From Brazil to Brisbane and beyond

TRAVEL

JANE CAMENS talks to Bruna Duraes de Oliveira, the founder of Ride Away, about her lifelong passion for horses, and the business it’s spawned.

Ride Away Global Horse Riding Adventures is a Brisbane-based horse riding travel agency launched late last year by Bruna Duraes de Oliveira, a Brazilian-born Australian academic.

This specialist agency partners with horse-riding establishments from around the globe, and delivers one-of-a-kind riding adventures to Australians who love to ride and travel.

While you might like to start with a riding holiday in Australia, it won’t be long before you feel the need to spread your wings and take off for Norway, South America, South Africa, Egypt, Portugal, Romania, Spain or Rajasthan in India, each destination offering unforgettable landscapes and truly unique experiences.

Bruna, 40, who lives in the Brisbane suburb of Indooroopilly, grew up in Brazil where she spent her weekends on a farm where her mother bred Andalusian horses. When her mother passed away, Bruna decided to move to Australia, where, although she was busy studying for a PhD in Education, she felt bereft without a horse.

Then, three years ago, she went on a horse riding holiday in New Zealand: “I felt so happy, I wanted to ride all the time,” she says. “I just knew so many people would love this, and I wanted to make them happy as well.”

Bruna felt that with her strong research background she could confidently identify many more memorable rides. Since then she has invested a lot of time in testing new rides, as well quizzing each establishment she researches about the safety of their horses, their feed, the quality of guides, and so on.

One of the most memorable and eyeopening rides Bruna has been on to date was a five-day 200 kilometre ride in India on a Marwari horse, the breed known for their inward-curling ears. “They’re a bit similar to Arabians,” says Bruna, “they have a big heart and are so brave. Plus they have a lot of stamina. Riding through the desert you see all sorts of wildlife, then at the end of the day you stay in palaces and luxury tents.”

Bruna is always testing new rides. “If I haven’t been on a ride myself, I send a partner,” she says. She has business partners in Brazil and others in Europe, including a French riding academy. Her marketing is aimed mainly at Australians, but when we spoke she had just organised her first group of overseas clients: 10 people from Sweden who are going on a riding adventure in Namibia.

Bruna’s own horse is an Andalusian whom she agists in semi-rural Moggill. Although she’s dabbled in many disciplines, her current love is endurance riding. Her partner, a biologist, can ride: “but it’s not his passion”, she acknowledges.

Depending on travel restrictions in the current climate, Bruna plans to be in Spain and Romania in June testing riding holidays there.

MAIN: In Brazil, and this time riding a Mangalarga, a Brazilian breed.

LEFT: Bruna’s daughter Gabriella was delighted to meet this friendly colt in Portugal.

Enjoying New Zealand’s magnificent landscape.

RIGHT: Riding a Marwari mare in Rajasthan, India - a highlight of Bruna’s 2019 trip.