Exploring Dartmoor on horseback *H&H Plus*

Horse riding holidays

With miles of moorland to explore, Martha Terry delights in the best a Dartmoor holiday has to offer

Vegas picks her way through a tumbling river. The little skewbald mare is up to her belly in fast-flowing water, but surges forward to scramble, catlike, up the bank. Next we’re cantering through the heather, the hessian hues of Dartmoor’s hills stretching ahead. It feels like we can gallop forever, on and on over the 368 square miles of moorland, but Vegas pulls up at the top of a climb as I survey the breathtaking 360° view.

Up to my left is Royal Hill, far off in the distance is Crockern Tor, while all around there’s barely a speck of civilisation to be seen, just the odd farm dwelling among miles and miles of yellow gorse, mires, purple heather and the occasional herd of Dartmoor hill ponies. This is truly a place you can empty your head of life’s clutter.

Martha Terry

H&H features editor

Martha is an experienced journalist who is mad-keen on horses and dogs. Her reporting CV includes the Paris Olympics, European championships, Aachen World Equestrian Festival and World Cup finals. After growing up with assorted liver and white springer spaniels, she enjoyed 14 years with two rescue dogs. Now, her constant companion is Fidget, an extremely energetic and habitually muddy black and white springer. Martha has written on topics as diverse as a top horse’s clone to the best GPS trackers for dogs, as well as equestrian and rural matters for Country Life, The Field, The Times, The Spectator and The Telegraph alongside Horse & Hound.