What's a Kyrgyzstan horseback tour like?

You wake in a yurt or a village house. Cold mountain air outside, warm inside. Breakfast is ready. Kyrgyz bread, eggs, cheese, tea, and kumys if available. Then you meet the horses, check the saddles, go over the day's plan and set off. The first half hour is slow, the time your body takes to settle into the saddle.

On the 7-day tour you ride for 5 days: over 40 hours and about 250 km in total. On riding days that is about 8 hours and about 50 km; a calculation, not a promise. The time in the saddle is not continuous, we stop on climbs and descents and at viewpoints, and the horses rest. Hard days like the Saar Waterfall day are the longest. The 5-day tour has 4 riding days: 32 hours, about 180 km. Effect on the body: lower back and thigh ache on day one is normal. Easier on day two. By day three the saddle starts to feel like "ground".

Around the middle of the day we stop somewhere, a pasture, a stream side, the shadow of a caravanserai. Horses graze and you take your break: some sleep, some walk, some just lie down. Then we ride on. Our support vehicle reaches each stop ahead of you, so when you arrive the table is set and the tea is hot. Three meals a day are included, with a different traditional Kyrgyz dish every day: Beshbarmak, Manpar, Samsa and more. Some evenings the drinks are on us.

Across the trip, three kinds of places: a village house, wooden A-frame cabins and Kyrgyz yurts on the high pastures. Each at a different comfort level. The yurt is the most authentic, floor mattress, warm blanket, outdoor toilet. The village house is the most comfortable. Most guests say their favourite was the yurt.

All meals are included in the tour fee. Morning breakfast, light lunch, full dinner. Vegetarian is always possible, just mention at booking. Vegan is more limited in mountain villages (butter-free bread can be hard to find). Drinking water comes from filtered bottles or mountain springs, we manage water with the guides; drinking stream water on your own is risky.

Yes. Kyrgyz horses are small-built, calm-natured, mountain-raised, and forgive a rider's mistakes. On day one guides teach how to sit, hold the reins and sit on a descent. What matters is general stamina for long days, not riding technique. We are finalising the exact level requirement; if you are unsure, write to us before booking and we'll look at it together.

What most guests share with us on the way back isn't the route, it's the effect of being phoneless for a week. In Naryn above 3,000m the signal comes and goes, mostly goes. Day one: restlessness. Day two: acceptance. Day three: relief. By the time you're back in Bishkek and turn your phone on, you notice how quiet your head has become. This is a benefit we didn't deliberately plan, but maybe the most valuable one.