Transfer and Other Options:

Day 1: Arrival  
Arrival at the Bucharest airport, where we will be picked up and transferred through the spectacular mountains to our guesthouse in Sinca Noua (ca. 3 hours). You will receive a welcome drink, a local dinner and will spend the evening with your hosts to prepare the week.
Day 2 and 3: Trips into the mountains
After breakfast you will be shown around the farm and introduced to the horses. Soon we take off for a first ride along the meadows at the foot of the mountains. The hills offer a fantastic view over the area and the meadows invite for some first trot or canter. You will be stunned by the variety of wild flowers and we might already come across the first tracks of bears or wild boar. We enter on a forest road into the vast forests of the Carpathians and follow a long valley up into the mountains. Parts of the forests have never been cut and huge beech and fir trees hem our way. After lunch break on a mountain meadow with spectacular view we return in the early evening back to the stable. In the evening you will see a video presentation about the research and conservation project, which your hosts carried out over the last 10 years.
The next day we will ride again through the hills and valleys of the area, pass a more than 100 year old railway viaduct built during the Austro-Hungarian empire, might come across shepherd camps, cow herds and water buffaloes, and should find tracks of bears, boars, red deer, wolves or lynx. There will be lots of possibilities for canters and even gallops over the meadows.
Day 4: Rest for the horses and the history of Transylvania
Today we give the horses a rest and experience the true history of Transylvania. We leave Sinca Noua and drive for about an hour and a half through sleepy villages to the north, until we reach the village of Viscri with its famous fortified church (UNESCO World Heritage Site) from the times of the invasion of Turks. It is just a gravel road, which gets us the last 10 kilometers to Viscri, which has been a settlement of the Saxons, the German minority, for the last 900 years. In 1990, most of the villagers have left to Germany, but a small number of people stayed to continue their traditional life. Although by now a minority in their own village, the people started to build themselves a future where their ancestors lived for centuries. On personal invitation of Prince Charles, who visited the village in 2002, representatives of the village have even participated in a symposium in London. We visit the fortified church, stroll through the village and will be served a traditional Saxon meal with food from own production and home-made wine and plum brandy. In the afternoon we continue to the city of Sighisoara, one of the cultural centers of the Saxons. We visit the medieval center of Sighisoara and arrive back at our guesthouse in Sinca Noua in the late evening.
Day 5 and 6: 50 km round trip through the Transylvania forests
A 50 km round trip leads us through the endless forests of Transylvania, home of the large carnivores. We pass through forests and cross beautiful mountain meadows, will have the possibility for some long canters and arrive in the afternoon in an area, where people’s life has changed little since the middle ages. Their little mountain farms are still being worked with oxen or horses, people lack even facilities such as running water or electricity. Camp is being set for us at one of these farms with a fantastic view around. We will enjoy a rustic dinner cooked at the campfire and have a long evening around the fire to tell stories. The next morning we pack our stuff and ride along forest trails and roads through the wild forests of Transylvania. We can enjoy the spectacular view over the Carpathian mountains and tracks of wolves or bears are commonly found along the trails. In the afternoon, we arrive back at the guesthouse.
Day 7: A ride through time
On our last ride for the week, we ride in a large loop around Sinca Noua through wild forests, beautiful meadows, enjoy canters and great scenery, and arrive back at our guesthouse after 6 hours.
Day 8: Time to say good-bye
After breakfast we pack our luggage and are being brought back to Bucharest.

Winter
The riding weeks during the winter months will explore the snow capped peaks of the Carpathians on 5 riding days. You will have opportunities to take a sleigh ride and with a bit of luck we will will find tracks of bear, wolf or wild pigs. On one day we will visit the Castle Bran (Count Dracula) and drive to Brasov for a visit.

Special Weeks for Novice Riders  (C - 2012)
Wolves and Bears in Transylvania and the Carpathian Mountains

The Carpathian Mountains represent the largest area of pristine nature in Central and Eastern Europe. More than one third of all wolves, bears, and lynx west of Russia roam these impressive mountains. At the foot of the Carpathians is the village of Sinca Noua, “New Shinca”, a small and picturesque village of some 2,000 inhabitants. Time stands still here, shepherds take their flocks in the mountains as they did for centuries, in the evenings, cows and water buffaloes are brought back from the pastures to the village and there is little noise except the buzzing of insects and the twittering of sparrows and swallows. Hoopoes, bee-eaters, black storks or lesser spotted eagles are commonly sighted and the area has an incredible richness of flowers in all colors.

Day 1: Arrival
We fly to Bucharest airport, where we will be picked up and transferred through the spectacular mountains to our guesthouse in Sinca Noua (ca. 3 hours). You will receive a welcome drink, a local dinner and will spend the evening with the Equus Silvania Team to prepare the week.
Day 2 and 3: Riding lessons
After breakfast you will be shown around the farm and get an introduction into horses. Throughout the next days, we will explain you all about equipment, horse care, saddling and whatever you want to know about horses. For the first two days, you will get two riding lessons each day to learn some basic skills of riding. The rest of the day there is plenty of time for walks through the nature or to hang out on the veranda and read a book.
On Monday evening, you have to possibility to visit a hide in the forest not far from the center, where the chance to see wild brown bears is very high.
Day 4 and 5: Riding lessons and half-day trips
On these two days you will continue to learn with each one riding lesson in the morning, after a lunch you will be taken to some of the interesting spots in the nearby: One day we go by minibus to the famous Dracula Castle, learn about the true history of the place. We continue to the farmer’s castle in Rasnov, which is less famous, but at least as interesting.
The other day we will go for a hike into the Zarnesti canyon in the nearby Piatra Craiului National Park. Stunning rock-walls are along this hike, which will take us for about 2.5 hours through one of the most amazing geological highlights of the Carpathians.
Day 6 and 7: Riding lessons and first trips on horseback into the country side
Again, you will get a riding lesson each morning and in the afternoons you will first time experience a 1.5 hours trip on horseback through the stunning nature.
On one of the days, we will drive into nearby Strîmbisoara Valley and visit the virgin forests there: Here you find huge, hundreds of years old beech, fir, and spruce trees, fallen giants make way for the next generation. An impressing nature!
Day 8: Time to say good-bye
After breakfast we pack our luggage and are being brought back to Bucharest.

A HARD HAT IS OBLIGATORY FOR ALL RIDERS! We have a few hats that other guests have left, and that can be used, but we do not know the history of these hats and cannot take a guarantee for them.

Remarks:
-- Due to weather conditions, the order of the programme might change.
-- We reserve to change the program, as long as it doesn’t change the character of the trip.
-- Drinks are included in the price.
-- Guests are kindly asked to contribute with a 40 € donation to our conservation project.
-- The bear hide is a service from the local wildlife management organization and so we cannot guarantee the visit 100%. However, all our guests over the last 3 years have actually seen wild bears. This service costs extra 30 Euro/person.

Romania has a temperate climate with four distinct seasons. Spring and autumn are cool and pleasant, making May and June, and September and October the best months to visit. Summers are hot from July to August and winters are harsh and very cold between December and March, with snow falling throughout most of the country. Spring and summer are the wettest seasons, but rain can be expected throughout the year.

A continental climate ensures that Bucharest experiences hot, dry summers and cold winters when temperatures often drop well below freezing. The city lies on the Romanian Plain, and this brings chilly winter winds. Summer temperatures are usually pleasantly warm with occasional heat waves, and humidity is low, but there can be occasional rainstorms. The rainiest seasons in Bucharest are spring and autumn.

We recommend you bring your own helmet if possible for this ride.  If not, there are a limited few around to borrow, but they are not property of the outfitter (they are forgotten helmets of past riders at the riding centre) and will not assume risk for their use.

All camping gear for your one camping overnight is provided, including plates, knives, forks, spoons and cups and glasses ... sleeping Bags are available for rent (please let Hidden Trails know if you need to rent one in advance) or bring your own. Bottled water is provided, along with water bottles and saddle bags for the horses.

$USD or Euro will be fine; no need to change money into RON.

Tack:		English
Horses:		Shagya Arabs, Arabs, Kisberi, Gidran, other Hungarian half breeds, local breeds
Pace:		4-7 hours per day - not suitable for novice, participants have to be competent in all speeds and able to fully control a horse at canter and gallop. Some steep slopes where you need to lead your horse
Level:		(3.5 to 4 out of 5)    Good Intermediate
Riders:		Min 3 riders	Max 8 riders

The mixture of horses (25) offers a suitable horse for everybody from calm horses for the lesser experienced to fast and fiery horses for the demanding rider. But all horses have good stamina and are used to the mountain terrain.

The Stables...
For all the animals we have, we built two stables to make them feel good.
The upper stables cover approximately 300 m2 and hosts about half of our horses (and our donkey Maja), which have the possibility of moving around freely. The horses have an open stable with two large boxes (50 m2 and 35 m2) and approximately 1,000 m2 of paddock. Furthermore, we have a separate box (18 m2) for horses that we want to temporarily separate from the herd (e.g. for fowling), and a box for a stallion with 16 m2.
The stables provide space for most of our hay, oat, and straw supplies.
The lower stables also consist of an open stable for the remaining horses and also the other animals have their boxes for the night: sheep, goats, chicken, ducks, geese, and our pigs. And of course our cats and dogs spend much of their time down there.
With the large amount of animals, there are almost always puppies, kittens, chicks, ducklings or goslings around and children will find their own little paradise here.

Your Hosts...
The owners of the riding centre, Barbara and Christoph Promberger, have been leading the Carpathian Large Carnivore Project over the last ten years, the largest research and conservation project on large carnivores in Central and Eastern Europe. During this time, they have gained a great deal of experience about large carnivores and are happy to tell their stories about wolves, bears, and lynx. They are now again involved in a large conservation programme in and around Sinca Noua, which intends to develop the area into a large conservation area with certified organic agriculture around the village and unspoiled and protected forests in the hills and mountains around Sinca.

Passports
Passport valid for at least three months beyond length of stay required by all nationals referred to in the chart except:
(a) 1. EU nationals holding a valid national ID card.

Visas
Not required by all nationals referred to in the chart above for the following lengths of visit:
(a) nationals of EU countries for a three-month period (those intending to stay for a longer period than three months must apply for a registration certificate issued by the Romanian Authority for Aliens); 
(b) 2. nationals of Australia, Canada and the USA for touristic stays of up to three months.
Visa Note
Nationals not referred to in the chart above are advised to contact the embassy to check visa requirements