The Team

Cara

​​I am a rural surveyor by trade but my true love has always been horses.  Through Wilder Ways I am lucky enough to live my joy and hopefully help others to live theirs.

I starting riding at the age of 6 and I’ve been hooked ever since.  I enjoyed competing in my teens but my love of wilderness riding has taken me on my most fulfilling adventures from Canada to Mexico and now exploring some of the wildest, most beautiful parts of Scotland. ​

I love learning about my horse and our partnership and have been really fortunate to have had some great learning experiences over the years; staring off with Pearl Cranna my riding instructor, lifelong friend and mentor to more recently training with the natural horse-master, Peter Campbell in Canada.  I practice Monty Roberts ‘join up’, Parelli natural horsemanship and I love the ways of Tom Dorrance’s ‘True Unity’. ​

Via Wilder Ways we now want to invite you to join our adventures.  We are passionate about enabling people to access the wilds, whist being committed to building confidence in horses and riders through adventure and play.

Nikki

​​I have lived in the West of Scotland for over twenty years and worked as a freelance botanist, travelling and walking in many of the most remote and beautiful parts of the country. Riding had always been a big part of my life and so I walked with potential 'horse adventures' in my mind.  I was lucky enough to be able to come back to riding about 10 years ago and to use this knowledge of Scotland's hidden landscapes alongside my horse obsession.

​My horse, Indi, and I have explore and experiment with the joys of travelling and camping out in Scotland, recently most often with Cara.  Further afield I have also ridden narrow paths high in the Andes on wooden saddles, tried driving loose ponies between the glaciers across the interior of Iceland and ridden Tennessee Walking Horses through the wilds of Canada. I have also been able to develop my own abilities through learning some of the techniques of natural horsemanship, opening my eyes to the fantastic range of possibilities these fabulous and willing animals can give us.

With Wilder Ways, I want to use some of this experience to enable other riders' adventures.  All our routes aim to give a variety of riding experiences along tested routes and paths along with the fun of travelling with a horse, even sometimes camping out.
 
It also gives me the opportunity to share another interest, that of home-grown, home-cooked food and other areas of self-sufficiency (ever tried lard soap?). All our meals aim to use locally sourced produce and it's really important to us that we maintain a high level of environmental responsibility.