CASTELLO
* The Location
& Surroundings
* The Horses
* Riding
Facilities & Price List
* Contact Information
Castello is owned by Mr Raimo
Aalto together with his daughter Minna Nikmo, who is the riding instructor
as well as a competitive rider herself, mostly eventing and showjumping.
Castello was founded in 1989, so 2005 will be the 16th year for the riding
school. 
Love, Laura Erkkola
The first five years Castello
spent just in the outskirts of Pori, but in the spring 1994 the riding school
and its horses moved permanently to the countryside of Yyteri, where they
had already been arranging summer riding camps before.
So today you will find
Castello Riding School nearby the town of Pori, in the western coast of Finland.
It's located in the surroundings of Yyterin Kartano, an estate from the late
19th century. The yellow stable yard buildings were built back in the 1920's.
From a few kilometres from the riding school lies the long and sandy Yyteri
beach, which is quite an unique place in the whole Northern Europe. On horseback,
you'll reach the dunes and the beach in about half an hour.
We have at the moment 12 riding
school horses. All of them are safe and properly schooled. Many of them have
been and are competed in dressage, showjumping and / or eventing. Four of
our horses are ponies (1 Shetland and 3 crossings), and three warmblooded
riding horses. The others are purebred Finnish horses, of which the smallest
are nearly pony-sized and the biggest ca. 160 cm high. (Here you can see more information of all our horses
- now in English!)
The Finnish horse is an
unique all-rounder breed: they are used as well riding horses (the best ones
can jump even 1.30 m classes and learn advanced dressage movements), racehorses
(the Finnish horse is the fastest cold-blooded trotter in the world) as working
horses in farms. They are usually chestnut in colour, around 15.0 - 15.5 hh
(but there are also lots of smaller and higher ones) and fairly strongly-built,
with thick mane and tail. They remind somewhat of the Austrian Haflinger ponies.
As riding horses, they are extremely friendly and calm, yet willing and forward-going,
with nice paces to sit and easy to handle and school. We have also some other
Finnish horses that are not used in the riding lessons, for example our homebred
young charmer Castellon Pietari, whose father,
a black stud stallion Pellervo has won four
gold medals in a row with Minna in Finnish horses' Showjumping Championships
1999-2002!
For riding lessons we have two
large outdoor arenas (the both are properly fenced and the larger one is also
lighted for the dark winter nights). In addition there is a small indoor manege
if the weather turns bad or the ground is icy. There is plenty of equipment
for jumping and also some small cross-country obstacles. 
The surrounding forests are full of sandy trails and quiet logging driveways
suitable for riding so you can have a quick warming up / cooling down in
the woods before or after riding in the manege, or a longer hack.In addition
to the Yyteri beach there is also another one in Mäntyluoto that is
allowed to ride on. It is also possible for a beginner to have a hack on
the trails nearby the stables but to ride to the beach you should have somewhat
riding experience.
Riding lessons and hacks
are arranged all the year round, and specially for foreigners a snowy winter
hack to the frozen, quiet sea shore could be an outstanding experience (as
long as You'll have enough clothes on...). We also have several riding camps
mostly in the summer, also for Your own groups according to Your wishes. Also,
the hotel, camping site and other facilities of Yyteri Recreation Center are a couple of
kilometres away from the riding school. (Here can
you find some more photos from the beach and forest...)
Here is the price list for visitors:
* Riding lesson
15 €
(or riding
on your own in the school, but under supervision)
* Pony riding
in a lead rein for children, ½ hour 9 €
* Guided hack
in the forest, 1 hour
22 €
* Guided hack
in the forest and beach, 1,5 hours 30 €
* Guided hack
in the forest and beach, 2 hours 38 €
If You have any comments or
questions about this homepage or the Castello riding school, You can E-mail
me to muskaat@hotmail.com. I
will answer with pleasure!
Also, if You want to have any
further information of Castello, You can contact me via E-mail. I will deal
with any arrangements with the riding instructor and the stable!
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