After reading dizzylizzy's beach ride thread, a quick Google search told me that the Cumbrian Heavy Horses were only about an hour away from where we were staying. Excited by this point, I press-ganged my Mum into booking a ride for us.
I was disappointed to find that we couldn't do the beach ride (all the ride leader has to do is say 'are you...' and before they can say 'ready', the horses are off at a full gallop!) but we decided instead to do a farm ride.
CHH's farm rides last for about two hours and include lots of canters around their private land. Unfortunately, we couldn't take the camera (or my Dad's car keys, which he was a bit annoyed about) on the ride with us, so I didn't get any in-progress photos And by the time we had unearthed it from under the piles of coats in the boot of the car, our horses had been turned out.
HOWEVER! We did get a calendar with a few photos of them in, and if they scan well, I'll upload them soon. And I did get some photos of the others, which are big fluffy lumps of goodness, and I'll post them too.
I rode Gypsy, a 17.1hh Shire/Clydesdale cross, with lovely eyes and a very calm nature. My sister rode Hamish, a 17.3hh Clydesdale who had big sad Eeyore eyes and lovely sabino patches. My Mum had Sparky, surprisingly lazy for his name, and my Dad had a very classy-looking mount called Miracle, Miri for short. We were taken out around the farm by a very horsey, no nonsense lady who rode the smallest horse there, the 'Bonsai horse', Little Roo, who was actually a twin, and if you Google 'Clydesdale twins', he's the smaller of the two. He was 15.2hh, so quite small compared to some of the gorgeous beasties there!! XD
We had a lovely hack around the very scenic valley, with some nice fast comfy canters, both as a group and in pairs. Then, we were asked whether we'd like to have a really fast canter across the fields or go a short way up the Fells. We had a tough choice, but eventually chose the Fells. We marched up the Fells through a few fields of sheep, and then turned and five horses, four achy bottoms, three bombing-offs, two hours and one Fell later, we returned to the yard.
We had packed lunches with us (from the hotel), so we didn't need to stop off at the cafe (marked 'Coffee, cake and Clydesdales!' on the sign, and we then drove off to the beach to eat our lunch. We were a little worried when we heard a loud explosion, especially as there was a nuclear power plant about two miles away, and then found out that it wasn't a nuclear disaster after all. Much relief on our parts, there.
I would DEFINITELY recommend Cumbrian Heavy Horses. They're well worth a visit, if not a ride, if you're in the area. I had a fantastic time, so thank you, dizzylizzy for recommending it to us!
Sorry for the text and no pictures (yet!), and thank you for reading!
*awaits photos*
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