Anyone taken their horse swimming in the sea?

[D0GWithAYoni]

D horse loves the beach and will happily wade in to the sea. It's lovely and warm today so I thought I'd take him for a proper swim. Any tips? Also not sure what I should wear, I was thinking shoes rather than boots which will fill up?

[D0GWithAYoni]

Well I wore trainers in the end and apart from swimming through a stream bit which was almost deep enough to swim we didnt swim but went in up to the top of his legs. I have some pics of anyone is interested ill post a link.

He was a poppet in the sea he really loves it but we had an incident on the way down, we got stick by some temp traffic lights I didn't realise were there and waiting is still a big issue for him. I had a huge can in front so couldn't even creep out and cross over to pavement side because I had no vision I also had a car behind. D horse did an almighty rear, massive vertical thing, I jumped off quick and led him along the pavement I felt a bit of a failure but it seemed the safest option at the time iyswim?

[D0GWithAYoni]

*van

[Butkin]

Yes we've been to Holkham on North Norfolk coast. Very easy - just a small car parking charge for the box and 200 metres walk to the beach.

Connemara was originally not keen to get over the breaking wave. Once she was encouraged over she didn't want to come back but everything fine in the end.

To be honest we just wore our normal riding gear because we didn't go in above their knees.

I've been in deep water (crossing Suffolk drainage ditches) out hunting and occasionally they do kick off to swim - strange feeling the first time it happens but of course I was wearing long boots then and not usually a problem.

[D0GWithAYoni]

Yes I felt that kind of lifting feeling in the river. Very strange isn't it. I would normally have worn riding boots but my long ones have just died ad I'm in wellies which would have filled up iyswim.

[loftyquine]

I used to go swimming in the little river near our house with my ponies. It had some deep pools where they had to swim 5 - 6 "strokes" to the other side. Lovely feeling and they enjoyed it on a warm day. We went bareback with shorts & trainers on as the water came right over where the saddle would be. Always had to jump off quick afterwards as they liked to roll to dry off! Couldn't do it once I moved on to my 16.2hh because he didn't need to swim to get across!

[migrant]

We live in Australia so the beach is pretty popular with all the kids and their ponies. Last time we took ours, the dolphins came to play too - poor pony wasn't too sure he liked that! Have gorgeous pics of bikini clad daughter cantering up the beach bareback with crystal blue ocean in the background. Happy days all round.

[OhThisIsJustGrape]

Holkham beach is fab for horses, the army bring their horses up for a holiday here every summer and even though I'm not a horsey person at all, it's quite a sight to behold when they're swimming in the sea :)

[D0GWithAYoni]

Migrant that sounds amazing!

[D0GWithAYoni]

here is me and d horse in the sea, I think. No bikinis though so your eyes won't bleed

[FannyPriceless]

I did it several times as a teenager in NZ. The beach we went to was gentle with no breaking waves, but soon got deep enough for the ponies to swim. I did it bareback wearing a swimsuit.

It is a bit weird when the pony gets out of its depth and starts swimming. You need to grab a handful of mane and really hold on, because the rider ends up floating 'above' the pony as it goes up and down and you can become disconnected! Some ponies/horses have a very thrashing action and I wouldn't like to find myself unseated in the water next to a shod horse like that. Most like it though, and it's a pretty amazing thing to do.