Spanish Horses via Compostelo Ride

[Snow Moon]

Hello,
I am British living in Canada for now as I put together a project to bring to the UK up to 10 Spanish Colonial horses of the Americas known as the Spanish Mustang. In the UK we are setting up as charity to preserve this endangered breed. With another fellow European I would like to take a spiritual and symbolic ride with our best horses via the Camino Frances to Santiago Compostelo. From there we would go on to southern Spain where the Mediterranean meets the Atlantic and ride the horses to the shore.
Their ancestors left with the conquistadors by sea in the early 1500s and these horses are their direct descendants.
We have a long way to go but are aiming for spring 2011 and hope to be able to document this on film.
We wish to take the horses on the Camino by way of completing the circle begun 500 years ago and about the spirituality of the horses. Us too.
For now though, if anyone has any information either historical or recent of anyone travelling to Santiago on horseback we'd love to hear it. I have been to St Jean Pied de Port a few times arriving by car and then drove into Spain. I would like to take the horses via there if possible. Like I said, a bit of a way off yet but these things need planning!
Great forum and so interesting.

[John Hussey]

That is an interesting project. I'd first suggest you do a little creative "Googling". There is a wealth of info on this form of passage on the 'net. Here is the first one when I tried it:

http://www.caminoacaballo.com/castellano/default.asp


I even vaguely once recall a booklet showing where the stable facilities were for those that were riding and where feed could be obtained for the mounts. I would also start by contacting some of the Camino organizations in Spain and explaining your task to them. I suspect they would be most helpful.

Good luck

[Snow Moon]

Thank you John. This website publishes a guide specifically aimed at travellers on horseback and will prove very useful.

[Snow Moon]

Please can you send me another message me as I can't seem to e-mail you from my message box.
Thanks,
Snow Moon

[Barrie & Carole]

We just finished reading the book "Horseshoes and Holy Water" by Mepho Phillips about their ride from Canterbury, Kent in the UK to Santiago de Compostela on horseback. It was a very entertaining book and even though they took about 4 months it sounds like it was a wonderful experience. Good luck!

[Snow Moon]

Sounds fascinating - I'll have to get that. Will look on Amazon. Update to the horses is that I'm heading back this year to set up in France. We'll be bringing five horses now due to the economy and the others are now in new 'forever' homes over here. Once back I can start working on the camino ride plan with a friend.