AFTER nearly 60 years of travel, well known travel author, publisher and explorer, Hilary Bradt MBE, considers her journey on horseback through western Ireland the biggest adventure of her life.

Covering 1,000 miles on horseback, Bradt’s new book, A Connemara Journey, will be published this April (priced £12.99).

In 1984, Hilary, who founded Bradt Guides, and has travelled extensively around the world, fulfilled a childhood ambition to do a long-distance horseback ride. Short treks in Ethiopia and the Peruvian Andes proved to be dress rehearsals for the real thing – a 1000-mile solo journey through the most scenic parts of Ireland. Her funny and heart-wrenching account centres on the growing bond between herself and her Connemara ponies.

Disaster

After buying her dream pony, Mollie, in Co Galway, Hilary rode north to Mayo then south along the coast to Kerry where disaster struck. After being lost in the bogs and mountains of the Dingle Peninsula and a stormy night, Mollie was found dead at the foot of some cliffs. The heartbreak of losing her best friend while alone in the mountains was hard to bear. A replacement pony, Peggy, was found and the two continued around the peninsulas of Kerry and Cork, and inland towards Waterford to complete the ride.

The most sociable and intelligent pony Hilary had ever met, Peggy taught her there was more to horse management than making sure the animal was obedient. Hilary learned communication was a two-way thing, and as important for her to understand what the pony was trying to tell her as it was to impose her will on the animal. Peggy was the catalyst in that transition.

It was a journey that would change Hilary forever. She learned how to cope alone with triumph and disaster, how to enjoy her solitary state and tackle her shyness, and to live in the present as time slipped by. She learned about generosity, about the old human attribute of hospitality to strangers.

Originally published in separate volumes, Connemara Mollie and its sequel Dingle Peggy, this new edition – containing additional narrative and photos – brings the whole epic journey together.