Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a horsey person, I hate that this is a thing. It is a way to make money off people who don't know anything about horses, but it is terrible for the horses themselves.

Riding a horse on deep sand is horrific for the horse's legs. This is NOT the same as riding in a carefully manicured arena that uses shallow sand. Deep sand causes the horse's fetlocks to move in ways they wouldn't normally move, and forcing a horse to do this every day for hours is going to cause injuries. Especially if the horse is "ridden" by people who are inexperienced riders, and will be sawing at the horse's mouth and shifting their weight all over the place as they attempt to balance themselves. The horses used for these tourist trap money pits will be placid, older animals that are gentle enough to take daily the daily abuse of trudging through deep beach sand while carrying inexperienced riders, and it will break the horses down quickly. Nobody cares about the horses themselves: they will forced to keep going when they develop wind puffs and other injuries, and discarded when they finally succumb to the inevitable, more serious injury.

And all the while, the tourists are thinking about how "romantic" it is to be riding a horse on the beach.

I've seen various such horses/riders on various beaches, and I can always see the results on the horses' legs (which are NOT apparent to people who don't know horses: to you, everything looks fine).

I hate the owners of these horrible enterprises. If you care about horses, do NOT do this kind of thing.

Well. That shut that down pretty quick.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is it worth it? We will be going to Sea island and the resort we are staying at offers beach rides. Approx $290 for two people. For a 2 mile ride, basically walking. No trotting or anything. Around 1.5hrs.

It sounds like it could be fun but I also don't want to spend $300 for a mediocre experience. Any thoughts? DH is happy to go if I want but not something he would pick on his own. Is it worth it or is there something else in the area we can better spend that money?

Do you know how to ride?

Anonymous wrote:Is it worth it? We will be going to Sea island and the resort we are staying at offers beach rides. Approx $290 for two people. For a 2 mile ride, basically walking. No trotting or anything. Around 1.5hrs.

It sounds like it could be fun but I also don't want to spend $300 for a mediocre experience. Any thoughts? DH is happy to go if I want but not something he would pick on his own. Is it worth it or is there something else in the area we can better spend that money?

Anonymous wrote:We did this in Antigua and honestly it was boring as hell after the first 15 minutes.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We did it in Costa Rica too. Part beach and part hills. It was worth it but part of fun was riding through the trees and seeing the monkeys. The beach part was relatively tame in comparison, but beautiful.

I did this in Costa Rica as well - what a RUSH running full speed along the water.
But what I remember the most, was riding through a camp set up along the trail - the occupants were living in object poverty and though they didn't treat us this way, I felt very uncomfortable crossing their boundaries. But the thing that I will never forget is the man, sitting in his tattered tent with an old crank record player, listening to Rachmaninoff - my favorite composer and perhaps the most romantic man who ever roamed this Earth. The combination of this humble man's circumstances, one of my favorite pieces of music and me, essentially uninvited, riding through his camp on my horse, left me feeling like the stereotypical Ugly American.

Anyway, HA! What were we talking about... ah YES, horseback riding on the beach. Do it! It feels like flying!

Anonymous wrote:Oh, and as for what happens to the horses when they finally break down and pain meds can no longer disguise their injuries from the tourists?

Do you really think somebody who is willing to profit from forcing horses to do something that breaks them down is going to, I don't know, pay for a giant green pasture and top-notch care once the animal is too lame to be rented to tourists for "romantic" beach rides?

Go ahead and check out youtube for clips of what happens to horses in American and Mexican slaughter houses. These were not animals raised for meat. These are the low-value cast-off horses left over from commercial for-profit tourist trap activities, and race horses who weren't good enough. It is very easy for an experienced horseman to note that many of the horses in those clips are older animals of uncertain breed (ie, not ex-racehorses, though there are many of those too). This is where your "romantic!" ride on the beach ends for the horse.

Anonymous wrote:We did it in Costa Rica too. Part beach and part hills. It was worth it but part of fun was riding through the trees and seeing the monkeys. The beach part was relatively tame in comparison, but beautiful.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a horsey person, I hate that this is a thing. It is a way to make money off people who don't know anything about horses, but it is terrible for the horses themselves.

Riding a horse on deep sand is horrific for the horse's legs. This is NOT the same as riding in a carefully manicured arena that uses shallow sand. Deep sand causes the horse's fetlocks to move in ways they wouldn't normally move, and forcing a horse to do this every day for hours is going to cause injuries. Especially if the horse is "ridden" by people who are inexperienced riders, and will be sawing at the horse's mouth and shifting their weight all over the place as they attempt to balance themselves. The horses used for these tourist trap money pits will be placid, older animals that are gentle enough to take daily the daily abuse of trudging through deep beach sand while carrying inexperienced riders, and it will break the horses down quickly. Nobody cares about the horses themselves: they will forced to keep going when they develop wind puffs and other injuries, and discarded when they finally succumb to the inevitable, more serious injury.

And all the while, the tourists are thinking about how "romantic" it is to be riding a horse on the beach.

I've seen various such horses/riders on various beaches, and I can always see the results on the horses' legs (which are NOT apparent to people who don't know horses: to you, everything looks fine).

I hate the owners of these horrible enterprises. If you care about horses, do NOT do this kind of thing.

Well. That shut that down pretty quick.