Responsible Tourism for Riding Holidays

Responsible Tourism
One of the most wonderful things about travelling by horse is that we can pass through a place and leave nothing but hoofprints, it's a totally environmentally friendly way to travel.

Our Pledge

Group sizes are small and so any impact is minimal and sensitive interaction with local communities is possible. As far as we can we employ local guides and staff. In The Saddle, together with our partners overseas and local ground handlers, is committed to an active conservation policy that respects and protects local environments and contributes to the welfare of the communities with whom we work. We believe that our clients are equally concerned and to help you appreciate and understand the issues, we send you The Friends of Conservation's Travellers Code before you depart. If you have any concerns about the environmental or social ssues on any of our holidays, please do speak to us. In March 2007 In The Saddle was awarded the AITO 2 star responsible tourism status. We are involved with two specific community projects in South Africa and India. South Africa - Songimvelo Songimvelo Horseback Safaris are keen to give their support to the African community in their area and one way to do this is to help provide materials for a nearby school. The school is called Hambanatsi (meaning ‘Come with Us’ in Swazi), and attempts to educate around 200 pupils. While the school has very enthusiastic teachers who work tirelessly to support the school and children, often without pay, the actual facilities available are very poor, with a real lack of funding and materials. There are only four classrooms at the school, of which only two have chairs and tables. The other two have broken windows, and the children have to sit on a dirty concrete floor to take part in lessons. There are no blackboards or teaching implements to help educate the children and simple items like pens / pencils / paper are practically non existent. The school educates children between 4 and a half to 13 years old. Because of the lack of facilities the teachers have to run classes with all different ages in, making any such education very difficult. Any child with learning difficulties is often condemned to a lack of education, as the teachers find it impossible to cope with full classrooms and one to one care.

The school does request fees for each child that attends. However in the community the mortality rate is very high, this often leaves a child without both parents before their 7th birthday. When this is the case the school will still allow the child to attend in a valiant attempt to continue their education. However the more children that cannot pay school fees means less budget for any essential items.
The school buildings are in a dreadful state of repair, quite simply any money available goes towards feeding the children, and their play area is overgrown and unusable. There is no money for any type of Physical Education, and often the children play in the road. Their kitchen, where they supply meals everyday for all the children, is quite simply a small shed with a wood fire, and they had to beg for funds to build this.

Songimvelo Horse Safaris are very keen to support the school and provide any sort of help that they can. These children want to come to school, they enjoy wearing their school uniform (for those that can afford it), they enjoy being part of something and for some of them going to school each day is their last link to a normal life.

When Songimvelo Horse Safaris met with the school and asked how they could help, the school came up with a very simple wish list of items that would make an immediate difference. In turn we are asking all the guests that visit the safari to bring with them any of these items so that they can be donated to the school at the end of the safari.
On the last Sunday of the safari you will enjoy a glimpse of how Swazi people used to live and you will then get to see how they live now. Part of that experience will be visiting the school in the morning, talking to the teachers and seeing the children in their environment. After this you will be able to present to the Head Master any gifts for the school. We hope that over a period of time we will be able to track how these gifts make an impact on the children’s lives and help arm them with education for the future.

If possible please can we ask you to bring with you (either from donations from the office / friends / family) any of the following. Hopefully it won’t take up much room in your bags and your simple effort will have an immediate effect:

• Pencils / Pens / Crayons / Paints & Brushes
• Paper / Coloring Books / Reading Books
• Files - A4 size for the children to store their work
• Dictionaries - English
• Atlas’s
• ANY sports equipment, be it footballs, kit (any size) netballs, etc.
• Portable Radios – the schools need to be able to play learning cassettes and tune in to Radio Schools for extra learning programs.

Anything that you can do to help the school, will be greatly appreciated.

Assam Forest School Project, India

This is an area very new to tourism. On the Assam Ride we have been fortunate to be granted permission to visit this forest area on horseback and in return, we are supporting the local schools.

In The Saddle donates £30 per visitor to a fund which is spent on long term projects that benefit the community.

The money contributed so far is being spent directly on the school. Initially, books, footballs and teaching materials were provided, then cupboards to store these. Most recently funds provided by In The Saddle have been used to build a toilet for the school.

Our current project is to dig a tubewell for at least one village which would also supply the school. The money will also be used to improve sanitation and toilets as well as provide basic teaching materials to aid learning.

All In The Saddle riders have the option to visit the school when in the rain forest. We feel this is an important part of the holiday and helps to strengthen the relationship between visitors and locals. During the visit there is an opportunity to share something of your background and where you come from.

In The Saddle encourages people to behave in a responsible manner when visiting environmentally sensitive areas. We include a Travellers Code leaflet in your ticket wallet which is produced by Friends of Conservation.

In addition to the above projects which In The Saddle is directly involved with there are many other local community and wildlife charities supported directly by our overseas partners.

These include:

South Africa - Wait A Little
The Daktari Bush School
This school was set up to motivate, educate and inspire underprivileged children to care for their environment through the medium of a wildlife orphanage. For full details see Daktari Bush School

Kenya - Borana
Tassia and Il N'gwesi Community Lodges
Tassia Community Lodge Borana and its neighbour, The Lewa Wildlife Conservancy helped build these two lodges which are wholly owned and run by the local Maasai community. Visitors to Borana have the opportunity to include a stay at either of these Maasai lodges during their riding safari. For more details see Tassia or Il N'gwesi.

Romania
The Carpathian Large Carnivore Project (CLCP)
The Carpathian Mountains are home to the largest population of bears, wolves and lynx in Europe. The area also has a significant human population. The aim of CLCP was to improve the attitudes of local people towards these animals. The project developed a comprehensive education plan, looked into the issues of predation of livestock and set up an eco-tourism programme. Visit CLCP for more information about the work of this project.

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