Cheval Enjeu

Riding in the Luberon is one of the nicest ways of discovering the region. At least I think so.

Near Vaugines there is a small stable with seven horses. The owner, Nicole has a very special realtionship with her horses. She clearly loves them, knows them well and treats them with a lot of respect. She subscribes to “natural horsemanship”, which is a collective term for many different horse training methods. The methods vary but generally share principles about getting to know the horse, deriving from how horses behave naturally and rejecting hard and abusive training methods. “The natural horsemanship movement is controversial in the mainstream equestrian community, with criticism leveled at practitioners on a number of levels, while natural horsemanship advocates in turn are highly critical of more traditional methods”, according to Wikipedia. Be that how it is, Nicoles horses are friendly, pleasant to ride and very reliable. Among Nicole’s principles is not to use ordinary horse shoes, but instead rubber or plastic shoes that are put on just for a hiking tour. The horses seem to adjust to them quite nicely.

We rode from the paddock to the Chapelle de l’Ermitage above Cucuron, where the view over the valley can only be described as magnificient.