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Horseback riding vacations in
Ethiopia
Explore Ethiopia from the Semien and Bale mountain ranges to the Danakil
depression. While on horseback keep an eye out for the Gelada baboon
and the Simien fox. A country with deserts along the eastern border and
tropical forests in the south, Ethiopia offers a diversity of
environments.
Check out our Ethiopian Highlands Ride
Ethiopia is a land of myths, superlatives and imagery. Ethiopia is one of the only African countries never colonized: splendid imperial Ethiopia. And also a remote land with arcane religious practices: Ethiopia, the African Tibet – and strange tribes – Ethiopia, the museum of peoples. And of course, Ethiopia is also that modern icon of poverty, famine, war and strife – one-of-the-poorest-countries-on-earth.
All of these facets of Ethiopia are somewhat true, somewhat false, or true sometimes, false at others. It rests that Ethiopia is a charmingly and vexingly complicated country, very far from the simplistic views of it held in the West (if you’d like to read and learn more about Ethiopia, you can find a sample article on the country here.
A startlingly beautiful country, Ethiopia has changed more over the last few years than in the previous three decades. Growth of around ten per cent per year, fueled by increases in agricultural productivity and a splurge of infrastructure projects is making a change in the way the country sees itself and is viewed from abroad.
Ethiopia is a country of some eighty million people, of which perhaps half are Christian and half Muslim. Surrounded by Sudan, Eritrea, Djibouti, Somalia and Kenya and with a total area of 1, 104,300 km2, or five times the size of the United Kingdom or two and half times France, the country is largely rural, with eighty per cent of the population living in the countryside. Ethiopia is schematically divided between lowlands to the east and south, and highlands to the north and west and is situated between 3-18 North and 33-48 East in the Horn of Africa.
With altitudes ranging from – 110 in the Danakil Depression to + 4 700 in the Highlands, temperature and rainfall vary immensely and give rise to an incredible diversity of ecosystems, endowing Ethiopia with a rich endemic flora and fauna. There is a rain season in the Highlands, from July to September, during which monsoon like downpours occur daily, and a dry season from September to June, with a short rain season in April.
Our trail rides and treks take place in the woina dega, an Amharic word that labels the Highlands found between 1500 and 2500 meters. Ethiopia has been called the most populated mountain in the world and the areas we traverse, highly salubrious and lacking in tropical diseases –there is no malaria for example- are heavily populated. These Highlands are characterized by great grassy meadows ideal for cavalcades. The local Oromo people still go mostly by horse, or if they are rich, by mule, and are very welcoming to people arriving on horseback, a practice which is for them, quintessentially Ethiopian.
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Holidays on horseback in Ethiopia
See Mini Country Guide
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Below is a list of our trips in this area with video clips.
 Click on the 'watch video' icon
to view a video clip,
Ethiopia
Mini guide not available.
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