Horseback Riding Adventure on the Flame Azalea Trail

Horseback Riding Adventure on the Flame Azalea Trail

Ride on horseback through the Flame Azalea Trail into a hardwood forest of enchanting white pines and blooming azaleas. Your 60-minute guided tour starts with a 1-hour safety briefing and training at the Arrowmont Stables and Cabins, located just 10 miles north of Cashiers, NC. Choose from a variety of departure times.

Meet your guide at Arrowmont Stables and Cabins in Cullowhee North Carolina, which is about a 2-hour drive from Asheville. Get acquainted with equine behavior and receive riding tips during a 50-minute safety program via training video and live demonstration.

Once you’re matched with a suitable horse, snap on your helmet and practice horseback riding in the ring before setting off on the Flame Azalea Trail. Follow your guide through a hardwood and white pine forest flanked by azaleas before you emerge into an open meadow. Reaching 4,200 feet in elevation, you’re treated to sweeping views out of the Blue Ridge Parkway. Be on the lookout for wildlife, including raptors soaring above.

On the descent, travel past the Old Fort Lodge and a former youth camp established in 1960 — before ending your tour back at the stables of the 200-acre (80-hectare) working horse farm.

Some RIDING TIPS:
• Horses don't know they are big. That's why we can control them with the bit in their mouth.
• Horses think like little children. They want you to protect them.
• Horses can be very stubborn. Whoever is MOST stubborn wins. You need to be more stubborn than the horse.