Beach Ride!!

First beach ride of the summer!

I took Jazz and we went with AR and her horse, Quincy. It was so nice, the perfect way to spend the day :)

It was my first time driving to the coast, usually someone else drives, but it was an easy drive (minus all the curviness) and we made it there without getting lost. Which is always a plus in my book :)

I took Jazz because AR and I have a long standing bet as to whose horse is faster. It's funny because Quincy is a Foundation Quarter Horse and Jazz is an Appendix Quarter Horse, yet they are built almost identically. We had never had the opportunity to really race in a wide open space, so this was going to be the true test!

It was also Quincy's first time on the beach and he was pretty good. He was totally fine with the waves as long as we were trotting and he was by Jazz. Otherwise, you never knew how much damage a wave could do to a horse! He spun and sidepassed quite athletically, lol.

We meandered down to the far end of the beach and played in the little river that flows into the ocean. After crossing it a couple times, I had the grand idea to try to canter Jazz into the water. Hah. Not my best idea. We were cantering, and cantering and cantering and we were going in! Not. At the last possible second, no warning whatsoever, Jazzy slams on the brakes. Ouch. I pulled a muscle. Then Jazz delicately steps into the water and we trot off. When we went back to see where we were supposed to launch into the water, you could see her hoofprints were half in, half out of the water. Sigh, really Jazz?

Then we played around on the driftwood by the river. The sand was a little wet and packed down so the driftwood is nice and stable so we jumped over some and played around. It was fun.

Then on the way back, we decided to race :) This was the fun part. We wanted to race to a log that was in the distance so we started off. Jazz went into a gallop easily, she was waiting for this part! Then she heard Quincy's hoofbeats behind her and she kicked it into high gear! Geez. We won by a long shot and I had to circle Jazz a few times to get her to come down, she loves to run!

Overall, it was a perfect day at the beach. We almost couldn't find the exit though, which was pretty funny. Next time we go, it will be with Katy and Jetta, that will certainly be very interesting! Here's some pictures:




Jazzy is not enthused about this whole thing...





Crossing the scary water like a pro!





Random stop sign, Jazz was wondering
what on earth it was doing there!