For the first time in as long as I can remember I actually achieved a goal! I wouldn’t have been able to if it wasn’t for the help of a very good friend and the Fact I have the most amazing horse ever.  Oh and I must mention the love and support I get from Steve. If it wasn’t for him I wouldn’t have had Nas. And I’m not just talking about the money. He had to practically beg his old owner to sell him to us.

So back to Sunday and oh what a day… I slept quite well Saturday night after realising I wasn’t just nervous about the actual beach ride but also the fact for the first time ever I was going to be towing not one but two horses! (I’m not counting the time I picked up the ponies) a little half tonne pony compared to two tonne of horses is a bit different.

Plus even without a trailer my reversing can be a bit haphazard. Still I just thought about it as breaking the day down into phase’s 1-pick up trailer and Dom, 2-pick up Nas and head to beach. 3-ride on beach, 4-get everyone home & 5-relax eat peanut butter pie. other than a couple of hic-cups it all kind of went to plan.

Domino was a star and despite slipping on his first attempt on the trailer he went straight in after that. We then took a slow journey back to mine to pick up Nas. The boys had a quick hello –Nas took the opportunity to eat Dom’s hay. Again Nas walked straight up and we were off… despite taking it slow we were soon upon the beach.

Now my first worry was Nas being a pig and getting loose. But bless him he was more interested in the grass. The next few minutes were a blur of busy so I couldn’t let the nerves in. I literally tacked him up as quick as. And then before I knew it Maria was helping me mount. Oh my God, I was out in the big wide world on my horse. No school fence to keep us contained.

On the walk up to the beach it was quite busy with people, dogs pushchairs etc. Nas found the cows and parking meters the most interesting. Luckily we held it together; he was quite strong and very on his toes. Have to say if we hadn’t had Dom there for support we would have been all over the place.

We then made our way along the trail through the pine trees which was quite deep at places with tree stumps. Again Nas was very forward moving I was a bit worried about him walking in the deep sand with me on him but he coped just fine. By the time we got to the opening he was a bundle of excitement.  Looking here there and everywhere.

 

Again he didn’t show any signs of discomfort with me being on him, he was just full of energy.  So we started walking down towards the beach, spooking at every change in the colour of the sand. To give the others a chance to catch up we turned around and heading back a bit. When they caught up though standing was out of the question, so we headed back down to the beach.

After a little napping incident Nas went alongside Dom nicely, I won’t say I wasn’t worried or nervous  because that would be a great big lie and I even had thoughts of this is enough for today and contemplated getting off him to walk him back to the trailer. I stuck with it though knowing he’d be just as lively to lead.

 

He relaxed a little bit, but it didn’t last long as we got closer to the shore line the starfish’s and shells were freaking him out a little bit. It was then he heard the waves. Unfortunately Dom isn’t too keen about the sound of waves either. So rather than trying to push them on and risk me coming a cropper. We headed back in land.

We did have a couple of canters, to be honest trot was out of the question he was so hyped up his knees were practically hitting his chin, it was easier to canter. Only problem being is I am not really fit enough for canter.  Well it’s really the stopping I’m not balanced enough for. And considering how strong he was being I was very conscious of pulling him up.

At one point I think we even broke into a gallop, at least it felt blooming fast. Luckily there wasn’t anyone in our path, and as much as I would like to of had the strength to keep going, I still needed to know we could stop if needed. It’s been a long time since a horse bolted with me. So the point where everyone was thinking I was squealing with delight.

I was actually saying whoa. I think this must have been the point where I was standing up in my stirrups and flapping my elbows around like I was doing the chicken dance. We did stop in the end, so it was all good. I can’t wait to do it again but be in more control or less worried about him hurting himself or me hurting us both.

We then tried to take a relaxed walk back to the trailer Nas had other ideas and was still quite excited. Even when we went past the cows and scary horse eating parking machines he was still on edge. Right up until the last moment he still felt quite strong. That is until I dismounted, if you can call it that.

For some reason my legs did not want to work and in the words of Maria it looked like I was doing a squat except I fell backwards right onto the wet grass in my nice pink jods. I then found I just had no strength to even get onto all fours. In true superstar form though Nas just used the opportunity to nab some grass while I was rolling around the grass trying to summon the strength to stand.

Think there is a lesson to be learnt in there somewhere, just not sure what it was. Now you would be wrong in thinking the adventure stops there. Whilst we were on our way home sharing some leftover Easter egg. Mid discussion on how well the day had gone, we got flagged down by a woman asking us if we were aware the trailer only had 3wheels!

After getting over the ridiculousness of what she was saying we managed to pull over and take a look, oh my god of course we didn’t know the trailer only had three wheels. After getting over the initial shock of the situation I managed to find my jack and support the trailer a bit. And thank god Maria had attached her spare wheel.

The only problem was we had lost the nuts and were unsure of if the wheel had sheared off or what had happened. Eventually though with the help of Marias dad we managed to work out it was just the wheel that was missing and after taking a bolt of the three remaining wheels. We were able to get the boys home unharmed and unaware of any drama.

All in all it was an amazing day. It was my first beach ride and I cannot wait to go back. In fact that’s it now no looking back I want to get Nas and myself fitter. I think seeing him canter along that beach with me is enough proof he has no problem with carrying my weight at all.