There are many ways to travel through Rajasthan, but few bring you quite so close to its landscapes, history and rural life as exploring it on horseback.

For more than 21 years, our long-standing riding partners in Rajasthan, India have been creating riding adventures built around the region’s unique indigenous Marwari horses. Their journeys retrace old routes through the foothills and forests of the Aravalli Hills, across open plains and along the sandy tracks of the Thar Desert, revealing a side of Rajasthan that is difficult to experience from the road.

The Marwari horse is central to every journey. Indigenous to Rajasthan and named after the region encompassing Jodhpur, Udaipur and the Thar Desert, these distinctive horses are part of the landscape and heritage through which guests ride. Travelling with them is not simply a way of getting from one place to another. It connects the riding, history, culture and traditions of Rajasthan into one unfolding adventure.

And what an adventure it can be.

On the Palace to Palace route, riders follow trails along the Aravalli foothills, passing rural villages, lakes and softly shaped hills before arriving at small family-owned country palaces. Evenings are spent among historic architecture and rooms furnished with reminders of another era, with candlelit dinners adding to the sense that the journey has stepped away from modern life.

Other departures venture into wilder terrain. The Royal Rajasthan Ride combines the wooded forests and streams around Kumbhalgarh with plains, dry riverbeds and the rocky landscapes of the Leopard Trail. The Magical Marwar and Pushkar Fair Ride and the Balotra Fair adventure add the spectacle of Rajasthan’s traditional fairs, while the Holi Festival of Colours journey culminates in celebrations with family, staff and local friends at the Horse India stables.

The season also includes a rather extraordinary way to welcome the New Year. Beginning in Udaipur and ending in Jodhpur, the eight-day New Year ride travels from palace to palace and includes a special New Year’s Eve horse show and dinner at the stables. Guests spend the night at Kotri Raola, a 200-year-old small fort palace, before continuing their journey on Marwari horses.

These are active riding holidays, with many days covering approximately 25 to 35 kilometres and four to six hours in the saddle. Yet the distance travelled is only part of their appeal. The horses allow riders to follow sand tracks, forest paths and historic routes while moving gradually through the countryside rather than simply passing it by.

With a new season of dates now available, there are opportunities to ride Rajasthan during New Year, Holi and its celebrated horse fairs, or to experience a longer journey combining some of the region’s finest landscapes and cultural highlights.

Cars may get you around Rajasthan faster. But for riders seeking its history, horses, palaces, festivals and rural landscapes, the best way to discover it may still have four legs.

Check out their adventures below!