ON SEPTEMBER 15, participants from the Visegrad Four countries completed the “Visegrad Journey of Hucul Friendship”, a trip on which people ride Huculs, a small but sturdy Carpathian horse, from Aggtelek, Hungary to Gladyszow, Poland.
The trip started on August 27. Those from the Slovak Hucul Club in Sihla (together with Slovak Natural Protection, Farma Hucul from the Czech Republic and the National park Aggtelek from Hungary) who embarked on the journey focused mainly on familiarising the participants with the Hucul Main Road in the Muránska Planina region. The first such journey was joined by 13 participants, only five of which mastered the whole route.
Huculs are a small breed of horse originally from the Carpathians with a heavy build and great endurance. Their name is derived from the Hutsul people who live mostly in the Carpathian Mountains in Ukraine and Romania, but also in part of Slovakia. Huculs are not decorative and not appropriate for sport riding, but are valuable workhorses and suitable for off-track riding.
“Participants joined us gradually in individual towns,” Dana Šmídová of the National Park Muránska Planina told the TASR newswire. “Most people joined the event in Sihla to learn the Hucul Road. Czech horse fans especially liked this journey, as our nature is completely different from our western neighbours. It was perhaps the water crossings that intrigued them most.”
Riders rode the entire route on a single horse, travelling during the day and resting at night.
