Hi everybody and… happy summer! Now, I want you to keep that happy sum-sum-summertime smile on your face while I tell you about an A-mazing idea from our friend and fellow traveler, Debra Allen.
Debra is a physician’s assistant, horse lover and survivor of a double mastectomy and she came up with the BRILLIANT idea to offer getaways that would be especially restorative and unifying for individuals and their loved ones who are living with a cancer diagnosis.
Active Riding Trips is going to offer two Ride for Pink™ (don’t you love the name?) horseback tours during cancer awareness this autumn that I’ve personally selected for their natural beauty and restorative hospitality.
One is along the Tennessee Smoky Mountains and the other takes you to the beaches of Connemara, Ireland.
Plus… 10% of each trip will go to the American Cancer Society. So you’re not only exercising good self-care as a warrior or a caretaker, and connecting with others who have shared the same experiences, you’re ensuring that the organization on the front lines of this disease remains empowered to do the work and research it needs. Pretty great idea, huh? (Thanks, Debra!)
So… I chose two places – Curra Farm in County Galway, Ireland, and the Gannon family’s French Broad Outpost Ranch in Tennessee – because both offer such exceptional and restorative environments. Each offers a safe place and comfortable setting, where there will be spaces that afford guests the chance to sit and chat or share stories, ride or work around horses, and share in communal activities or tours.
They just felt “right” to me. So I really hope they feel right to you, too.
So here’s the deal…
Ride for Pink™ Ireland’s Connemara Coast & Beach Ride, Sept. 21-27, promises to make Curra Farm your home away from home. You’ll have use of the kitchen and bbq, and can cook in, take out, or dine out as you please. Plus, there’s an organic market in Galway City so you can pick up the healthiest, most select ingredients you might want.
Curra Farm is winner of ‘Best Travel Experience’ in Equestrian Living Magazine’s Gold List, and a 2015 runner-up for best Irish Independent & Zurich Equestrian Farmer of the Year. It promises a therapeutic and revitalizing experience including equine therapy with Horse Connect facilitators, lakeside yoga with Tuam Cancer Care, sip and paint with equine artist Leonie Sutton, and an afternoon of 16th century storytelling at Aughnanure Castle and Kylemore Abbey. And you’ll fall in love with the horses (of course).
Ride for Pink™ Tennessee’s Smoky Mountain Ranch Ride, Sep. 29-Oct. 5, is nestled in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains and the Gannon family won’t let you down on their promise to transport you back in time to the Old West. They’ll offer an exceptional week of trail riding (morning and afternoon guided rides), a chance to practice herding and sorting cattle, plus white water rafting, black powder shooting, and square dancing (so grab your partner and do-si-do).
Laughter is the best medicine, and everyone who is brave enough to wake up each day and keep fighting deserves a place where they can be not only in the company of others sharing the same experience, but in the non-judgmental company of horses, too.
Why is this important to us here? How could it not be? Breast cancer is the second-most common cancer in American women (behind skin cancer) and second only to lung cancer in killing more women annually. The American Cancer Society estimates this year there will be over 268,000 new cases of invasive breast cancer in women and 2,600 in men; almost 63,000 carcinomas in situ (CIS) the earliest form of breast cancer; and more than 42,000 deaths (women and men) from breast cancer.
Saddle up, spread the word, and let’s create an annual experience that transforms lives for the better. Reserve your Active Riding Trip Ride For Pink™ HERE.