Fiona who has been on 2 In The Saddle rides. Holiday of a lifetime! | The riding on this holiday was fantastic! The team at the lodge, led by the brilliant Viva, are dedicated to ensuring that you have a great holiday. They take care to match you with your horse and frequently check back in for feedback. The team also ensures that you are matched to the right group so you can ride at a pace you enjoy. The riding guides are knowledgeable & want you to have fun & get the most from the experience. All of the horses are loved & well cared for & the stables are immaculate!

Josie who has been on 3 In The Saddle rides. Kambaku Safari Lodge | The riding far exceeded my expectations. The horses are all clearly very well trained and it was clear that they knew their job. The pacing of the rides was perfect and I was very well-matched to my horse. The guides were very friendly and attentive throughout the rides, and always made sure the rides were interesting and different each morning / afternoon.

[Abbie from ITS replies: Many thanks for your feedback. We’re thrilled that you had such a great time at Kambaku].

Anne-Marie who has been on 29 In The Saddle rides. Nice relaxing break | I feel the effort was made to match us with horses that would suit us and the horses are clearly well cared for. I had the same horse throughout, when the initial order of horses didn’t quite work it was swapped around and one of the horses was changed. The groups are kept quite small, no more than four guests went out together at any time. The horses are very responsive to the guide’s hand signals and voice and you rarely have to give an aid to elicit a canter. Time was spent viewing the wildlife and made for some good photo opportunities.

Andrea (this is their first In The Saddle holiday) Absolutely amazing! | The riding was very nice with well-trained horses and skilled guides. It was an amazing experience to see wildlife on horseback.

I really appreciate the flexibility in order to meet both mine and my daughter's needs. My daughter was super pleased with the holiday and really appreciated to go on rides with just her, her friend and a guide.

The sundowners and bush-breakfast was superb! I cannot recommend it enough.

[Abbie from In The Saddle replies: We are so pleased that you had such a good time at Kambaku. Thank you for taking the time to tell us all about it.]

Chris who has been on 9 In The Saddle rides. Wonderful chance to see African wildlife up close | Exceeded expectations. The guidance had said that riding would be tailored to our preferences. We had assumed that meant a compromise between our preferences and that of the other half dozen people we would be riding with. Not so. The Lodge took seriously that we were less troubled about long canters than we were about seeing and learning about the wildlife. Most days we rode with only a guide, and we were allotted the one who was also a game ranger. We had some amazing encounters with the game on the reserve.

Magdalena who has been on 3 In The Saddle rides. Wonderful lodge and people and horses of course! | Very well schooled and very fit horses. I wanted to take home especialy one.

Sue who has been on 6 In The Saddle rides. A wonderful experience at Kambuku, Namibia | The horses at Kambaku were lovely, calm, responsive and well behaved, and extremely well looked after. The staff seemed to have a knack of matching the right horse to rider. Most people, including myself, kept the same horse for every ride (8 rides over 6 days..)
I loved the fact that on stopping for sundowners (after most evening rides), the horses were untacked and allowed to make their own way home, sometimes quite a considerable distance.
However, I can't give full marks for the riding experience on a couple of counts:
The riding is on mainly sandy tracks through Acacia shrub. The ground is very flat, and terrain can all look a bit of the same after a while. But this did allow for some lovely long canters!
You have to like trotting! As a Western rider, there was too much trotting for my personal taste (and my back!)
I would have been a bit negative about the game viewing experience from horseback, had we not experienced a fabulous interaction with a number of giraffes!
Kabuku is a rare location in accommodating both Riders and Game Hunters. Whilst we had absolutely no problem with hunting (which is well managed, and kept completely separate), and the hunters staying were all lovely people, I think this did have an impact upon our game viewing experience. The Antelopes and Zebras appeared very wary and kept a good distance away from the horses. Only the Giraffes were curious, and we only got one good sighting of them in 8 rides.. That may be down to luck, as we did hear of guests being able to ride alongside Zebra the previous week. But when we saw Zebra, only once, and far away, they ran away still further.

Raffaella (this is their first In The Saddle holiday) Perfect holiday good riding and relax | More different scenarios, but think the seasons time was not the best one to see the colors of Namibia

Inge who has been on 3 In The Saddle rides. Namibia's green explosion | The riding was magical, the guides made a very nice mix between places to trot and canter but also made time to walk through the bushes in the search for different wild life. The horses were cared for really well and were listening really well to the rider and guide. It was so much nicer than I could have imagined, the guides truly are wonderful people making you feel at home.

Julie (this is their first In The Saddle holiday) Amazing holiday of a lifetime, absolutely loved the holiday. | Definitely met all my expectations and more. Looking forward to booking again, South Africa this time. As a single lady I would feel quite comfortable to go on my own.
All the staff at Kambaku safari lodge were amazing. The horses are well looked after and loved.
Definitely re-booking for next year.