Ireland’s Ballinasloe Horse Fair Week

Once a year in October, Ireland’s oldest traditional horse fair has taken place in Ballinasloe since the time of the High Kings of Tara.

The main purpose of the fair is the sale of horses, and watching the hundreds of horse dealers gathered with their stock and doing business on the Fair Green is a real treat. Riding, jumping and driving horses, mares with foals and stallions. All sorts of horses are sold, from tiny ponies to huge hunters. Selling is done the old way – no fancy sales ring, just horses, buyers and sellers who gather and deals are done in cash on the spot.

You’ll be transported back to a time before mechanization. While at the fair, it takes but half breath to visualize it the old way – people looking for farm horses with strong bodies for plowing, or folks looking for riding stock to get them to town or the neighboring farm, foals recently weaned, stallions, gelding groups – they are all here. It’s a day you won’t soon forget!

Our riding program this week includes a full day visit to this horse fair, as well as the incredible Irish countryside you yearn to see – this is a once a year offering and spaces are limited.

2027 Date: Oct. 2-7

Rate: $2,030.00 USD or €1,625 per person sharing. Single Supplement: $190.00 USD or €150.

Non Rider Rate: $1,300.00 USD or €1,040