A canter in the green heart of London

Taking a ride in London's famous Hyde Park may soon be a thing of the past. Photo / Britain on View

A lasting memory from my first OE foray to London in the early 70s was watching jodhpured and black-booted gals riding out on shiny hacks in gloriously green Hyde Park. At home I'd been a long time pony club rider and missed my horse almost as much as my mum and dad.

So, after finding work in a Bond St boutique, come lunchtime I'd wander down Piccadilly to Hyde Park Corner and watch these lucky creatures canter by.

Enquiries at a livery stable revealed the devastating fact that just an hour in the saddle circling the Serpentine was way beyond my budget.

So 30 years on it doesn't seem too bad that you can ride out in London's greatest park for a tick under £50 ($122) an hour - but you'd better be quick because Hyde Park Stables in Bayswater is one of the last two mews hire stables in the city and the developers are apparently circling. Having been provided with comfortable boots and a fitting helmet I step out on Seamus, an aged but bright-eyed Irish draught with flowing feathers and a gleaming silver mane. We enter the park at Victoria Gate for a warm-up amble down Ladies Walk before shifting up to a trot on the intriguingly named Rotten Row.

According to my guide, stable manager Catherine, who is married to a Kiwi, the row was carved from Hyde Park in 1690 at the order of William III who wanted his own private access between Kensington and St James palaces. Three hundred oil lamps brightened his path - the first artificially lit highway in Britain.

As the 18th century rolled round Rotten Row became the place to be seen by upper-class Londoners. Men on high-stepping stallions and women daringly atop black mares rode the row. So what's with the weird name? There are several schools of thought: Raton was a 14th century term for a cottage infested with rats; Ratten Row was a "roundabout way"; or it could refer to rotten - a soft material used to cover the road.

We are passed on our trot by the immaculately groomed Royals and Blues stepping out from their Hammersmith barracks and heading off for duty at Horse Guards parade.

It's a gauzy green and slightly misty morning and the park workers are already laying out the deckchairs (£1.50 for up to two hours) as the sun sidles up.

Three soldiers in camouflage fatigues are out hacking skittish young horses and pass with a clatter, two toothy girls in pigtails are intent on a morning dressage lesson (Daddy must be well-heeled at £74 an hour) and a couple of giggling Japanese tourists can be seen on guided ponies.

But apart from that the great park, once called the lungs of London, is all ours.

Having proved my capabilities, Seamus and I are unleashed for a confident canter and then our hour is done and it's back to base.

It's been a costly indulgence but a guilty pleasure made all the more special because there may not be the opportunity to ride this way for too much longer.

CHECKLIST

Riding: Hyde Park Stables, 63 Bathurst Mews, near Lancaster Gate tube station. Phone 020 7723 2813. It costs 49 ($120) an hour in a group ride or 74 for a private ride, boots and hats provided.

Extras: While you're in the locality take a leisurely 10-minute walk back to the Serpentine Lake. Fed by an underground spring it's a 10.5ha lake created in 1730 as a water playground for Queen Catherine, wife of George II. There's a public paddling pool for kids, a swimming Lido and row boats and pedalos to hire. In 2012 the Serpentine Lake will be the venue for the swim leg of the triathlon at the London Olympics.

Robyn Langwell travelled to London courtesy of Cathay Pacific and Visit Britain.