Among the American tour operators specializing in riding holidays that can book Irish pony treks are: Equitour, Bitterroot Ranch, Dubois, Wyo. 82513; 800-545-0019.

Malealea Lodge is a century-old trading post transformed into a well-run lodge with pony treks and good meals.

On the way back to Paris we stopped overnight near the town of Rodez, at what turned out to be mainly a riding camp for teen-agers and an overnight stop for people on pony treks.

Children can be provided with foster homes, foisted offon relations, or sent to suitable schools where they stay for the holidays, or arrangements can be made for pony treks or camps and on the whole very little objection is made by the children to the arrangements so made for them.