Rides in Georgia

The horse is not a leisure animal everywhere in Georgia. In Tusheti and the eastern highlands it is still working transport, because the tracks that connect the villages were never built for anything else, and the seasonal sheep drives down to the Kakhetian lowlands are done the same way they always were. That is the background to the riding sold here: routes follow drove roads and village paths rather than a marked trail, at the pace of ground with no alternative. Two valleys carry most of it. Pankisi, in the northeast under the main range, is a narrow gorge of small settlements where the riding goes up side valleys towards the forest and the old towers. Vashlovani, at the other extreme in the far southeast, is semi-desert — open badland country where a horse covers distances on sight lines that a walker would spend a day on.

The standard product is two days with a night in between, which is the shortest format that gets past the first ridge and into country worth the saddle time. Riding is four to six hours a day, broken by a long stop, with the overnight in a village house rather than a camp. Groups are small because the horses are, and a guide rides with them throughout. Longer crossings exist for experienced riders, but the two-day version is what most people buy and it assumes no previous mountain riding.

Practical. Say honestly how much you have ridden — the operators match the horse to it, and the mismatch is uncomfortable rather than dangerous. Most outfits keep a weight limit somewhere around ninety to a hundred kilograms for the animals' sake. Tack is local and the saddles are hard; long trousers and boots with a heel are the difference between a good second day and a bad one, and riding hats are not always supplied. Season runs late spring to early autumn in Pankisi, and spring and autumn in Vashlovani, where summer heat rules out midday riding entirely. Rain turns the Vashlovani tracks to a paste that stops vehicles, though not horses.