Beach ride next week - real nervous

metalmare

metalmare

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My Mum has booked me a beach ride next week up in Lincolnshire and I'm really nervous. All I've done for about the last year is fortnightly flatwork lessons and I've grown very accustomed to a nice deep seat and nothing more than a calm canter. It's ages since I have taken a horse out into the open for a canter or a gallop. Once I would have jumped on just about anything and just gone for it but I am becoming nervous about things lately. It's annoying because I know I am a perfectly able rider and I'm sure when it comes to it I will really enjoy it.

I think I have two main issues which is being surrounded by people I don't know when i'm doing something I haven't done for a very long time and trusting the horse. I'll gallop anything if I know I can trust it. And it is going to seem so very strange riding with short stirrups now
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I used to take out client beach rides so would like to give you a few tips;
1. Tell the ride leader that you're nervous and would be a bit worried about a forward thinking horse..they'll have quieter ones for you.
2. Ride a bit shorter than normal, then when you go to canter, go into a lighter seat with your bum out of the saddle, and your knees bent. Hold on to the mane if you want.
3. Most beaches are lovely to canter on - ride just above the tide line where the sand is firm. If your horse gets faster than you want, go up the beach to the drier, more holding sand (gently tho' or you'll do a tendon).
4. Remember these horses do this for a living - therefore they aren't nearly as nervous and excited about it as you are!
I am so so jealous of you!
S
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LOL - thanks! I think it knocked my confidence a bit riding in Africa two weeks ago - it wasn't what i thought it would be - the ponies were completely dead to our aids and it was more like pony trekking, hence I didn't feel in control!

This stables has a good reputation though, I believe. The lady who owns the place where we stop events so she knows the local stables. I should be going hacking in the wolds, too.

It's ironic, I'm a better rider than ever thanks to my great instructor in that I can now ride a lazy horse and really get her going and engaged and in that my seat and hands have improved no end and I am working on collection, etc, but I know that how relaxed I aim to be in the school is how I need to be on the hack, but my body is all different! And yet I never could have ridden long a couple of years ago. Daft turnaround!

Thanks for the advice - that's true I didn't think about the horses doing it weekly for the past how many years! I'll defo let the leader know beforehand and explain where I'm at. It's funny - I would have done anything on my horse because I knew her!
 
Hi again
Your ride leader will look after you, as long as you communicate with her. If you want to trot along the beach, she'll probably oblige by trotting ahead with you.
It is so much fun though that your next post about this will be complaining that you wanted to gallop up and down all day!
It can also help to go to the yard early to meet your horse and spend a little time perhaps tacking him/her up and getting to know them. Most riding school horses are (obviously) picked because they are absolute tolerant darlings.
Oh, remember to give it back afterwards
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S
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LOL - yeah! You're right I would be disappointed if I don't get a good gallop, in myself really. We're out for two hours though and I guess it will be a short hack to the beach, too. Yes it's a good idea to get there early and meet the horse and the other riders, too.

If it's a fjord or a dales they definately won't be getting it back - they're on my shopping list, just as soon as I finish uni and get a job! Well, one or the other :-(
 
Remember theft is wrong...the ride leader will be equiped with whips, not to go faster, but to beat you off and away from the horse afterwards
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I think it's funny you are worried about the other riders - do you think they'll all be advanced eventers/jockeys? LOL!
Have fun
S
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I am soooo jealous! funnily enough I am far more confident galloping on a beach that out on a hack! I go on a beach ride every year in portugal and have no fear bombing along whereas I get into a fluster having a bit of a fast canter! I think it because on a hack i worry so much about meeting dogs, cyclists and other suprising unknowns that C might have a paddy at! on a beach there is just miles of open sand! lovely!
 
ahh! not thought of that - mind you I have only ever done it abroad at some ungodly hour in the morning as horses aren't allowed on the beach after 8am. I love galloping along and getting a wave from joggers and trying to wave back!
 
LOL - yes, when I think back to when I had a horse my greatest fear out cantering on hacks was the thought of her taking off up our rather short, sparse Derbyshire fields and suddenly being confronted with the hedge and her either turning sharp, stopping or worse jumping it. But it never happened. No sooner did you start cantering in our fields then you started slowing up again.

It did once happen on a racehorse I was riding though. I hadn't been riding very long but would get on anything (not now) - and he took off and got faster and faster and faster until we were confronted with a gate and a road on the other side! He put the brakes on but not too hard and I clung on.
 
They have some fab horses in Portugal, too! And also some rather mangey ones when I was there in some very bald fields!
 
god i haven't been on a beach ride for ages!

i used to do it all the time as the stables where i used to ride in Cornwall were about 2 miles from the beach.

you are very lucky, trust me you might be a bit scared but once you get going your fear will fly away like the cobwebs!

have fun!
 
metalmare you sound so much like me - I went on a beach riding weekend a few years ago and was so nervous. But I loved every second of it. The horses really do know what they are diong and will look after you and your probably a better rider that what you think. I would still speak to the ride leader - I did and its puts your mind at ease.

I'm going again this year - can't wait. Its my dream to take my own horse on a beach but as I'm in the midlands its a long drive.

Have fun!!
 
I tell you metalmare, the horses were gorgeous! Every year i rode the same horse, a stunning arab x lusitano mare. If I could bring her back with me i would in a heartbeat! last year my boyfriend came with me - he doesn't ride and there was no galloping on the beach, but he got the shock of his life when yasmin (the mare I rode) dropped her shoulder and rolled! I don't think he had ever seen me move so fast! I think he was quite impressed i got back on from the ground & laughed it off! you will have so much fun!!!
 
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