SCANDINAVIA - Clean Breaks: 500 New Ways to See the World - page 100

specialist fish restaurant in
an attractive garden among
oak trees. For lunch, the café
at Koster Gardens (a 10min
cycle from the hotel) serves
organic food supplied mostly
from its own permacultural
gardens. In the far north
of North Koster, there's
a small seaside campsite
among pine trees where you
can hire kayaks for the day
and return for a barbecue
as the sun sets over this
remarkably unspoilt part of
western Sweden.

Riding “bit-less” horses

Need to know To get there from Copenhagen take
the train via Gothenburg to Strömstad (8hr 45min;
W www.sj.se), then catch the ferry from Strömstad
North Harbour to Ekenäs on South Koster (45min;
W www.vasttraik.se) from where it's a 5min walk
to the hotel. Nature Travel ( W www.naturetravels.
co.uk; T [phone]) organizes three-
day kayaking tours around Koster. Hotel Ekenäs:
W www.sydkoster.se; T [phone].

behind the technique and to understand how to
put it into practice; handling the horses with
firm - but not aggressive - tugs of the rope (and
the odd command), and you only progress from
walking to trotting to cantering when you have
mastered each with full control.
Once everyone feels secure, you'll trot out of
the paddock along dirt roads, then canter (and
occasionally gallop) over forested hills, across
bubbling streams and through verdant pastures.
You'll spend the entire day out in 300 square
kilometres of riding ground before returning
to the farm for a soak in an outdoor wooden
tub where you can soothe those muscles you
didn't know you had. A hearty evening meal is
prepared by Olle's partner Anette, after which
you can look forward to a deep sleep in the quiet
of the old farmhouse's timber log cottage.

133 lEArn To ridE A horSE ThE
nATurAl wAy, SwEdEn

If you were inspired by The Horse Whisperer , you
can try the real thing on a natural horsemanship
tour, run under the expert eye of Olle Forsell - a
maverick horse-trainer who has been pioneering
this wild form of horse-riding in Sweden for
more than a decade. At his remote Kalvefall
farm, near Tranås in south-central Sweden,
you'll learn how to handle a North Swedish
horse that has been trained to carry riders
without the bit between the teeth (you tug the
lower part of the horse's head using a rope “side-
pull” instead of a bridle).
It takes just a morning's tuition in the
classroom and paddock to learn the theory

Need to know This trip has been certified by
Nature's Best (see p.248). To get there from
Stockholm take the train to Tranås (3hr approx;
W www.sj.se), from where the owner will collect,
by arrangement. For accommodation, prices and
booking see W www.sagaadventures.se; T +46 (0)
140 911 33. Nature Travel ( W www.naturetravels.
co.uk T [phone]) organizes five-
and seven-day riding tours at Kalvefall farm.