The Table Between Us

There’s a reason The Riding Chapter unfolds in Spain.

It’s not a backdrop. It’s part of the experience.

La Rioja, with its rolling hills, ancient villages, and roads that rise and bend through vineyards and stone, has a rhythm that mirrors the journey we’re on. It’s a place far enough from noise and routine to make room for something different. Here, time stretches. Conversations linger. Life is lived closer to the ground, and that’s exactly what we want our participants to feel.

This isn’t luxury travel. It’s connection. The meals aren’t designed for spectacle but for substance, local wine poured by the people who made it, bread baked that morning, olive oil that tastes like the sun it came from. Around each table, conversation continues naturally, without agenda. Stories, laughter, and silence share equal space.

There’s something about Spain that insists on presence. Maybe it’s the landscape, open yet grounded. Maybe it’s the culture, proud, generous, and rooted in tradition. Or maybe it’s the way the day flows: the ride in the morning, the meal that anchors the afternoon, the slow evening where reflection takes its rightful time.

Being here reminds us of what’s real.

That meaning doesn’t always come from striving but from belonging to a place, to a moment, to one another. The spirit of this region, its people and their quiet mastery of craft and care, holds a mirror to what we’re trying to rediscover in ourselves.

We chose Spain because it invites honesty. Its simplicity carries depth. Its beauty doesn’t need to be announced. It’s felt, in the food, the air, the laughter after a long ride.

And that’s the social heart of The Riding Chapter: to share not an event, but a way of being. To gather around something authentic, human, and enduring. Because when we sit together, not as professionals or participants but as people, that’s when the real story begins to write itself.

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