep specific animals for inexperienced riders precisely because they are unflappable. The usual advice applies: listen to the staff and do not try anything they have not suggested.
Spring and autumn. Rides start early or late in July and August because of the heat, which affects the horses before it affects you, and winter is mild although the ground can be wet.
The April Fair in Seville, where the city rides and drives through the fairground every afternoon, and the Horse Fair in Jerez in May, which is the most serious of them. The pilgrimage to El Rocio at Pentecost also moves largely on horseback and by ox cart.
The low ridge immediately west of Seville, above the river, covered in olive groves and small towns. It has been the city’s agricultural hinterland since Roman times and it is where a lot of Seville goes when it wants to be out of Seville.
Not for this. The introduction is given in the language you choose when booking. Beyond that, riding instruction at walking pace is mostly demonstration, and the horse does not care either way.
