The Horseshoe trail ride is a 15 mile ride around the area of Foremark Reservoir in the Midlands. A really handy talk around and map can be found here. I also downloaded a gps route to use on the ordnance survey app before setting off to park at Foremark Reservoir.
It was a rather wet, windy and cold day so the car park was pretty empty. They don’t have any designated horsebox parking but I would highly recommend taking a right and parking further away from the cafe and picnic area as it’s much quieter. I’ve seen trailers just park across multiple spaces and I did the same in the lorry. I guess if it was super busy parking with a trailer might be a bit harder, however there is alternative parking for the route at Ticknall village hall. It was £3 to park for the whole day at Foremark and I think you make a donation for the village hall.
The bridleways are pretty well signed however the ‘Horseshoe route’ is not marked so I had to study my map frequently to know which way to go, but the talk around was excellent and I only got temporarily misplaced twice. The gates were all horse friendly, I didn’t have to dismount once, and although I didn’t actually count them officially, I think there were about 10 gates on the route.
There are also loads of options to make the route shorter or longer if you have a look at all the available bridleways routes but for this time I stuck with the official Horseshoe trail.
It was a super varied ride, lots of open field canters, farm tracks, pretty woodlands and minimal road, the short section of road we did go on was quiet and all the cars slowed down for us, which was nice. Plenty of brilliant views and nothing I would deem too ‘spooky’ to pass, so I would deem it quite a nice route for a youngster. Saying that Tissy often spooks at purple flowers……heathland and bluebell woods are a nightmare for us!
The Derbyshire Endurance GB group usually run a ride using most of this route in the summer months and I’ve ridden it a couple of times so I can’t quite believe this is the first time I’ve ventured here on my own, considering it’s only 30mins away. My excuses are, I was never that keen on going out and about when I had a trailer because finding parking was so difficult and secondly when I had a lorry my horse was injured most the time. I still could have taken Tissy though, but anyway, I’m super glad I ventured out even in the horrible weather, we had a great time and I’m looking forward to making it a regular visit for training next season.
P.S. Sadly it turns out my new saddle bag was not waterproof and the picnic I had planned to have was a soggy mess, Tissy enjoyed her carrots though.
Beth Endurance 