I just did a big Ireland trip in the fall. Part of the riding trip was at Castle Leslie. We (well, actually, @one1horse did the lion’s share of the planning arrangements) booked through Laura Lamb at Ireland Equestrian Tours. It’s worth reaching out to Laura with your trip’s vision and seeing if she can curate something aligning with that. She was very responsive to all our questions. This was a bucket list item for both of us and Laura was fantastic.
The Castle Leslie estate is beautiful. The food was incredible. The town is cute but tiny, you will exhaust things to explore within a day or two including trails. We did three days at the Castle. I enjoyed the local pub and Ambledown Cottage. The owner of Ambledown is wonderful and very funny.
Make sure to visit Glaslough Chocolates and if you can, try to get some time at the local pottery shop, Busy Bee Ceramics. I was sorry we didn’t have enough time to take a pottery class, it looked so fun.
As far as the riding at Castle Leslie goes, the estate has a lot of cob and connemara types that fit a variety of rider skill levels. The jumping portion is mostly Starter-BN sized fences. Don’t expect anything big.
I did have a Castle Leslie snafu. We were scheduled for two XC rides, but only got booked for one. Leslie staff were unbothered by this and didn’t offer any sort of remedy, which I found inconsiderate. I flew to Ireland to experience jumping Irish horses on Irish soil and the two XC days were supposed to be the highlight of my trip.
IET and Laura did try to make it up for us, but unfortunately the timing didn’t line up with our itinerary. I would book with them again, but not Castle Leslie.
Realistically, you would be hard pressed to find a riding vacation that isn’t a glorified “nose to tail” ride. There is no going off and doing your own thing. I understand why. Horses and horse back riding are a big risk.
At Castle Leslie we rode past people fishing in a man-made creek. You could definitely find something for your husband to do. My non-horse SO came along and there was plenty for him to do while we rode.
I enjoyed the Westport section of my trip more. While Castle Leslie was elegant in every way, I felt I got the Irish experience in Westport. We also went to Galway, which was incredible. There is tons to do in both places, so budget time to explore them. I was sorry we did not have more time in Westport.
We rode on the beach in Westport. My horse was a blast. I wish it had been a little less “guide structured”, it was essentially nose to tail with an occasional 20 seconds of canter, but I again, completely understand why it is that way.
I’ll come back with photos.
My mother is an experienced rider, but hasn’t ridden much in the past few years (maybe a few times a year) so we can’t do any of the equestrian vacations that I’ve seen because I think it would be just too much riding for her. She also has pretty serious osteoporosis so no matter how saintly the horse is, we’re not going to be galloping across any fields or beaches. THAT being said, I really would love to go somewhere that isn’t a nose-to-tail trail ride. I think the ideal situation would be an hour or two ride and the rest of the day to do some typical touristy stuff.
I’m enjoying people’s recommendations.