The beach

H

H-J

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Am thinking of taking Dougal down to the beach in a coupl of weeks.

Can any one give us any tips etc, never been before! But he is a little hestitant with water so thought it might help b4 his 1st intro!
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Check when the tide is in! I ahd a very wasted hour and 45 minute journey to the beach one evening thinking the tide was always in or out whichever it has to be so there is sand to ride on not just pebbles, and it was the opposite!!! My dad went and got fish'n'chips and we sat and ate them. I was on horseback at least!
Then joy of joys, we were trying to load him until gone midnight as he started to act like a mule! When, on the Sunday, with work the next day, I got to bed at just before 3am, I thought it was quite unsuccessful all round!
Yeah, check when the tide is in x x x
 
They can be a bit spooked by waves the first time they see them, so I would recommend going when it's fairly still wind wise!
Ditto about the tide, i went to Southport once, tide was out, couldn't even see the sea!!
 
Which beach are you planning on going to? Some of the ones in Suffolk only allow riding from October 1st, not sure about Essex beaches.

Mine spooked at the waves coming in and spun 180 degrees when a frothy bit came at him. I was hanging on by my nails, so I rode parallel to the water for the next ten minutes to get him used to it. Another horse tried to jump a little wave and teenager took a dunking so don't ride straight at water to start with.

Mine exhibited an amazing aptitude for canter half pass all the way up and all the way back as he didn't really like the white bits! So ditto advice don't go in strong wind as big waves will terrify most.
 
Take it easy on your horse, i learnt the hard way when i was much younger and thought i knew it all. Took my young horse to the beach and he was being hesitant and i pushed him on, completely blew all trust when he freaked on the shoreline because the waves moved the sand out from under his hooves and he spooked, big time. Had nasty accident, and had to go back out and get him, he'd run ino the sea and was on his way to america, up to his shoulders in water, entirely due to my ignorance and stupidity...slowly slowly slowly if any signs of dubiousness. Thankfully i'm far too old to be so stupid now..lol...
 
Where are you thinking of going??

Take it slowly for sure. Put a neck strap or breastplate on so you've got something to grab onto if needed. Make sure you use brushing boots too.

Have a great time
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Be careful that your horse doesn't get too tired by it all this time out - you don't want him thinking that the beach is a chore. let him have a good time this time, and next time make him work a bit harder.

and like everyone else has said - check the tide and with the local councils.

we go to Redcar which is about 3 miles of flat open sand running north/south, and when the tide is out it leaves a nice firm surface for galloping on about 100yards wide, but when its in there's only about 20 yards of horrible rubbishy sand.
 
Took Jack to the beach at Dornoch a few weekends ago.
There's no restriction there.
I agree with Vickyguns though, to be very careful, as my OH pointed out to me that Jacks hooves were sinking quite a bit into the sand near to the waves and Jack did find this worrying.
I made sure I just cantered along the middle bit that was just damp and nicely firm.
Be careful about actually going into the water.
Some places you can get sinking sands.
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