Equestrian Tourism

The South of Scotland has more horses, more waymarked horse-suitable trails and an unbeatable equestrian heritage, giving rise to the name ‘Scotland’s Horse Country.’

Part of Strand Two of the responsible tourism strategy (‘Develop the Visitor Experience’) is focused on Growth and Development Hubs, one of which is equestrian tourism, with the ambition to make the South of Scotland the equestrian capital of the UK.

The SSDA have held meetings with the Scottish Borders and Dumfries & Galloway Council’s to discuss what can be achieved in collaboration and the consensus is that the SSDA will invest a modest budget and in the next six months led by Gowan Miller we will work to deliver on the following points

• Brought together all existing South of Scotland horse trail mapping on to one single GIS platform which we can all use, and on to which we can develop and agree expansion plans.
• Brought together all key equestrian, community and delivery partners and stakeholders across the South of Scotland to have one Team South equestrian development group.
• Through this group, have developed a five-year development plan, with a clear vision of where we want equestrian trails and tourism to be by 2030, and what short-, medium- and long-term actions we want to deliver to take us there.  This should include, inter alia:
  • Improving access, signage, waypoints and parking;
  • Connecting horse trails to make new long-distance routes;
  • Plans for the development and distribution of existing and potential new marketing collateral and physical maps;
  • Public information and behaviour change to increase uptake and reduce conflict;
  • Marketing of the South of Scotland as an equestrian destination and leveraging our history and living heritage;
  • Support, advice and information on businesses to be equestrian-friendly and to develop associated products and services;
  • Development of new travel trade products;
  • How we measure usage and economic impact.
• Have updated and expanded the existing equestrian visitor information on Scotland Starts Here, embedded the Ride Scottish Borders information.
• Have identified potential sources of funding and capacity to deliver this plan.
• Have engaged the Common Ridings, so we are able to support the events and better leverage our intangible cultural heritage.

History of equestrian tourism in the South of Scotland 

The LEADER-funded 2017 - 2019 project was called Ride Scottish Borders, but with a view to expanding it across the region Post Covid, the project reverted to its original title Ride Scotlands' Horse Country. The project was paused post pandemic until the new Responsible Tourism Strategy was developed in 2023 with Equestrian Tourism recognised as a potential area of growth and development

Below is a timeline of previous works up to 2021.