Gallop the sands of the Moroccan desert, trek the edge of the Arctic Circle, cross Mongolia with sheepherders and yaks. Horseback riding tours are not just vacations anymore. In addition to providing scenic vistas or training with top-notch professionals, they also offer grand adventures to less tourist-drawing parts of the world. 
 

For an adventure, one can select a challenging ride and camp out in New Zealand while following the Hoteo River from the black sands over the rolling hillside to the Pacific Ocean. Or, with an India tour, you can ride a Marwari horse, descendant of the war horse of feudal India. Other areas of the world include Belize, where you can ride by Mayan pyramids;  Peru, where, from atop a Peruvian Paso, you observe the Sacred Valley of the Incas in the Andes; and Botswana, where participants can see one of the last great elephant herds with more than 500 individuals.

But for those who don't feel the urge to succumb to an adventurous spirit, riding tours can offer opportunities to see tourist areas from a different vantage point—aboard a native horse.

Sample a new perspective of Europe with riding tours to Italy, Greece, Ireland and Great Britain. You may tour Provence, France, known as Van Gogh’s favored destination for painting or sample wines from local French vineyards. 

Or maybe you want to feel as though you've learned something as a part of your vacation, that you’ve forwarded your equestrian education. Then you might want to study classical dressage aboard a Lusitano stallion at the Alcainca Dressage program in Portugal, or learn to guide your mount over rivers and stone walls in the rolling hills of Ireland.

And who says you have to leave the good old United States to have a riding adventure! You can mosey on out west, pardner, to a real working cattle ranch. Numerous ranches offer cattle drives, some several days long, so you can get a real feel for being a ranch hand, camping out with the cattle, lassoing the calves, or just getting to know your working ranch horse.