Ant's Lodges - South Africa

Lisa who has been on 4 In The Saddle rides. Incredible family experience | The riding was perfectly tailored to our family's experience. Our novice children (aged 6, 8 and 11) had very safe ponies/horses and were able to move on to more forward going ones as they progressed. All cantered for the first time. Children should be prepared to ride reasonably large (15.2hh) horses - they were chosen based on temperament, being more reliable than ponies! There was no problem with that at all. My husband and I loved our more forward going but very straightforward freisan and thoroughbred.
Morning ride is normally 3 hours but we shortened to 2 hours so not too much for the children when it was hot. All activities are bespoke so that was no problem.
Swimming with horses in the dam was so much fun!

Do you have any comments about the accommodation and food?

Family Cottage was amazing- so much room for our family of 5.
Large pool is great. Such a treat to see giraffes and zebra at the watering hole in the distance when swimming.
Food fabulous. There is a quality children's menu, eg perfectly cooked steak. We found out at lunch what the evening menu would be then children decided if they wanted the adult meal, something from the children's menu or mix and match (they loved the springbok carpacccio starter!).

Do you have any other feedback for us?

We went to Ant's Hill 17 years ago for our honeymoon and weren't sure how it would compare with 3 children, but the whole experience was outstanding from start to finish. The children took advantage of all the other activities as well as riding eg archery and fishing for tilapia in the dam. Our 11 year old went for 6.30 am runs (meeting Max the rhino) and mountain biking.