HORSING AROUND

Step out of your comfort zone and onto a well-mannered horse for an equestrian adventure that might become your new weekend pastime at Delray Equestrian Center’s all-inclusive, 27-acre horseback riding and training facility. For starters, it’s always a relief to escape the real-world traffic and congestion we all live with—to enter a place of pasture with a tree line, barns and stalls, a portal into the alternative natural world most of us need.

“We work with everyone from beginners, ages 5 and up, to advanced riders with lessons, training, boarding services and camps,” says Barn Manager and Trainer Heather Mills, an accomplished equestrian who grew up with a passion for horses. The Florida native later married into a family of world champion riders, where she built expertise in the family’s breeding and training facility.

“A 30-minute private or group lesson is a great way to begin,” advises Mills, in which students learn the basics of horsemanship: how to put the saddle on and off, called tacking up; basics of how to handle the horse; how to brush and groom the horse; and then, how to ride the horse in the arena with an instructor.“For smaller children or first-timers, 30 minutes on a horse is plenty.”

Interest in horseback riding skyrocketed several years ago with the 2018 debut of the television series “Yellowstone.” Mills says,“We still get lots of phone calls from people who say they are obsessed with ‘Yellowstone’ and just want to come out and sit on a horse.”

Delray Equestrian Center

14830 Smith Sundy Road, Delray Beach

561/495-4701 delrayequestrian.net