Beach Day!

As Helen and I both had a free weekend and there were no shows we fancied competing in we decided to take Star and Fella to the beach this morning. We met at the farm at 9 am to get them ready for the road.

Neither of them seemed particularly impressed with the idea however, as exemplified by the ears back pose in the pictures! They weren't the only ones who were unimpressed by our intended plans. The miniatures were pretty miffed they were not being given the opportunity to partake! They stood watched and whinnied their way through the loading process.

After a successful loading of Star and Fella we set off on our trip to the beach. We are very lucky that both are very good loaders and travelers. It's very rare we have any issues with traveling either of them. Once we arrived at the beach their mood had improved greatly. 

We quickly got them unloaded and tacked up. Once mounted we headed for the beach! Out first attempt at access to the beach was a fail, but we soon found an entrance point. I think they were both a bit bothered by the sound of the waves to start with as neither of them would go near the sea! Star has been to the beach before so I knew she was just pretending to be scared, she is very good at that! Fella however, bless him wasn't just scared he was terrified!!! This is definitely the first time Helen has taken him to the beach. We have no idea if he was taken when he was racing but judging by his reaction today I would suspect this was maybe his first trip to the beach at the ripe old age of 12!!!!

When we arrived he would not go anywhere near the sea, but by the end of our ride Helen managed to get him to dip his toes in the ocean! Helen is a very accomplished rider, far better than I will ever be! She rode Fella incredibly well today as the little monkey even threw in a full on rear at one point that she sat to and managed to remain in the saddle despite losing a stirrup! 

The above picture was taken post rear. As you can see he seems very proud of his attempt to dump his mother!!!! Besides the initial 'fear' of the sea Star on the other hand took the whole ride literally in her stride! She's not a fan of water in general, but she did have a little dip in the sea towards the end of the ride after doing her token 'I will pretend to be scared' routine! 

I feel very lucky to live in the North East as it really is a beautiful part of the world. The coastline is simply stunning. I grew up in the North West quite close to a beach so it reminds me of home when I go to the beach, which I love. I never take anything for granted and count myself very lucky to be able to do the things we do with the ponies, such as taking them to the beach. 

The beach we were on this morning was gorgeous and a perfect coastal spot to take the ponies for a ride out. One thing we were very impressed with today was the dog walkers. Everyone was very considerate as we passed them. All the owners either put their dogs back on their leads, or got a hold of them whilst we passed. We did have one little follower at one point in the form of a very friendly little french bulldog, but he didn't bark or get aggressive he just followed us along for the ride until his owner caught up with him! 

Overall the ride was very enjoyable and it is definitely something we will be doing again in the future. The ponies certainly enjoyed it! We were lucky with the weather it was dry, warm and sunny with no wind. 

After the ride both of them needed a quick sponge off before we loaded them as it was very warm! Once we got back to the farm they both had several rolls which I am sure would have felt very satisfying for them. We were also greeted by two very noisy miniatures who were very glad to get their companions back!