I thought it might be useful to gather together a list of places where you can at least meet, if not ride, mules in the UK and Europe. I haven’t visited them myself (yet!) so I can not personally vouch for them but these are the places you can go. If anyone has ridden with the companies mentioned here and would like to write a review, I would be very happy to publish it here!
UK
Currently, there are no commercial places to ride on mules in the UK – although the following trekking centres have at least one mule on staff, so you may be able to ride with them instead!
- Oxhey Western Trail Rides [Website] [Facebook] If you’ve ever fancied being a cowboy for a day, then you’ll want to give these guys a go! They have many wonderful horses and ponies to ride, and are the home of the Mules UK – Napoleon, Nelson and Marmite.
- Wern Trekking and Riding Centre [Website] [Facebook] The Brecon Beacons are a gorgeous place to ride anyway, but here you might catch sight of MA, the Percheron mule – he’s been on TV and in Vogue! Wern Trekking provides gentle treks, more challenging hacks and arena lessons so there’s something for everyone.
Edit [28/09/18]: Both UK stables no longer have their ridden mules, but I’m leaving them up here anyway because they’re flippin’ good places to ride even if they don’t have any longears!
Belgium
- Hepscheid Longears Trail [Facebook] Run by Nathalie, whose mule Tizanes featured here, the Hepscheid Longears Trail is a small outfit but is a fantastic way to see the Belgian countryside alongside knowledgeable mule riders!
- Les continent des Mules [Facebook] Les continent des Mules is a riding school / therapy centre rather than a trekking centre, but they do such wonderful work that I would recommend contacting them and seeing if you can arrange a visit. You can read about them here.
France
- Trekking Mule [Website] [Facebook] What better way to see the Pyrenees than with a mule companion? Although the mules here are for pack, not for riding, Trekking Mule boasts a huge itinerary of trails of varying duration and difficulty. I would thoroughly recommend checking out their Facebook page for some beautiful photos of the scenery.
- The Ass-ential Stevenson Trail [Website] I don’t know many details about this trek, but it was something that I stumbled across a while ago and so I thought I would include it here. Maybe there is someone intrepid enough to check it out for themselves! It is a 27 mile walking trail, spread across three days, with a mule carrying your gear.
Germany
- Maultiertrail.de [Website] [Facebook] Offering trail rides from a few hours to a few days, these guys are probably your best bet for muleback riding in Europe. They also run courses from horse whispering to how to tackle different types of terrain. Kaisa of the Muuliprojekti blog wrote a post about her week-long trek with them here – it’s in Finnish, but there are plenty of photos! You can also watch her video compilation here.
Image copyright © Kaisa Määttänen