Situated in a superb 160 acre setting, the Equestrian Park is a stones throw away where from where we’ve been staying in Le Touquet. Regarded as one of the finest in France, it has an equestrian centre, racecourse and offers show jumping courses too. Having loved the pony rides she’s had thus far, it seemed an ideal place for POD to have a lesson.
While the Equestrian Park is famed for its events, they are happy to accommodate riders of any age and ability so we booked POD in for later that day. On arrival, a stable hand fitted POD’s hat and got her in position on a little black pony. Sami was then led back out of the stable he’d just returned to and given to the POD Father. The stable hand then told us where to go before disappearing.
At no point did we think our ten Euros included walking the pony ourselves. But how hard could it be?
Sami the pony happily left the stable and then stopped, hooves almost glued to the spot. Clearly he knew he was home and didn’t fancy going on another walk. Having spent a few minutes encouraging him, trying various horse noises and walking in a circle, we returned to the stable hand who informed us we had to be more forceful. None of us have any experience dealing with ponies but in the end we got Sami moving.
The Equestrian Park is seriously impressive. Having never visited a facility of this kind before, it was quite something to see such a splendid collection of race horses and close-up too. The course itself was beautifully kept just like the rest of the local area which is so well pruned it almost resembles Wisteria Lane from Desperate Housewives fame.
POD has only ridden a handful of times so she was led round by the course and along the tree-lined pathways before returning to the stable. I think her expressions say it all really don’t they?
