Riding Tours Blog

One of the great aspects to horseback riding as a sport and a means of travel is that you can do it in so many contrasting parts of the world. Beach riding has a particular appeal for many people and with good reason. A beach with fairly hard packed sand makes a wonderful race track for horses and they love to open up at top speed in a place like that. They can see that there is nothing threatening; sometimes for miles ahead and they don?t have to worry about hidden predators lurking in ambush. There is nothing to make them spook except perhaps a breaking wave and they soon become accustomed to that. A wide open beach like the one on Mozambique is not a good place for anyone suffering from agoraphobia which fortunately is quite rare, but it is a place which generates a wonderful sense of freedom to both horses and most riders. Equitours offers many destinations where beach riding is excellent. Most of the beach riding in the US has become very difficult because the popular beaches have become too developed and sunbathers relaxing on the beach tend to resent having a horse gallop past throwing sand on their tanning backs and shattering their reveries.

Ireland is an ideal place for beach riding as at low tide there are huge stretches of beach left for our galloping pleasure. The only problem is that one has to pay attention to the tide tables because at high tide there is sometimes no passage left and the tides can sweep in from the sea at a fantastic rate. People have been drowned because of it. Many Mediterranean beaches are excellent too though some have become as developed as those in the US. South Africa, Mozambique, New Zealand and Australia are prime place for horseback riding on beaches.

Consider the contrast when you think of horseback riding in Arizona. Instead of a flat track all the way you can have steep mountain trails like those leading down to the Grand Canyon. Instead of a flat beach, you have jagged mountain ranges or the sheer cliffs of the Canyon de Chelly. Of course there can be sheer cliffs beside the ocean, but they are not the same and there is no salt spray flying in your face. Actually these trips in Arizona and Utah have been our most popular rides except for our own ranch in Wyoming.

I think that wearing riding helmets should be as basic a precaution as putting on a safety belt while driving a car. I don?t mean to imply that normal horseback riding is as dangerous as driving because I am sure it isn?t. After all horses don?t kill 50,000 people or so a year in this country. Still, there can be accidents on horseback and every reasonable effort should be made to minimize them. The easiest and cheapest way to do it is by always wearing a riding helmet. They are not uncomfortable and who really cares these days about the Marlboro image? Granted that head accidents are not all that frequent, but it only takes one such accident to ruin a person?s life and that of their family. They are the nastiest kind because they often don?t heal as easily as a broken arm or collar bone and we are hearing more and more about the long term effect of even slight concussions on the brain in football or boxing.

I am proud to say that, to my knowledge, we are the only dude ranch to require helmets at all times while riding. Actually I think it is unpardonable that the Dude Ranchers? Association does not insist that its members require them. No doubt individual ranches might lose the odd guest wanting to make a fashion statement, but just to avoid one or two serious head accidents a year it would be well worth it. Actually I believe there must be dozens of concussions on dude ranches ever year which could have been avoided by wearing a riding helmet

—Bayard Fox

Dogs may be man’s best friend and certainly they provide us with enormous affection and companionship. Often they have given and still give tremendous help in hunting, guarding, guiding the blind, finding landmines, herding and even finding truffles. Still I believe their contribution cannot compare to that made by horses to the rise of most world civilizations. The power and speed we gained through the use of our equine partners was enormous. When horses were first domesticated is extremely controversial among scholars. Certainly they were hunted for their meat from the time man moved into southern Europe from Africa; probably 50,000 years ago and very likely they were hunted long before that in North Africa. The famous cave drawing in southwestern Europe like Lascaux depict horses as one of the most frequently hunted animals of the period 25,000 years or so ago, but there is some tantalizing though inconclusive evidence that horses were also domesticated and possibly even used for horseback riding by these people.

Scholars are fairly certain that horses were domesticated and ridden on the steppes of Asia at least as far back as 5,000 years. They were used in Egypt and Mesopotamia at about the same time. Just as with sheep or cattle there were many other reasons for domesticating horses than riding them. Horse meat is excellent food, they have useful hides and give nourishing milk. It seems that their first use for military purposes in Egypt and Mesopotamia was mainly with horse drawn chariots which provided archers and javelin throwers with a platform from which to launch their missiles and greater speed than opposing foot soldiers. When the chariots were mounted with scythes on the wheels they must have been awe inspiring engines as they charged into massed foot soldiers.

The Mongols carved out the largest empire the world had known in the 13th century and certainly it was their horses which enabled them to accomplish this astounding feat. They galloped across Asia and into Europe with several horses per soldier so that riders could exchange mounts frequently. Often the army moved at such speed that it was able to attack before news came to the target that they were anywhere near. A fascinating aspect of the way they traveled light with such speed and effectiveness is that they had the practice of opening a vein in their horses so that they could suck blood for sustenance while galloping along. Of course blood is extremely nourishing and the traditional diet of the Masai was mainly blood and milk. They could take a certain amount of blood periodically from their cows depending on how good the grass was and it was part of the harvest so to speak. Some Americans are a bit squeamish about eating blood, even cooked, but their inhibitions do not change the fact that it is a very nutritious food high in protein. The British call it black pudding, in Germany it is blutwurst and the French call it boudin noir.

The importance of horses to civilizations and their power is graphically demonstrated by the arrival of Europeans in America. Many say that the horses of Cortez were more important in his victory over the vastly superior number of the Aztecs than his firearms. The Spanish jealously guarded their horses from the Indians, whose civilization they crushed. They were fully aware of the tremendous advantages horses gave them over the Indians. Beyond the tangible advantages of speed and power the horse had a huge psychological impact. The Spaniards were able to maintain their monopoly on horses pretty well until the rebellion in Santa Fe of 1680 where the Spanish government was overthrown and hundreds of horses were either captured or ran wild. After that horseback riding in Arizona became very popular and remains so to the present day. The American West was ideal horse country and they quickly multiplied and spread north over the Great Plains so that by the 1740s when the French explorer, de la Verendrye, came into Wyoming and Montana the Indians there were already acquiring them. Having the horse gave the Plains Indians an unprecedented empowerment; completely changing their way of life.? Now they could hunt the buffalo effectively and it made their nomadic way of life following the herds far easier.

—Bayard Fox