Haha well we're taking Toto to the beach next month and he can be a bit of a wuss really with new things and I think he's going to have eyes on stalks! How did your horse react to the beach for the first time?
Fab pic its gorgeous dont know how to get pics on here but I have a few of my boy.
he was fab the first time i took him just a bit weary of the waves "chasing him" lol.
It help if you just walk for a bit then do some schooling and then have a gallop as the next time you take them they wont just take off thinking its a gallop track.
Be carefull of soft dry sand as this can pull tendons if you gallop through and watch they dont try to roll on you !!! mine have. Its a good idea to take a lunge line with you so you can take your saddle off and leave horse have a good roll in it after your ride.
walk or trot a path you want to gallop along as you then know it is safe to gallop back along, and no hidden troughs or deep gulleys of water from the out going tide.
Be aware if tide is really far out as you might get cut off on a sand bank if it comes in really quickly. Check the tide times.
Gosh you can tell im a mum lol
Mine was fine with the sand, but really not sure about the waves. Water is fine, but water that moves?!?! She would watch the waves getting closer and closer, curling her neck down to look, then at the last minute before it touched her she'd leap to the side by about 6ft!
She got a bit better, but needed lots of leg to keep her in the waves, she'd have shot out given the chance!
Didn't like the waves moving towards him and kept leaping away, biggest problem is getting past the farm on the lane down to Robin hoods Bay, he HATES it for some reason, anyway sea ok but going over the babbling brook that runs onto the beach is a big problem as well.
Its year since I took mine to the beach but Sam (sadly no longer with us) wouldn't go in the water at all; but loved hooning up and down the beach. The others all went swimming but my best friends horse tripped on a sand ridge and can right down in the water- wish I had a photo of it...it was quite mental- she came off in the sea and Bob (her horse) pegged it; I remember galloping about a mile down the beach trying to catch the poor bugger!
Don't forget to borrow an old synthetic saddle for the day or buy a good waterproof cover for your leather saddle; i can remember all the tack cam back minging crusted up with salt and sand!
I went to Lytham St Anne, and we jogged for 45 minutes!!!!! in a pelham with 2 reins! Eventually we walked then trotted and then got a perfect rocking horse canter. LOL, I thought we could repeat this performance on the way back to the trailer - but the 'lovely canter' ended up full on gallop.......bit scarey actually.
She was fine with the sea - most intrigued with the wave, kept watching them
Most are a bit awe struck to start with but will settle. The first time we took our two they got to the top of the dunes and stopped dead! then we could just about get a canter out of them after about half an hour.- experienced company helps.
one I know had a complete panic about the sand (he has 2 sand arenas at home!) but settled with company. Most do not like the white bits on the waves until they get used to them. The pic of me cantering frank in my sig is on the beach.
Big beast can be a baggage but took it all in her stride I schooled her for a bit then went for a blast, the only thing she was not going to do was get her toes went in the sea!
Used to take mine to Lytham St Annes too! Initially all the wide open space blew his brains abit and was very wired. Popular with horse riders, it was good practice- though bit scary initially- to get him to listen to me and chill whilst other horses were whizzing by.
Try and go with someone else if poss- have also fallen off which fortunatley was on a nice soft bit and horse stood patiently waiting...
mine was fine the first time. bit snorty. we had the beach about 5mins walk away so went alot! (i MISS it!)
now ive moved yards so i am about 45mins walking hack from it now(or 10mins in the box). not taken the 6 year old yet! imagine it will be as exciting as jumping/competing for her- ie not very lol!
The horse in my siggy loved the beach from day one, my other horse freaked the one and only time I took him there.
I am going to take him back but lunge him for a while first, he couldn't cope with the space I think, Kept freezing then he would explode and try and buck me off - not nice!!
when i took mine to the beach it was quite busy but it soon emptied when he got a bit seaweed stuck on his back shoe and could not get it off so kept trying to run away from it. so we bolted back and forth the beach till it came off! he would not stand t let me try jump off to get it and my OH could not keep up to get it off! fun times. we all had ice cream after so it was not all bad!
Mine loves the beach and gets really excited when he realises he's going, you can feel him start to dance on the trailer as soon as he smells the sea air! He loves the sea but I can't go in it, the water moving underneath me makes me go all dizzy and I fell off my first pony because of it - a little 12.3 pony The higher up I am the worse it it is so now I have a 16.2 it's impossible!
Yeh, tis about 80 miles or so - each way..... tis not that far really for us
Considering we are going 800km each way for a show - and ONE class at that in September!! And then again a couple of weeks later for another one, and then a week after that too!