In September 2003 I went on a trail ride through the Kiskunság Puszta in Hungary. It was a 1.5 hours flight from Düsseldorf to Budapest (I flew with Malev Hungarian Airlines. It was only a little plane, a Canadair Jet 200, but it looked quite new. Of the 50 seats maybe 40 were taken.) followed by another 1.5 hours transfer by car to the riding centre approx. 70 km south of Budapest, close to Kiskunság National Park. We were only a small group: my friend Agnes from Apolda, Siggi from Stuttgart and our host and guide Arpi. A Dutch guy, tester of horse-riding holidays, joined for one day.

The first day we did a couple of 2 hour rides to test the horses and riders. The second day we started on the trail. We rode between 3 and 4 hours (about 40 km) every day, which was just fine to avoid a muscle ache. Arpi was a former jockey and we enjoyed the long gallops across the Hungarian plain. The landscape was dominated by wild meadows, woodland and fields with the occasional farm, but we hardly met a soul. In total we spent 3 nights at the Arpád riding centre and 3 nights at different puszta hotels: Pongrácz-Major, Sarlóspuszta and Apaj. Food was plenty and good. Hungary is famous for its paprika and goulash.

Average temperatures in September range between 23 and 12 °C with 7 days of rain. When we arrived on Saturday it was unusually hot (over 30 °C) and this was to last until Tuesday (apparently it got as hot as 45 °C this summer!!). We had the first rain in months on Wednesday. It rained all day, but mainly a light drizzle. The sun was shining again on Thursday and for the rest of the week until we left on the following Saturday, but temperatures had cooled down to approximately 25 °C. It got fairly cold in the evenings, but with a hot soup and some red wine we got warm again pretty soon!

Here are some pictures:

The trail can be booked at:
http://www.urlaubspferd.de

For tips on what to see in Hungary visit:
http://www.gotohungary.com/