Bluebell ride what a nightmare

T

tucker

Well-Known Member
Joined
3 June 2008
Messages
55
Location
herts
Visit site
Went on the ride yesterday and my horse behaved like a nutter for most of the ride.( Jumping,leaping, jogging) I ache all over. She is normally good on pleasure rides but i have never been on a ride with over 400 horses on it!! We were riding head to tail all of the ride couldnt even trot on to calm her down. Riders were just galloping off right in front of you . Never again, had to have a double vodka when i got home
 
Yes i think it will be hot bath when i get home. The ride would have been so much better if they had left a longer gap between riders.
 
Sounds like you need those double vodka's before you set off on the ride. :D

On a serious note though, fun rides are definitely not 'fun rides' in this situation.

400 horses is rather a lot:eek:

When there is a lot of riders these fun rides I think there should be a polite rule put in place, to request riders to only walk and trot, I know I sound like a bore, but being able to pass other riders and go cantering/galloping about is only a recipe for disaster, even for horses that usually remain calm and collected, its not like your in the hunting field where most of you move off in a group at the same speed as with pleasure rides you get all ages and abilities and fitness levels etc as well as people sticking to groups were they may only wish to walk most of the time.
 
Oh no, sounds like you got a rotton time, A friend and I went yesterday and had a fabby time, we were too late to do the 15 miles (in hindsight a good thing) and apart from one pair who galloped passed us and then appologised after my friends usually calm 19 yr old DWB went vertical (my 7 yr old TB was a saint!) everything was nice and calm.

the way I feel today ( can hardly move) I can understand why my girly unusually self loaded to go home. :-)
 
I agree it was more like a hunt and I would never in a millon years go hunting.

There was 3 accidents were the riders came off and one horse was caught up in wire which was left by the side of the booking in point. What a day.
 
I'm afraid, in my experience, this is part of the parcel with sponsored rides. I have to say I haven't been to one yet where a small minority of people haven't galloped past/galloped off in front etc.

I was at the Highclere ride on a horse that was only backed in December. A group galloped off right in front of us. One fell of at the next set of jumps and we waited until horse was caught then walked past calmly.......then they overtook us at a gallop without any warning!!!

My zoomy is pretty fizzy so i sometimes have to pass people at a slow mini-rearing hand canter.....but I always shout first and ask permission!
 
Yes most riders ask before passing but ive been on pleasure rides for years and this was the worst ever . I think it was just the sheer volume of horses on the course. I know it was for a good cause but i think safety should come first
 
i think the organizers were very greedy, they should have limited entries! Im surprised there wasnt more accidents, at £25 per head they must have made thousands.

Apart from the above it was very well marked and had many stewards along the way and the actual route was lovely!
 
Last edited:
Smurphy said:
i think the organizers were very greedy, they should have limited entries! Im surprised there wasnt more accidents, at £25 per head they must have made thousands.

Apart from the above it was very well marked and had many stewards along the way and the actual route was lovely!
Click to expand...

The problem is that is is very well orgainsed and because of this very popular. They had 400 riders (again this year) and were also turning people away as the limit was 400!. Before costs they made £10,000 in aid of Farnham Church with donations for the St. Clare and Isabel Hospices.
 
My horse was a nutter all the way round as well and I have all the aches and pains today! We were quite fortunate that for most of the 15 miles we were fairly far apart from other horses, but that still didn’t make mine any calmer! We started around 1pm though. I really enjoyed it and pretty much all the riders we saw were very polite about overtaking and cantering off, which was good.
 
Yes did leave comments and spoke to a steward at the end as had to leave the ride before the jumps as my horse had a nose bleed. They kindly let me take a short cut through the back of the horse paddocks.
 
£25 is a bit steep. Around here we think £15 is the top whack.

I think the advice to keep to walk and trot would be a good idea when there are so many horses, because you have all ages and abilities from the gung ho hunting/eventing right down to children and young horses/nervous riders. Or separate them somehow.

If I go by myself, which I have to do sometimes, I always go right at the very, very end so I can go at my own pace, which includes trot and canter but at least I won't be overtaken by nutters.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top