Horse trekking in Kyrgyzstan: six days in the saddle, in 13 days

This route rides two separate ranges. Four days from the Kyrchyn side up over the passes to Song-Kul, then a rest and a reset, then two harder days in the Karakol valleys under the Terskey Ala-Too. Nine changes of bed in thirteen days, most of them yurts and tents.

Who it suits: people who have ridden before. You do not need to be an expert, but six days is not the trip on which to learn. You should be comfortable at a trot for an hour and able to get on and off unaided at altitude.

Your specialist: Osnat Angerman or Paz Prosianoy, our Southeast and Central Asia specialists, working with our long-standing partner in Bishkek and their riding crew.

The season. Riding routes run roughly mid-June to mid-September. Outside that the high passes hold snow and the pasture camps are not up, and there is no version of this trip in May or October.

What this is really like. Five to seven hours a day in a Kyrgyz saddle, which is a wooden tree with a thin pad and is not a Western saddle. Passes above 11,000 feet (3,350 m). No shower for four days at a stretch. A long-drop or a spade. Sleeping bags on mattresses in shared yurts, or in tents where there is no camp. Weather that can turn to sleet in July. The people who take this trip come back describing it as the best thing they have done, and they are also sore for the first three days.

Day by day

Day 1: Arrive Bishkek. Night flight, hotel, late start. Afternoon walk and dinner.

Day 2: Bishkek to Kochkor. Four hours east and south, with the Burana tower on the way. Afternoon at a felt workshop, then a kit check with your guide in the guesthouse. Repack: what rides with you is a small dry bag, and the rest goes ahead in the vehicle. Night in a guesthouse at about 5,900 feet (1,800 m).

Day 3: Kochkor to the Kyrchyn jailoo, and meet the horses. Two and a half hours up to about 7,200 feet (2,200 m). The crew spend the first hour matching riders to horses, which is a real process and worth watching. A three-hour ride in the afternoon to test everything, back to the camp. Night in a shared yurt.

Day 4: Ride to the Chaar-Archa valley. Five to six hours, climbing steadily through juniper and open pasture to about 9,500 feet (2,900 m). Camp in tents by the river with the crew and a cook.

Day 5: Over the pass towards Song-Kul. The hardest day of the first half, six to seven hours, crossing a pass at around 11,200 feet (3,400 m). You will lead the horse on foot for parts of the ascent, which is normal and easier on both of you. Down onto the northern edge of the Song-Kul basin. Camp.

Day 6: Ride along the Song-Kul shore. Five hours on flat, open pasture at about 10,000 feet (3,000 m), which after the pass is a gift. Herds, yurts, hundreds of horses. Arrive at the yurt camp on the lake in the afternoon. Night in a shared yurt, and the sky here is the one people talk about afterwards.

Day 7: Song-Kul, a day off the horse. Nothing scheduled and no riding, which by now is welcome. Walk the shoreline, watch the milking, sleep in the afternoon. Second night at the camp.

Day 8: Song-Kul to Karakol. The vehicles come up over the Moldo-Ashuu pass and you drive out, six to seven hours east to Karakol. A hotel, a shower and a long dinner. Two nights.

Day 9: Karakol, reset. A rest day that is also a repair day. Laundry, the wooden cathedral, the Dungan mosque, ashlan-fu at the market, and a briefing on the second half, which is steeper and rockier than the first.

Day 10: Ride from Jeti-Oguz towards the Telety valley. Two hours by road to the trailhead, then five hours riding up through spruce forest into the Terskey Ala-Too, camping at about 9,800 feet (3,000 m). Different country from Song-Kul: narrower, wetter, more trees.

Day 11: Over the Telety pass. The hardest day of the trip, six to seven hours, up to around 12,300 feet (3,750 m). Much of the ascent and most of the descent is on foot leading the horse, because it is loose rock and steep. Down into the Karakol valley. Camp.

Day 12: Ride out, and Altyn Arashan. Four hours down the valley to the road head, where the vehicles meet you, then up the track to Altyn Arashan and its hot springs, which is the correct end to six days of riding. Night in a simple lodge there, wooden, warm and with a hot pool.

Day 13: Altyn Arashan to Bishkek, or a night in Karakol. Two hours down the track, then six hours west along the lake to Bishkek and the late flight. Where the flight timing is bad we add a night in Karakol and drive on day fourteen.

What is included

All accommodation, hotels and guesthouses where they exist, yurts and tents elsewhere, full board from day three onwards, horses and a horse crew for six riding days, a pack horse arrangement for the trekking days, all tents, sleeping mats and a cook, a private vehicle and driver on the road sections moving your main luggage, an English-speaking guide throughout and a local riding guide on every riding day, hot springs entry, all permits and park fees, a day-by-day document with real riding hours and pass heights, and a WhatsApp group with your specialist and our Bishkek partner where there is a signal.

Not included: a sleeping bag rated to at least 23°F (minus 5°C), which we ask you to bring, and riding gloves, which everyone wishes they had brought.

What we would change, and when

• Never ridden? We build a five-day version with three shorter riding days from a fixed base at Kyrchyn, no passes, and it is a genuinely good trip.
• Travelling in mid-June? The high passes may still hold snow. We hold the Telety crossing as conditional and have a lower alternative up the Karakol valley in the plan from the start.
• Want to walk rather than ride? The Ala-Kul trek out of Karakol covers similar ground on foot over three days, and we swap the second half for it.
• Riding with a mixed-ability group? The vehicle shadows the route on the lower days, so a rider who has had enough can come off the horse without ending anybody else’s day.

Related

• Kyrgyzstan: the complete guide
• Classic Kyrgyzstan in 10 days
• Tash Rabat and the southern mountains, 14 days