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My daughter's summer camp (although she doesn't go any more - too old) has a week-long camping trail ride on the Biltmore estate every summer. It can't be TOO expensive - maybe they get a discount. I dunno.

It's absolutely splendid. They have paddocks for the horses and a very nice little barn. In good weather the girls put their sleeping bags next to the paddock - my daughter woke up in the morning with her horse nuzzling her hair through the paddock fence. .. . (HE knew who had the treats!)

"My daughter's summer camp (although she doesn't go any more - too old) has a week-long camping trail ride on the Biltmore estate every summer. It can't be TOO expensive - maybe they get a discount. I dunno."

Awwwwwwwww...................that has GOT to be every horse-crazy girl's dream camp!!! What a blast that had to have been for her. When I was young, the local "saddle club" to which we belonged, used to do "Jr. Overnight Trail Rides", which amounted to a bunch of horseback riding parents going out on the trails with their kids, pitching camp in a local preserve or a local farmers field, starting a campfire, bedding down the horses and DRINKING. We ran around like banchees (of course we thought it was the absolute most fun thing on earth, the closest to becoming a cowboy that you could be in 1950-1960's suburban Chicago IL), stayed up all night, and the boys tried to sneek in and out of the girls tents, vice-versa, etc. I still give my Mom a hard time about it - lovingly, of course. She, a non-drinker and non-rider, but a wonderful Mom, and my Dad, a drinker and rider, and a wonderful Dad, were divorced years and years ago. We laugh and tell her that if there was such a thing as Child Protective Services way back then, I'm sure they would have been called in - for total lack of adult supervision - hahahaha. Of course, being 9-15 or 16 years old, those experiences counted as the all time best and favorite of OUR lifetimes, hands down!!! Wheeeeeeeee!!! And we lived to tell about it...........hahaha!!

I think the individual riding permit for Biltmore, which might include trailer parking and a bridle tag, for a year is around $200, which really isn't expensive if you get use out of it. The scenery alone is worth $199!!!!! And the trail rides they have, if you go through their barn and program didn't seem to be outrageous, so you're right, it can't be THAT overpriced. Although with the drought they've had down there, the hay shortage has caused a lump in the throat of every equestrian down south, I'm pretty sure. My guy is boarded at a small private facility nearby where we're building our house/barn, etc, and the owner has had to do a moderate increase. But some folks are really hurting. But they ARE getting rain now, I guess. Small comfort cause it's gonna take awhile to come back..........