Intensive Riding Camp for Ages 11-16 at Domaine de Chevillon

Three hours of riding a day - two consecutive hours and one more - plus up to two further hours of equestrian activity. The school asks for galop 4 as a minimum and states plainly that the stay is meant for riders in search of perfectionnement. Training covers the three Olympic disciplines from club level to club elite, with the estate's emphasis on dressage and show jumping, which it calls its two flagship disciplines. Around the riding: working the horse on the lunge, loading and unloading a horse from a van, walking a course and learning to count strides, applying stable bandages, hippology, plaiting and horse care. 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, with the school describing dinner as home-made. Meals are taken on the estate, and the published day plan puts breakfast in the morning and dinner in the evening after the shower.

Riding training fills the morning. The early afternoon goes to equestrian activities - riding, vaulting, pony games, pony care and grooming - and the pool in season and other activities follow. An optional hippology lesson is offered before dinner. The non-equestrian list includes the heated and supervised outdoor pool, big games, table tennis, mountain biking, a trampoline, fishing, olympiads, putting on a show, a talent show and theatre. Every evening carries a theme, among them a casino evening, a hunger-game and a top chef night.

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

This is the stay for a rider who already competes or wants to. The school sets an entry bar - galop 4 - and fills the day accordingly: training in the morning, equestrian work in the afternoon, an optional hippology lesson before dinner. What surrounds it is still a holiday, and the school says so in its own words: all of it in a festive atmosphere among friends, with a themed evening every night.