Sunday 27 August 2017

Adventure Clydesdale ride

Wow!....I got an amazing Birthday present from daughter.  She booked us a ride on Dartmoor at

Adventure Clydesdale (click link)


No ordinary riding school trek.  It is called Adventure for a reason.  Okay, at times we followed the leader and there were times we did a bit of roadwork, but mainly it was 2 hours across the Moor, we crossed a river (my horse decided to stop half way for a drink, fair enough he was thirsty, but the river was flowing quite fast and I couldn't see where he would take his next step, totally had to rely on my horse Ecco knowing what he was doing.  That comes a little difficult for someone that likes control of their horse, lol)....Onto the moor we negotiated Rocks, lots of rocks, small rocks, big rocks, through heather and overgrown areas and between rocks that you would have difficult walking on foot!  Then, up Yar Tor, around 1600 ft above sea level with a 360degree view.  It was stunning, and then down the other side, over rocks, only rocks.  You get the drift, there were a lot of rocks.   

Enough of my rambling, here are some pictures.  Daughter took most of the photos of me and the pictures of Lil were taken by the organiser of the trek.


Daughter took the top left photo of me waving to her. One of the short areas where we were actually on a road...


Here's daughter on her horse Faro.  Everyone (except me) stood on this ridge for a photo opportunity. 
I opted out, having just ridden down a 1-in-4 gradient of rocks to get to that spot, 
I thought it was a step too far for the sake of a picture!!!!!
As it turned out, daughter said it looks like the ground drops away, but
in fact it extended out much gentler and safer than it looked.









there I am on the right, waiting my turn to negotiate this. It looks so straight forward, but believe me it wasn't!







The horse was 17hh 
(for those who don't know about hh it's hands high
and one hand is basically 4 inches, I'll leave you with the maths).

The tricky part was sitting for 2 hours doing the SPLITS!
YES, it was a stretch believe me. 
Doesn't do it justice in the photo, but two days later my legs are still trying to recover.
In the above photo it looks as though my near-side stirrup is shorter,
whereas in actual fact it was slightly longer, purposely so that I could relieve pressure on my knee, which had been aching somewhat)....

WORTH IT THOUGH
and
YES I WOULD DO THIS RIDE AGAIN


footnote......The views were stunning beyond belief, as no doubt you can see.  And Yes, I wished I had my sketchbook with me, and YES I would have sat on the horse and sketched at the same time :)


πŸ‡✍️πŸ‡✍️πŸ‡✍️πŸ‡










15 comments:

Marie Smith said...

Not to have your sketchbook! It must have hurt, Ann. What a great experience though!

CJ Kennedy said...

What a cool adventure! I've only seen Clydesdales as draft horses. Didn't know they could be ridden, too. With the horse being that big, it must have felt like sitting on a barrel.

Shammickite said...

Sounds a wonderful Dartmoor adventure, but I probably couldn't do it now after the hip replacement procedure, wouldn't want to jeopardize that.... but I used to ride a lot in my younger days and even had my own 2 horses, Poco and Cheyenne. Clydesdales are so lovely, so big and bulky and such hairy feet! Great pictures.

MK Buike said...

That looks like a wonderful experience. I don't think I've ever seen Clydesdales being ridden....I've only seen them pulling. Yes, one of my first thoughts was that would be quite a stretch for the legs, getting around that huge horse.

ann @ studiohyde said...

There was one point in particular when I looked to my right and the view was jaw droppingly perfect for a sketch and painting.....I literally had a flash thought of 'darn, I should have brought my small pocket sketchbook'. ..... seriously, I think perhaps I need help! Lol ;)

ann @ studiohyde said...

Yes, a very wide barrel. My legs are still recovering. Lol

ann @ studiohyde said...

I can understand you would need to be careful these days. To have had horses in your younger days must have been wonderful. :)

Christine said...

Looks like you had so much fun, thanks for sharing!

ann @ studiohyde said...

It was great. The chap who took the ride explained at the outset, it wasn't like an ordinary stables ride and he was so right. Although the photos don't show all the things we negotiated, but then we couldn't have taken photos at those times, too busy trying to stay on, lol. These horses from this yard, also race once a year. In fact two riders stayed back at one point whilst the rest of us went up to the top of a hill, then they raced each other up...amazing how they could get a move on for such big creatures.

robin cox walsh said...

Tell me....did you encounter any rocks????? ;) (it hurts my legs/hips just looking at your picture....you have my sympathies for your recovery.)

ann @ studiohyde said...

It was fun for sure :)

ann @ studiohyde said...

Yes, there were one or two ROCKS!!!! oh boy, were there. I know why there are so many on Dartmoor though, it's if you get off your horse, you can stand on one to get back on again, lol :))

Eileen H said...

Oh wow, what a terrific birthday present from your daughter and a Happy Birthday to you. What an amazing experience.

ann @ studiohyde said...

Thanks Eileen :)

robin cox walsh said...

That's handy! :)