A Dazzling Ride

It's Saturday evening and I've just returned home from the horse club. I still smell like a barn animal, but I've decided to write a little before I take a long, well-earned bath. I need to tell you about the horses. For those uninterested in these, the most beautiful animals in the world, don't waste your time reading any further.

The stable is, essentially, right on the beach. A 5 minute ride and you've got your hooves in waves. Last Tuesday I had a more formal lesson and we stayed within the boundaries of the makeshift, beach football field near the stable. Today, we rode along the shore. A game was on.

It was beautiful and strange. The section of beach just in front of the stable is, coincidently, also just in front of a hotel and therefore clean and clear of debris. Ride a little further in either direction and the same cannot be said. Plastic bottles, tiny pieces of plastic bottles, syringes, flip-flops, and trash, trash, trash litter the sand. Some areas are more polluted than others, but it was a disturbing sight nevertheless as I thought about our horses' unshod feet kicking up sand and whatever happened to be in it. Near one particularly dirty area, we had to turn back and change direction because a man up ahead was burning a pile of trash. Horses don't like flames, and I got to see how skill full my fellow riders are. Impressive. Yet, somehow, it was all still beautiful. Truth be told, much of the beach is mostly clean and undisturbed.

I've never really ridden in a straight line before. I'm sure this seems very silly to those who don't ride horses, but those that do, or have, will probably understand what I mean by this. Let me explain: a large part of the riding done in the equestrian world is confined to circular or oval shaped arenas where horse and rider go around, and around, and around. There are those lucky enough to ride trails regularly or go on "hunts". For the most part, I didn't fall into this second category, and even when I did, the narrow and windy dirt roads/trails that run through New England forests don't provide great opportunities for long, hard gallops.

But today, there was just sand and water. And a non-stop gallop along the shore. I'm hooked.