Horse Riding Immersion Camp for Ages 11-16 at Domaine de Chevillon

Two consecutive hours of riding a day, taught in groups matched to level, inside a day that gives up to five hours with the horses in total. The rest of that time goes to equestrian activities: vaulting, horse-ball, hippology, grooming and horse care, hacks along country lanes and the forest edge, and learning to plait. The school says the stay suits beginners and experienced riders alike, whatever the aim - relaxation, progress, or preparing a grade. Every day includes time to revise the galop grades, one to seven, for riders who want to sit theirs at the end, and each rider is given a progression booklet. Riders who want a more demanding stay are pointed to the school's intensive perfectionnement course. One leader for every eight or nine young people.

The school offers a special discount - ask us for details. The published price is a full-board package: the activities, accommodation with all meals, supervision by state-qualified riding instructors and qualified activity leaders, and insurance. Cancellation cover is sold separately as a percentage of the booking value. Travel to and from the estate is not part of the package.

Children sleep on the estate in single-storey buildings, with each age group in its own building and activity room; 11 to 13 year olds and 14 to 16 year olds are housed separately. Rooms have two to eight beds, girls and boys sleep in separate rooms, and children sharing a room are no more than two years apart in age. Leaders sleep in the same buildings in rooms set aside for them, and the buildings are locked at night. Meals are full board, prepared by a caterer with menus planned with a nutritionist, and pork-free, meat-free and vegetarian menus are available on request.

Full board. The published day runs breakfast in the morning, lunch at midday, an afternoon snack and dinner in the evening, all taken on the estate. Cooking, theme days and theme meals appear among the activities campers can choose.

Mornings go to equestrian activities - vaulting, horse-ball, hippology, horse care - and the riding lesson follows in the early afternoon. After it comes the swimming pool in season and general activities, then a snack, then an activity each camper chooses, with an optional hippology session for those who want it. The choice list includes the heated and supervised outdoor pool, mountain biking, table tennis, big games, beach volleyball, sporting olympiads, fishing, a trampoline, putting on a show, a talent show and theatre, cooking and theme days and meals. Evenings are themed every night: a trapper evening with campfires and a bivouac with the ponies and horses, a cinema evening, a disco and la Fureur.

A family-run equestrian estate in Burgundy, in the Yonne near Auxerre, with its own riding centre, arenas and stables, a heated outdoor swimming pool with a lifeguard on duty in season, a beach volleyball court, mountain bikes, table tennis, a trampoline, fishing water, and country lanes and forest edges for hacking. Meals are served in the estate's own dining rooms, and there are indoor rooms for theatre, craft and evening activities.

This is the stay for a young person who wants the holiday to be about horses. The school calls it total immersion in the life of the riding centre, and the day is built that way: the horses in the morning, the lesson after lunch, and the choice of everything else afterwards. Riders working towards a galop revise it daily and leave with a progression booklet. The evenings belong to camp life rather than the stables - a fire, a night under canvas with the ponies and horses, a show, a disco.