The Dream Ride on the Beach.

I had been dreaming of this ride on the beach for days, seeing in my mind Chloe the andalusian and I gliding across the sun-kissed sands, hair and mane flowing in the wind. Well, I must have had too much benedryl (a medicine for allergies). Just goes to show you how fantasies can truly be just that!

In our part of the world - New Jersey, USA there is a distinct difference in the visitors that come to vacation and the actual people whose families have grown up here. The Southern tip of NJ is below the Mason-Dixon line, and therefore could be considered the South. During the Civil War it was so remote that many prisoners were held on the beach for the duration of the war. Those who died were buried on the beaches, and many slaves were held here until freedom came.

Sometimes, our locals will refer to transplants like myself, as ’Shoebees’. This goes back to those visitors that traveled by train from the cities to the beach bringing their lunches in shoeboxes. There is no doubt in anyone’s mind that I am a real-deal Shoebee. I lived in NYC for 30 years. Need I say more!

I am 58 years old, and as an old horseman once described his mare to me,
’this ol’ girl, is built for comfort, not speed, and she is one easy keeper.’
Well, that would be me: a good ol’ girl and an easy keeper.

Also a hot house orchid in disguise, as I have sun allergies, and skin allergies, and have to carry an epi-pen with me should any of these things cause me to stop breathing. So, going to the beach requires tons of sunscreen and proper clothing, and if I get over heated I generally just melt.

Dream Ride on the Beach - Who was There

All the riders in the group for the beach ride were fair to very competent. Our guides came from families that have lived in Cape May, NJ for generations, where many of the folks have never been off the peninsula.

Thinking we were in good hands, and that our guides had ridden on the Delaware Bay beaches many times, the rest of us did not plan out our trip, or visit the area, or check out the route, or concern ourselves with the tide or anything intelligent like that! We went purely on assumptions. Well you all know what happens when you assume.

Our cast of characters,

Easy, a 22 year old fox hunter appendix quarter horse, off the race track, with police training,
Doc, a five year old quarter horse, learning about the world and for the most part steady, but still young.
Dillon a spotted horse with a go-there, do-anything attitude.
Along with me, the non-breathing, sure to be killed Rita on Chloe, my beautiful andalusian mare with an alpha-girl mind hidden behind her I-am-too-sexy-and-sweet-for-words attitude.

The four hosts were all thin and fit, looking like they were ’rode hard and put away wet’.

I was persuaded that I would be in trouble - not being able to keep up, falling off my horse for no good reason, or just being the older woman who could not ride. My mind was going full speed ahead giving me a legend of things that I was probably not capable of doing.

Dream Ride on the Beach - or not

It was October and getting hotter by the minute. Everyone gets mounted, and as we are going down the street I find out that the hosts are all fairly new at riding, and have never been on the beach or in the trails, but for them, it was a good occasion to drink beer. How is that for bad planning on our part?

Then one of the hosts rode across a beautiful sod grass lawn. At this point, being a foxhunter, and knowing in my heart that this riding on the lawn thing is a cardinal sin in the fox hunting world, I knew that things were going from bad to worse.

I could describe every moment, such as

the fact that it was high tide, which means, deep, deep sand.
how Chloe and Doc decided that the beach was the worst thing that ever happened to them
how they proceeded to look for any way out possible including just not going forward.
that one of our hosts had just bought his horse, and this horse decided to get rid of him by rearing and turning in circles, backing up all into Chloe's space. At which point we were required to do gymnastics to get away from him.

Or the fact that I was so consumed with fear and anxiety that I never noticed until the end of the ride that we were on a beach of naturists wearing Speedos and less.

or that it was 90 degrees, and I was over-heated to the point that you could fry an egg on my head,
or that when we finally got off the beach we ended up in a parking lot with thirty motorcycles,
or that on the way home we were in bumper to bumper traffic on a two lane road with cars, trucks, bicycles and every distraction possible,
or that our beer sodden hosts walked their horses for about three miles because they couldn't keep up, and oh, my word, their poor horses.

Dream Ride on the Beach - Chloe and I find our Bond.

On the beach, and after an hour of encouragement, lots of leg, sweating, breathing hard, singing, and laughing at our situation, I realized that I had to take care of my horse and let go of my fear. Doc’s rider, who is a very good rider, told me she was having the same trouble and that I was not alone in my fear.

Suddenly, in a matter of moments, my andalusian girl finally let out a sigh, stopped fighting me and said to herself, ’we are getting out of here - together’.

An epiphany!! She trusted me as I told her about the way off the beach ahead. I also promised her every carrot and apple in the county, and she forged ahead.

Easy went into police mode and just pushed forward through the traffic, the deep sand and the naked people. He became our leader and Chloe tucked herself behind him. Doc grew up on the beach, and really came out of the whole thing a champ, and Dillon proved that you don't need a long line of ancestors and a large price tag to be worth your weight in gold.

By the way, don’t think that any of this crossed my mind while this nightmare was taking place!

Dream Ride on the Beach - again?

Will I ever put myself into a situation like that again? Absolutely not. Did we survive? Absolutely, yes.

I will never say I cannot ride again, or put myself down for the type of rider I am, because, believe me, I locked my legs around that mare, and decided I was NOT going anywhere without her!

Chloe is the best insurance policy I have ever had. She is an amazing horse, and yes she does have her quirks, but who cares! I would like to take credit for staying on and staying calm, but I know that it was all about the horses we were riding. We could have had a disaster, but we did not get hurt, and our horses got us home safely, and that is all that matters.

Now all of this sounds heroic, but after assuring myself that Chloe was fine, and all was well, I went to bed and slept for 12 hours. My legs are still wobbly, and my back hurts.

Mr. Shakespeare was right, All’s well that ends well. A ride to remember.

©Lee McMullen

Dream Ride on the Beach is presented by the IberianHorse-Worldwide Group.
IberianHorse-Worldwide publishing

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