Kos Horse Riding

Kos horse riding is a ride on horseback along the shores and farmland of Kos, an island of the Dodecanese. It is one of the outdoor Greece tours that run on Kos.

What is Kos horse riding?

Kos horse riding is a horseback ride on the island of Kos, including along its beaches, for recreation. Here, recreation means time spent in the saddle for enjoyment and leisure. It is not riding for work or as a way to get from place to place.

Kos horse riding happens on an island that has an old name. The name Kos is first attested in the Iliad, which means it first appears in writing there. The island has kept that name in use ever since. Other ancient names for Kos include Meropis, Cea and Nymphaea.

Kos also has an official standing in local government. The island forms one municipality, a local council area, inside the Kos regional unit, a larger district. That unit is part of the South Aegean region. The current municipality was created in 2011 when three municipalities joined together, which is called a merger.

Tourism is the main industry on Kos, and its beaches are the primary attraction. That is the setting for Kos horse riding. In general, the beach became a popular leisure resort from the mid-19th century. A resort is a place people visit to relax. That change was the first sign of today’s tourist industry.

• People: English calls a person from Kos a Koan or a Coan.
• Turkish name: The Turkish name for Kos, İstanköy, comes from the Greek phrase meaning “to Kos”.
• Lettuce: Cos lettuce, also called romaine lettuce, is a salad plant named after the island of Kos.

Historians agree that Hippocrates was born around 460 BC on the island of Kos. Sandy beaches are popular for recreation and play important economic and cultural roles. Kos horse riding is one more way to spend leisure time on the island.

Which mountain rises above Kos horse riding?

Kos horse riding happens on an island whose highest mountain is called Mount Dikaios. The peak stands 846 metres tall. No other mountain on Kos reaches that height, so its summit marks the very top of the island.

Anyone planning Kos horse riding can start with the rock of the top mountain. Mount Dikaios is built of limestone, a pale stone, and marble, limestone hardened by heat. It also holds large masses of plutonic rock, formed from cooled magma deep underground. Volcanic rock, formed from lava, makes up large masses too.

Kos horse riding fans can learn the land from two distances. The mountain has a ridge, the narrow line along its top. South of the ridge, within 2 km, the ground drops steeply to the sea. North of the mountain’s axis, the line along its length, 6-7 km separate the ridge from the coast.

People have left marks on the mountain area too. Remains of a medieval settlement, a village from the Middle Ages, survive there. Water tanks, bricks of baked clay and broken pottery pieces from different periods of history survive there too. Ancient Greeks also knew the mountain as Orion and Dikaion.

• Lagoudi-Zia: This spot is the highest place on Kos where people live, at 240 metres above sea level.
• Zia sunset: The sunset at Zia is famous, and the place is known for that sight.
• Asfendiou church: The church of the Asomatoi Taxiarches at Asfendiou dates from the 11th century.

Kos horse riding readers meet faith here too. Each year hundreds of pilgrims, who travel to holy places, climb to the summit chapel of the Transfiguration. A chapel is a small church, and the Transfiguration is a feast about Jesus shining with light.

What does Kos horse riding show at Tigaki and the salt lake?

Kos horse riding can take in the salt lake area. Local horse farms run day rides in which that area can feature. Large salt flats lie at Tingachi, the former name of Tigaki. Salt flats are wide stretches of flat ground covered in salt.

Tigaki is about 1.5 kilometres off the main road that links Kos and Kefalos. The place was once a farming village and fishing port, and it is now a holiday resort. A resort is a place built for people on holiday. In 2011, 363 people lived in Tigaki.

Alykes is an important wetland among the Dodecanese islands. A wetland is land soaked with water. The Alykes protected area includes reed beds and marshy ground. Reed beds are tall plants that grow in shallow water. A rider comparing Kos horse riding options can check how close each route comes to this area.

Evaporating water turns the dry lagoon into a moon-like landscape. Evaporating means water changes into vapour and rises into the air. A lagoon is a shallow pool of water that lies beside the sea. Kos horse riding is one way to see such ground when the farm’s route includes it.

• Flamingos: Flamingos at Alykes fly off or stand still, their reflection mirrored on the lake surface.
• Salt surface: The dry lagoon bed keeps a pure white surface of leftover salt.
• Transport: Bus routes link Tigaki with Kos, Kefalos and the villages in between.

A rider who wants Kos horse riding at Tigaki can ask the local horse farm about the route. The answer settles what the day shows, because a stop at the salt lake is not promised. Flamingos are not promised on any given day either.

Which beaches does Kos horse riding reach?

Kos horse riding is set on an island. Beaches such as Kardamena, Kamari Bay, Tigaki and Mastichari lie along the coast of Kos. A ride does not promise any one of these beaches. Riders ask the stable which route it follows before they book.

On the south coast of Kos, Kardamena sits at the halfway point. The town was built where the ancient settlement of Alasarna once stood, home to an old community. Between June and September, the population of Kardamena triples because tourists arrive. Anyone comparing places for Kos horse riding can start the search with this town.

Kamari Bay has a sandy beach. The sand runs on toward cliffs of ignimbrite, which is a rock formed from volcanic ash. Buses from Kamari Bay to Kos Town run via Paradise Beach, Antimachia and Mastichari. Riders who rely on public transport can note the bus route before they plan the day.

Sand covers both Tigaki Beach and Lambi Beach, so they are sandy beaches. Riders choosing Kos horse riding can compare the sandy shores of Tigaki and Lambi on a map.

• Village centre: The centre of Tigaki village is about 150 metres from the sea. Alykes lake lies 400 metres from it.
• Distance: Tigaki village is about 10 kilometres to the west of Kos Town.
• Neighbours: From Tigaki, Marmari lies to the south and Mastichari lies to the west.

Mastichari is 7 kilometres away from Kos International Airport. Riders who arrive by air can check each stable’s route and meeting point before choosing a beach area. Asking early keeps the plan clear, because each stable can confirm where its Kos horse riding route goes.

What does Kos horse riding show near Kefalos?

Kos horse riding near Kefalos happens in the south-west part of the island. The town of Kefalos stands on a peninsula, a strip of land that reaches out into the sea. The peninsula is also called Kefalos, which is the same name as the town.

The windmill of Papavasilis dominates Kefalos, a town built on a stone height. A stone height is a hill of rock. Anyone planning Kos horse riding near Kefalos can use the windmill as a landmark. The town is home to 2,329 inhabitants in the official people count of 2021, called a census.

Ruins of a medieval castle at Kefalos date back to the thirteenth century. Medieval means from the Middle Ages, the long stretch of history between ancient and modern times. Ruins are the broken walls left from an old building. Kos horse riding in this area is set in a land with a long past.

Mikro Limanaki beach lies on the northern edge of the Kefalos peninsula. The bay’s sandy beach continues towards the cliffs of volcanic ignimbrite. Ignimbrite is a rock formed from volcanic ash, which is the fine dust that a volcano throws out. That ignimbrite rock formed over ten million years ago.

• Palatia: This ancient site is one of the attractions listed for Kefalos.
• Aspri Petra: A cave here is another of the attractions listed for Kefalos.
• Ayios Ioannis: The monastery, a home for monks, is called Thimianos and is listed for Kefalos.

The ignimbrite rock shows evidence of Greek quarrying, which means cutting stone from the ground for building. Mount Latra, a peak of 426 metres, lies beyond the harbour towards Mount Zini. Kos horse riding here sits among sea, old stone and high ground.

What does Kos horse riding show near Antimachia?

Kos horse riding in the Antimachia area has a long past behind it, reaching back to ancient times. Antimachia was once a town of ancient Greece, and it stood on the island of Cos. The ancient site lies near modern Antimakheia.

In ancient times the demoi of Aegelus and Archia had Antimachia as their capital. Demoi are ancient local districts, and a capital is a region’s main town. Kos also has a fortress from the Byzantine period in Antimachia. A fortress is built for defence, and Byzantine means from the eastern Roman empire.

Kos Airport opened on 4 April 1964. In 1974 the airport runway was extended to a length of 2,400 metres. A runway is the long strip of ground where aircraft land and take off. Kos horse riding goes on in a place whose airport grew step by step after its opening.

In World War II, Kos became important because of an airfield near Antimachia. An airfield is a flat area where aircraft take off and land. A group called the SBS party moved to Antimachia, about 21 km from Kos town. These plain facts give Kos horse riding in the area a wartime background.

• Village rank: Antimachia counts among the main villages on the island of Kos, a name to know before a ride.
• Terminal: Rising traffic led to a new airport terminal, the building for passengers, being built in 1980.
• Earthquake: The 1933 earthquake hit Antimachia at intensity IX–X, a measure of how strongly the ground shook.

Riders can ask the host of a stable which trail they will follow before booking. With that answer, Kos horse riding can be matched to the history of the area. The host can also say which trails suit the riding experience of each person.

What does Kos Town add to Kos horse riding?

Kos horse riding pairs well with Kos Town. Hippocrates’ tree grows in the square called Platia Platanou, before the Castle of Knights. Riders can add a walk among these old sights before or after time in the saddle.

People say that no plane tree in Europe is larger than the Kos plane tree. A plane tree is a broad tree with wide leaves and deep shade. Scaffolding, a frame of metal poles, now supports the limbs of the elderly tree. Kos horse riding fans can add this stop to a day on Kos.

In the ancient world, the market place of Kos, the agora, ranked as one of the biggest. A rectangular yard formed its core, 50 metres wide by 300 metres in length. Anyone planning Kos horse riding can read about this yard to picture the whole old market place.

At the market’s southern end stood a round Roman-domed building and a workshop making pigments, including Egyptian Blue. Pigments are colour powders. Excavations on the western side found rooms with mosaic floors showing beastfights. A mosaic is a picture built from tiny stones. In 469 AD, an earthquake destroyed the building of the ancient market.

• Nerantzia: Guards, a qadi (a judge) and a castellan (a castle keeper) were sent to Nerantzia, which was repaired.
• Landing party: On 5 August 1773, during the night, the Russians sent a landing party to capture the castle.
• Odeon: The Odeon of Kos, a small ancient theatre, is listed among ancient Greek theatres in the Dodecanese.

Kos Town adds old sights to the island, and the ride adds time outdoors. Together they let a visitor build a day around Kos horse riding and a walk among old stones. That mix keeps the whole trip balanced and gives it two clear sides.

What does the Asklepieion add to Kos horse riding?

Kos horse riding is one way to see the island, and the Asklepieion shows its medical past. Its teaching buildings housed a medical school plus a museum. The museum was about anatomy, meaning the body, and pathology, meaning disease.

The Asklepieion is built as terraces, which are flat levels set one above another. Imposing marble stairways join the levels. The middle level is the oldest part, dating to the 4th century BC, and hosted the medical treatments. Anyone planning Kos horse riding can read this layout first as background.

The lowest terrace was lined with colonnades, which are rows of columns. Its date is the 1st century AD. An inscription, meaning words carved in stone, was found on that terrace. The words name Gaius Stertinius Xenophon, a Kos-born doctor to Emperor Claudius. Such a find links the terrace to a named person.

The top level held a large marble temple in the Doric style, a plain Greek column style. It copied its counterpart at Epidaurus. A Christian altar found there shows the temple served as a church. That was in Byzantine times, the late Roman era. Kos horse riding can sit beside this story of change.

• Ionic temples: The middle level holds temples to Asklepios, the healing god, with Ionic columns topped by scrolls.
• Apollo’s temple: A later-built Apollo temple stands on the middle level in the Corinthian style, with leafy column tops.
• Refuge status: In 240 BC, Ziaelas of Bithynia, Seleucus II and Ptolemy III guaranteed its asylum status, a protected refuge.

Kos counts among the famous asclepieia, the healing sanctuaries of Asklepios, alongside Trikka, Epidaurus, Athens, Corinth and Pergamon. Kos is one name on a longer list of healing places. Riders booking Kos horse riding can ask the host whether any route passes the site.

Which islands can be seen from Kos horse riding?

Kos horse riding happens on an island with other islands and the Turkish coast lying around it. A map of the sea around Kos shows which land lies near. No ride promises a view of any single island.

Anyone planning Kos horse riding can start with Gyali on the map. This island lies halfway between Kardamaina, on the south coast of Kos, and Nisyros. Nisyros is roughly round, and its width across is about 8 km. Width across means the distance from one edge to the other.

Gyali is 6 km long and between 500 metres and 4 km across. A narrow isthmus and beach of modern reef sediments connect its two segments. An isthmus is a thin neck of land that connects two larger pieces. Reef sediments are loose sand from a reef. Gyali also has a cave measuring 180 metres.

Readers of a Kos horse riding plan can also study two peninsulas. A peninsula is a long piece of land that reaches out into the sea. The Bodrum Peninsula spans 689 square kilometres, and its coast runs for 215 kilometres. The Datça Peninsula, in south-west Turkey, is a thin strip 80 km long.

• Kalymnos: The Kalymnos municipality, a local council area, includes the inhabited offshore islands Pserimos, Telendos, Kalolimnos and Plati.
• Leros: A series of islets, which are very small islands, links Leros to Kalymnos.
• Turkish coast: The island of Pserimos lies near the coast of Turkey.

Fans of Kos horse riding and history can learn about Bodrum Castle. The Knights Hospitaller, an order of knights, used the Mausoleum’s remains as a quarry to build it. The Mausoleum was a large tomb, and a quarry is where stone is dug out.

Why do horse coat colours differ on Kos horse riding?

Kos horse riding means meeting horses, and horse hair has two basic pigments. A pigment is a natural substance that gives colour. Pheomelanin is reddish brown, while eumelanin is black. Knowing these two makes every coat colour easier to understand and to name.

A chestnut horse has a red coat with no black in it. A bay horse looks different, because its body is reddish brown while its points are black. Points are the lower legs, the mane and the tail. Anyone who joins Kos horse riding can tell these two coats apart by looking for black.

A black horse must be completely black except for white markings, which are patches of white hair. The Friesian horse breed is almost exclusively black. Grey horses follow a different path. They are born dark and lighten with age. The colour of a grey horse changes as the horse grows older.

A palomino is a chestnut horse with one cream dilution gene. A gene is a unit of inherited information, and a dilution gene lightens the base colour. This gives the palomino a golden, yellow or tan shade. Kos horse riding is a good reason to learn how one gene can change a coat.

• Blaze: This is a wide white stripe down the middle of a horse’s face.
• Star: This is a white marking between or above a horse’s eyes.
• No albino horses: An albino has no colour pigment, and horses lack the genetic mechanisms that create albinos.

White markings are present at birth, and they differ from horse to horse. Coat colour and markings together describe a horse in plain words. Once the colour names are clear, Kos horse riding becomes easier to follow and to describe.

How do hooves and horseshoes work on Kos horse riding?

Kos horse riding adds a rider’s weight and stress to a horse’s hooves with every step. This added load can leave them quite worn out. A horseshoe is a piece of equestrian equipment, meaning horse gear, that protects the hoof from wear.

Every hoof has a hard outer layer called the hoof wall. In the body, this wall is the same kind of structure as a human fingernail or toenail. It grows downward at about 1 cm per month. Every horse used in Kos horse riding has this same hard outer layer on each hoof.

The hoof also contains a rubbery part called the frog. Its rubbery feel suggests it works as a shock absorber, a part that softens impact. On hard, smooth ground, the same feel suggests it works as a grip tool. The frog also works like a pump that moves blood back to the heart.

A farrier is a specialist in hoof care for horses. This person trims hooves, balances them, and fits shoes onto the hooves when needed. Trimming means cutting back the hoof, and balancing means shaping it so the horse stands evenly. Both jobs apply to any horse used for Kos horse riding.

• Shaping: A farrier can bend a metal shoe cold, or heat it in a forge, a furnace, before bending.
• Nails: The rest of each nail is bent until it sits almost flush, or level, with the hoof wall.
• Finishing: The farrier finishes with a rasp, a large file, to smooth the edge where it meets the shoe.

Farriers trim the insensitive part of the hoof, meaning the part without any feeling. They also drive the nails into that same area. Hooves in Kos horse riding have the same parts as any horse hoof, so the same care applies.

How do horses see and hear on Kos horse riding?

Kos horse riding means sitting on an animal with its eyes on the sides of its head. The word for this is lateral-eyed. The layout lets a horse see more than 350 degrees around its body, almost a full circle.

Of that view, about 65 degrees is binocular, meaning both eyes see the same spot. A horse also has a smaller field of depth perception than a human. Depth perception is the skill of judging how far away something is. Kos horse riding involves an animal that sees depth differently from a human.

A blind spot is an area a horse cannot see. One sits in front of its face and narrows to a point 90 to 120 cm away. The second lies right behind its head, over its back and behind its tail. Anything inside either of these two areas stays out of the horse’s sight.

A horse is very sensitive to motion, so any movement stands out to it. Each horse ear rotates up to 180 degrees. That gives the horse potential 360-degree hearing without moving its head. Kos horse riding pairs a rider with an animal that is tuned to both movement and sound.

• Color: Horses are not color blind; they see with two-color vision, known as dichromatic vision.
• Night: More rods than humans (dim-light eye cells) and a mirror-like tapetum lucidum layer give horses superior night vision.
• Barn: Moving from bright daylight into a dark barn, a horse adjusts less well than a human.

A horse’s sense of smell is much better than a human’s, though not quite a dog’s. Sight, hearing and smell together show how a horse takes in its surroundings. Kos horse riding means spending time with an animal that senses the world in these ways.

What questions come up about Kos horse riding?

Kos horse riding is served by Kos International Airport, and a public bus links it with four places. April and October bring rain, while July stays dry. A museum in Kos shows island finds, and the Turkish town of Bodrum lies across the water.

Which airport serves Kos horse riding?

Kos International Airport serves the island of Kos. The airport opened on 4 April 1964, and in 1974 the runway grew to 2,400 metres. A public bus service, called a transit bus, links the airport to Kos town, Mastichari, Kardamena and Kefalos.

Which season suits Kos horse riding?

At the Kos Sewage Plant station, April has rain of 40.6 mm and a high averaging 20 °C. The Kos Sewage Plant station records 0 mm of July rain and a 23.5 °C average low. At the Kos Sewage Plant station, October has rain of 36.3 mm and a high averaging 25.7 °C.

Which museum near Kos horse riding shows local finds?

The Archaeological Museum of Kos has two storeys and stands on Eleftherias Square. It is a protected building, one the state protects. It is Italian-era, built in 1936 when Italy ruled the Dodecanese. It shows island finds from antiquity to late Roman times. The north-west hall holds a Hippocrates statue from the 4th century BC.

Which Turkish town lies across the water from Kos horse riding?

Bodrum is a town in Turkey. It is also a district of Muğla Province, meaning a smaller area inside that province. The Bodrum district had 198,335 residents in 2023. The Bodrum Peninsula spans 689 square kilometres, and its coast runs for 215 km.