This is a departure from my usual post topics, but I hope the appeal is universal. Ignore it only if you don’t like any of the following: Spain, wine, adventure, mountain views, gourmet meals or horses.

This riding vacation was a year and a half in the making. We – me, my sister Christine, my daughter Louise and my niece Madison – had planned it for May 2020. Needless to say, that didn’t happen, and the trip was postponed several times.

Now, along with Lisa and Ruth – two friends of Christine’s from Colorado – we were to join a Swedish family and ride for three days in the mountains of Gredos, Spain’s best-kept regional secret. Our guide would again be Equiberia, the company that has taken me through northern Spain, Andalusia and, a few years ago, Gredos for six days.

We were picked up in Madrid after a few days of sightseeing. The highlight for me had been, as always, Guernica, Picasso’s wrenching depiction of the Nazi firebombing of the city in 1937. We saw it on Nov. 1, the Day of the Dead, and that night we said a few words in our Airbnb for the loved ones we had lost.

Photo: Ruth Hufbauer

On the morning of Nov. 3, the Equiberia driver picked us up at the Airbnb. Louise was already in the car, having been met at the airport. It was a two-hour drive to Gredos. The most exciting part was when the driver began making erratic lane changes and nodding over the wheel. He stopped at a dive by the road and had a beer and a sandwich, which perked him up quite nicely.

We arrived at the Parador de Gredos, one of a chain of state-owned hotels that had formerly been royal hunting lodges, resorts and the like, with lots of timber beams over the high-ceilinged dining and meeting rooms. We spent the afternoon walking around the pastoral grounds and fretting about the temperature in the mountains, forecast to be around freezing in the mornings with a high of 40 degrees Fahrenheit during the day. We had all brought cold-weather gear, but this was serious.

Over cocktails in a big couch-filled room overlooking the grounds below, we met Elizabeth, Stefanie and Evelyn, who would be in charge of us on horseback and on the ground, and they briefed us on the ride. We also met the Swedish family who were also part of our group – parents and two daughters, all comfortable riders. Dinner in the hotel restaurant included lots of yummy ham, as, I knew from experience, every meal would.

Photo: Christine Swardson Olver

When we woke up the next morning, the temperature was 28F degrees. After breakfast, we were driven to the nearby stable and introduced to our mounts. Mine was Copin, whose pronunciation reminded me of the French word copine, which means girlfriend. But he was a male, a gelding. After discussion with Louise, we decided he was gender-fluid.

We were off by about 10:30. The territory changed from forest to rocky foothills to ridges with incredible views, but the temperature remained frigid. When we stopped for aperitivo, a pre-lunch snack, at about 1p.m., we not only relished the hot broth served at our outdoor table but had a pushup contest to warm up. Maddy, a professional racehorse rider, won with 31. Louise led us in some all-body dance exercises that helped too.

Cantering would have made us warmer, and the horses showed every sign of being both energetic and obedient, but we were told the terrain didn’t permit it at the moment. We did some trots through the regional park and were glad to pull in to a homespun cottage with a fireplace for lunch. The proprietor served a series of appetizers that in another country would have been a meal, and then an astonishingly good paella.

Given the amount of wine we consumed, it was just as well that the return trip to the stable took less than an hour. We got there around 5p.m., with plenty of time to get to the hotel, thaw out and clean up before dinner at 8:30p.m. (we were the first ones in the dining room each night.).

The next day, Nov. 5, the temperatures were as cold but we were more warmly dressed.  We left at about the same time, climbing in a different direction from the day before into the foothills, the terrain still not permitting many trots or canters. The views were staggering.

Despite our layers of clothes – and hand warmers supplied by Ruth – we were still cold. At one point Christine and Lisa got off (with permission from Elizabeth) and walked for a while. Louise, Maddy and I followed suit. Then even one of the outriders, Rubén, who had looked really frozen, did the same.

Photo: Lisa Wolfe

After we got off, Maddy said, “My knees are frozen shut.” The warm broth at aperitivo – did I mention we poured sherry into it? — helped. It was after that stop that we began practicing our signature stretch-and-wave, which also helped warm us up.

Photo: Evelyn Diaz

Then we made our way along the Tormes river in the sun, feeling practically non-cold. One of the most gorgeous views was off to the right and below: green fields delineated by low rock walls and autumn trees in deep red and yellow colors along the rushing river .

Photo: Louise Trueheart

A catered lunch was ready for us at another unheated-except-for-wood-stove cottage in the park, and it was delicious. The main course was tortilla with sauce and a fish in pink pimento cream, after a salad that could have been a meal by itself. An arm-wrestling contest after lunch got us revved up to depart; our horses had waited patiently outside, each tied to his own tree.

Photo: Christine Swardson Olver

Happily, conditions permitted many uphill canters on the way home on the park’s dirt roads. Another exciting moment was an encounter with a herd of long-horned black cows, two of them pregnant. Rubén chased them off on his fearless white horse.

We got back to the stable just late enough to see an incredible sunset as we arrived.

Photo: Equiberia

Yet again we made it to dinner. Afterward, at 11 p.m., we watched a racehorse that Maddy exercised finish fourth in one of the Breeder’s Cup races in California, and felt like the world was a pretty small place.

The next day, Nov. 6, there was snow on the ground when we woke up. At breakfast we discussed whether that was a bridge too far. Elizabeth had already selected a somewhat curtailed agenda: Ride to the top of Sierra del Fuentes, have an aperitivo and ride back down for a fancy lunch inside the stable. When we arrived after breakfast, she said even that might not be possible given the snow and ice, but that we would go ahead and see how things looked. Indeed, our initial departure from the stable through a snowy field entailed much slipping and sliding.

Photo: Equiberia

We climbed along sandy and occasionally icy roads. It was cold, but sunnier than on other days, happily. Most of us were wearing every single layer we had brought, plus the hand and toe warmers, so were fairly comfortable. This itinerary also included towns, which was fun, especially an ancient fountain.

Photo: Equiberia

Photo: Lisa Wolfe

From there, we turned up again and walked along a ridge with a magnificent view of snowy peaks on one side and sloping cattle fields on the other. The sun was so strong that the snow had melted and no one felt cold. We continued to climb, for the most part above the tree line, until we came to a vast mesa surrounded on all sides by stunning mountain peaks.

We had several canters across the flat terrain, as cows gazed at us with diffidence. Our faithful team turned up in the van with another excellent aperitivo.

Remounting, we went down on a faster route that involved more roads and more cows.

Photo: Christine Swardson Olver

Paradoxically, it was snowier down below, perhaps because the sun was blocked in some places. We untacked at the stable, fed the horses, then put them in the outdoor corrals and walked inside, where the same caterer as the day before served us an incredible five-course meal of paté, goat cheese salad, fish and tomato, and duck confit and stewed cabbage. Plus a pastry and, of course, wine. It was not to be believed.

Photo: Equiberia

As is traditional in the Swardson family after big trips, Christine and I, with input from others, had come up with some awards for participants and staff. The highlights: Maddy was the best arm wrestler (a couple of the horses who had pulled hard on the reins were named best equine arm wrestlers), Elizabeth had the best hair, Ruth brought the most useful item (the hand and toe warmers), Lisa was best photographer, I was the best Equiberia veteran and Christine was the best overall badass (The runner-up was Maddy’s horse.).

Most useless item brought: a bikini, by Sarah, the older Swedish daughter, who had nourished a vain hope that the hotel would have a spa or sauna. Louise was the Ham Queen. However, the stable cats made off with her prize — some breakfast ham in a paper silverware cover —  and only the wrapper was left.

With that, we bade farewell to our horses and our hosts, went back to the hotel and agreed to skip dinner and meet for drinks or a snack in the nice warm bar. It was wonderful.