"The Houli Horse Ranch – Taichung County, Taiwan
Being somewhat of an recreational horse rider, I can’t say that I’ve seen too many horses in Taiwan. Infact to be honest you don’t really see too many animals in Taiwan period, other than your obligatory wild dogs and cats floating around.
Big livestock for the most part appears to be non-existant throughout much of the island and if you do want to see horses, cows or other farm animals, then you’ve got to go to designated touristy places.
For horses, it’s hard to go past the Houli Horse Ranch, situated in the township of Houli in Taichung County, Central Taiwan.
Houli Horse Ranch (also known as Houli Horse Farm), was founded in 1937 and features over one hundred horses on site, making it the largest horse riding facility in Taiwan.
Being with a school group, we were given a tour guide who showed us around, but unfortunately only spoke Chinese. Still, armed with my camera I think I was able to work out most of what we were looking at.
The Houli Horse Ranch has it’s roots in the Japanese Colonial era of Taiwan. As such many of the buildings on site reflect Japanese architecture.
The most prominent building as an example of this is the (now defunct) ‘office of the head in Japanese colonial times’, which served as the headquarters for the horse ranch.
Slanted roofs are definitely a rarity in Taiwan so anytime you see one you can’t help but stop and notice.
There was also some nice old stables to look at too;
Completely made of concrete, I got the sense that walking around at night these would make great haunted houses.
For me, the most interesting building onsite was the ranch’s horse museum. This building contained artifacts from the historical operation of the ranch and was quite interesting to peruse.
Here you had some ancient looking horse tools;
There was quite a lot of stuff like the tools above. Although most of it was common stuff you’d see today, it was still interesting to see it in a historical context.
On the ‘ewww’ side of things, the ranch had on display a fullsize horse skin carcass;
And two rather disturbingly displayed preserved horse foetuses (real);
As you can see the liquid used to preserve them was getting a bit low… The lids on the jars weren’t secured down so I tried to convince one of the kids to try drink some of the water but unforrtunately they wouldn’t have a bar of it.
Seeing the foetuses left me feeling a bit queasy and I didn’t have time to recover before we marched off to lunch.
Luckily lunch was rather bland offering of vegetarian noodles so I didn’t eat much (made up for it later).
The second half of the day was dedicated to activities for the kids. First up we had some arts and crafts.
Hand painted fans anyone?
Everyone was painting flowers, bunny rabbits and cutesy crap on their fans so I decided to be alternative and do my best to paint a scary monster (yes, yes, I totally ripped off Lord of the Rings).
(I just realised I haven’t taken a photo of my fan. I’m on the road now but I’ll update this article with a photo when I get home).
We also got to make a miniature horse model too which was kind of cool;
(once again I’ve realised I don’t have a photo of the finished model, will take a photo when I get home and update).
After the arts and craft session and our lunch had settled we headed outside to play some random games, most of which involved water.
First we had a team race to fill up jugs of water;
Then we practiced our lasooing on some wooden horse heads;
and then we had a massive free for all water fight (think massive drums full of water and thirty kids running around with buckets saturating themselves).
When my boss told me I’d need to bring a towel and change of clothes I couldn’t understand why I’d need to at a horse farm.
By the end of the day I was glad I brought them anyway.
Finally, you had the horses of Houli Horse Ranch;
Some of them like the above horse looked a little worse for wear, but then you had more healthy looking (pregnant?) horses too;
All in all, save a few, the horses at Houli Horse Ranch looked happy and healthy.
One thing I noticed though was that a hell of a lot of them liked to poke their toungue out at passers by. I dunno if it was some inside horse joke, or perhaps if they were just thirsty… but an unusual number of the horses stood there poking their toungues out!
Maybe poking your tongue out is horse speak for declaring ‘OMG EVERYBODY LOOK IT’S A FOREIGNER!’
Being with a school group I was kind of limited with what I could do but I was given the option of riding a horse. From memory it was pretty well priced too (under $500 TWD which is $16.50 AUD) although I’m not sure exactly what that entailed.
Note that horse ranch regulations stipulate that you’re not allowed to chew betelnut whilst on horseback, and sorry fatties – if you’re over 90kg no riding horses for you!
Being with a group of school kids though I turned it down (didn’t think it was fair for me to ride infront of them all). Perhaps one day I’ll go back on my own and give the horses a ride.
Other attractions on site are apparently skateboards (which for some reason Taiwanese people call ‘healthy scooters’, a archery gallery and the option to ride around in a horse drawn carriage.
Additionally the size of the Horse Ranch is quite large so there’s plenty of room to walk around and enjoy the nice gardens. One of the more serene and quieter areas of the ranch for example is the ‘Lovely Animal Area’ where you can just sit and enjoy the fishpond and ducks they had roaming around.
Just outside the Horse Ranch is the Houli Bicycle Track too. Bicycles are readily available for hire (see the large Giant flags obstructing my first photo in this article) and if the weather is nice a ride along the track is a nice way to finish off the day.
Admission to the Houli Horse Ranch is $100 TWD ($3.30 AUD) for adults and $80 TWD ($2.60 AUD) for children.
The ranch is open from 8am to 5pm seven days a week and is located in Central Taiwan at 41 SiShan (SihShan) Road, Houli Township in Taichung County.
June 21st, 2011 at 4:26 am jenny(Quote)
Wow. The first horse photo is shocking. I’ve been jonsing to get out there, but now… Were there lots of horses to see?
There are a few private barns in Taiwan. They’re hidden, though. I’ve ventured up into the mountains here in Central Taiwan and seen a few lovely homes with manicured lawns and horses. There are some out in Neihu and Tienmu, in Taipei.
The tongue thing could be caused by any number of things. They could be in pain. They could be extremely bored. They might be sedated. They might not have enough access to water. They might be really hot and are trying to catch the breeze on their tongue. They might have eaten fire ants or a poisonous plant. It could just be a habit they picked up from another horse (which is pretty common with horses).
But, man alive, that first photo… Are they not supplying enough hay or feed for the horses? There certainly isn’t any grass to graze in that little arena they’re in. I don’t understand why these agritourism places aren’t putting their animals on display in nicer locations. My favorite dairy does the same thing — they stick 100 head in a relatively small, marshy area. It’s not good for the animals.
Thanks for posting!
June 22nd, 2011 at 2:06 am ozsoapbox(Quote)
There weren’t that many horses to see in the parts we walked around. I was with a tour led group though, perhaps if you go by yourself and walk around there’s more to see.
That’s interesting. I’ve been up there a few times now and haven’t seen any. Must be well hidden!
No idea. Some looked healthy and then yeah others not so much. Your guess is as good as mine.
Cheers, glad you enjoyed reading.
June 22nd, 2011 at 3:30 am jenny(Quote)
I was also wondering about worms. That guy might have picked something up and hasn’t been dewormed or medicated. I know they aren’t my horses, but it’s hard to look at it when you know what you’re looking at.
I can show you the one I know of in Taichung if you’d like. It’s small and privately owned; they have beautiful Warmbloods and teach lessons. Shoot me an email…
:+)
June 23rd, 2011 at 11:19 am ozsoapbox(Quote)
I know what you mean. Whilst I don’t see too many horses I really struggle with this when it comes to dogs in Taiwan.
Cheers, I’ll keep that in mind.