Saddle up for ranch camps
Quite apart from all the pleasures of riding through the Australian bush on horseback to be found at Darkes Forest Riding Ranch, there is more than one kind of magic. In 42 years, business owner Jules Read has seen many amazing connections form...
Quite apart from all the pleasures of riding through the Australian bush on horseback to be found at Darkes Forest Riding Ranch, there is more than one kind of magic.
In 42 years, business owner Jules Read has seen many amazing connections form between horses and humans of all sorts, but few which took away the breath such as the time a non-verbal participant spoke.
“To see the joy his mother experienced that day will stay with us a long time,” said Jules, who has long believed in the healing power of our equine friends.
Jules’ family have run the ranch since 1979, currently helped by 20 staff “and extra hands who somehow just know when they are needed”. Her parents are still very much involved in the riding school as well as their own agistment business on the 200-acre property.
The 50-strong herd of horses stand ready once more for the ranch’s school holiday camps (dates below), which now have a two-decade track record.
Attendees can expect a full day from the get-go, when they start bonding with their animal by leading and grooming before any tack appears. Morning tea follows, then a group riding lesson before lunch and a trail ride. Once unsaddled and cleaned up, the horses head for a rest – and they’re not the only ones.
“The children are usually well on their way to an early night themselves,” Jules says. “They certainly sleep well after a day at the ranch.
“We’re now seeing children of past participants attend – that’s pretty cool.”
Jules is particularly grateful for the love and care her crew show their charges, who had extra consideration during the region’s recent cold snap.
“They have extra protection in their canvas rugs … they require additional feed and some of the older guys will be brought in out of the cold,” she said.
“I will be forever grateful to these kind souls. We are proud to offer good horses a forever home.”
Apart from school holidays, the ranch can provide riding sessions from $90 over seven days a week and trail riding from $75 over periods of 30, 60 and 90 minutes.
Jules is well placed to imagine which version of quadraped whose form she might enjoy if reincarnation was possible: “Not a hardworking Clydesdale or cheeky kids’ pony … but I do have a mule I purchased from the Australia movie set sale.
“Quartpot has the life I see myself living. When he has had enough, he just lies down.”
And, yes, Quartpot is stubborn.
