Western Herzegovina

After breakfast and morning coffee (or tea) it’s time to meet the horses, get yourself and them ready, and take a first ride around the ranch. We will start the ride easy, exploring the surroundings to get to know your horse and see if you are all fine with your tack. After the ride we will have a lunch break and a bit of time to rest. In the afternoon hours it’s time to ride again to complete local exploration. We will return to the stables in the early evening and ten have dinner together.

It’s time to get ready for a bit more riding. Everyone can help prepare the horses, although your guide will be saddling and checking each horse. Today’s ride will take you uphill, on a riding route through the Blaževići village. On the way, we will pass the local Church of St Luke, the patron saint of horses and animals. Lunch will be served back at the ranch. In the afternoon we will ride out again, this time to Krenica Lake. We will ride through fields, with really nice views all around us and often accompanied by wildlife: rabbits, wild ducks, pheasants and other birds. The lake is very picturesque and pretty deep: official sources indicate 47 meters, but actual depth in unknown due to underwater caves. It’s also surrounded by numerous local legends and stories. After a break there we will ride back to the ranch for dinner with our hosts, who will serve traditional food and drinks.

After breakfast we start our ride from the ranch, cross water channels a few times to reach open fields of Artemisia. The name is self-explanatory: the route runs through fields of artemisia, an aromatic herb used in medicine. Cantering through the fields and enjoying the amazing and unique smell of the plants is quite an experience. Lunch will be served in the nature. We will enjoy a bit of rest in the shade of trees while our horses have a bite of grass. Then will head back to the ranch, riding next to a number of water channels and passing local vineyards on our way. Once back at the ranch we will unsaddle our horses and tend to them, and then sit together at a dinner table.

Today we start the ride heading towards vineyards and passing orchards and fields of corn, potatoes, or wheat, depending on the season of the year. Then we will ride onto hilly trails that are either up or down, so the pace through the day will be relatively slow. Outside the village we will follow a route going up to cross a hill called Svetigora. Once on the other side opens a serene, pastoral valley called ”Omerovac” – a family-owned field surrounded by four hills: Krstina, Ograda, Orlov Kuk and Svetigora that we rode from. We will stay there for a really nice lunch break, in the deep shade of old oak trees. We can rest or… play traditional games of Herzegovina. Sooner or later we will start heading back to the ranch.  On our way home from valley we will ecounter tombstones – remnants of an ancient Roman necropolis. On some of them you might still be able to recognize symbols and writing. From there we ride downhill and reach the ranch afterwards, right on time for dinner.

After a solid breakfast we saddle up and ride out. Today we take a pictureque trail that follows a small river called Matica. The name is local, as people in villages downstream give it different names, until it eventually reaches the Adriatic Sea. The route we’ll be riding today was used in 2010 as an endurance trail during National Championship of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the following years multiple other endurance races took part here. On the way will stop at an amazing place, cool the horses and riders and have a lunch break at the river. Towards late afternoon we will ride back along the river and local channels to the ranch. Once we return and tend to our horses dinner will be served.

It’s our last day in the saddle and it’s a very interesting one! After breakfast we will ride to a beautiful lake called Nuga. On the way we have a hill to climb in order to reach the entrance of a cave called “Ravlića pećina” that we will, of course, visit. Further on the trail we will reach the source of the Matica river that we followed a day ago. The area was known for watermills that grinded grain into flour in the past centuries. Today not much is left of them, barely old building and mill parts, but the landscape is undoubtely beautiful. Picnic lunch will be served at the river, and then we will visit the “Peć Mlini” (”Five Mills”) Park. After break we will mount our horses up for the last time. First we will ridee back to Nuga lake and take a different route that will leads us to the stables. There we will unsaddle our horses, thank them for a great ride and take them to the pasture or stable for the last time. Then it’s time for us – it’s our last, farewell dinner at the ranch.

It’s time to leave Bosnia and Gerzegovina and head home. Transfers to Sarajevo or Split can be arranged.