My First Beach Ride

Wow, I really did it! I have been longing for the chance to go riding on the beach and it finally happened. August was the perfect time to go horse camping on the Oregon coast! It started out in May with a statement to a friend that I work with that someday I wanted to go camp at the beach with the horses. We started looking at the calendar and decided that August was the time to do it. She had lived in the Coos Bay, Oregon area so she found the information we needed on the National Forest Campground pages and Nature of the Northwest pages for the Wild Mare Horse Camp at the South end of the Oregon Dunes area just a few miles from Coos Bay.

Things moved right along and finally the day of departure arrived. At 4:00 AM my friend and her husband showed up and I loaded Kelly in their trailer, a new 3-horse slant. Smokey loaded in the old trailer and we were off! I was still trying to control my excitement after all when one drives a late model Dodge van pulling an old trailer one has to be aware that problems could arise without provocation. I wasn’t going to get excited until we backed into our campsite and unloaded the horses!

On the way down, we took all the prescribed stops to rest the horses and eating stops. Of course when us middle aged folks start traveling we forget until we are only an hour down the road that our restroom stops have multiplied! Maybe I shouldn’t have had that last cup of coffee (which was actually my only cup). Oh well, the horses rested more frequently that way. Bedtime finally came after all the camping rituals of setting up camp, dinner, finding the restrooms, stories around the campfire, S’mores, etc. We slept very well in our van on the mattress! We really roughed it in the sleeping department but I wanted to have all my energy for the beach riding.

Morning came and beach time finally arrived and the horses were anxious to get moving. John and I got the horses saddled and we rode out by ourselves. I had no idea what to expect so every bend in the trail was a surprise for me. The trailhead started out about 20 feet from our campsite and the footing was soft sand all the way to the beach. After a short uphill in the trees, we broke out into the scrub pine and light brush. Kelly and Smokey were a little wound up as neither of them had ever been in the sand before and they were in need of exercise after the long trip and spending the night in their corrals. After about 10 minutes they settled down and it was pure pleasure from there on.

The trail wound through the brush for about an hour and then we were in the rolling dunes. In about 20 more minutes we were approaching the point where we were going to see the actual beach. There were some seagulls floating leisurely on the wind currents. The sea grasses were getting more animated as the wind stirred them along the crest of that last dune. I took a deep breath so that Kelly would know that I was relaxed. He was on alert as those were some scary sounds and smells he was experiencing.

Whoa, Kelly’s ears perked up even more as he came to a sudden stop. He looked all the way to the right then slowly, back to the center. After a momentary pause, he looked clear to the left and again, slowly came back to the center. Can you imagine what he was thinking? I know that was the biggest creek he has ever seen!

Now Old Smokey was slightly surprised also but being a 27 year old been there done that horse, he was a lot calmer about this whole thing. Something new. Oh well. Lets get on down there and check it out!

I got chills and it wasn’t from the wind. I was actually going to get to ride on the beach with my special horse, Kelly, and my great guy, John! I took in several big deep breathes of that wonderful air before we had to move on to a better beach access. I knew the horses could have gone down the dune just fine but John isn’t used to that kind of thing so we traveled the trail that paralleled the beach for another 15 minutes until we came to another access point.

We were on the beach! I decided that it might be a good idea to get off and introduce the horses to the water from the ground. It was so funny to watch their reactions to the water coming towards them. They both hesitated and leaned back on their haunches the first couple of times. Kelly lipped the wet sand and then the water. He was studying that water pretty carefully. Smokey was a little hesitant when the sand started washing out from under his feet but a couple of steps made him feel secure again.

We mounted and went for our ride on the beach! It was the most wonderful feeling to be gliding along the beach on my Tennessee Walker with the ocean wind blowing through our manes and his tail. I looked at John and Smokey and that was so wonderful to see those two old gentlemen having so much fun fox trotting down the beach in the wind.

We played for a while and then it was time to head back. Rats! I wanted to stay longer but John wasn‘t used to riding and his saddle was getting slightly hard in places. Old Smokey was doing great and Kelly had decided that the water wasn’t going to melt him so we had a great time on the way back.

John said that the look on my face made all of the stress of traveling and worrying about getting there and home again well worth the trip!

Happy trails,
Trail Riding Sweetheart