August 2016 - Horse Riding Malaysia

Trail Ride @ Paya Indah Wetlands Dengkil With MM2020HorseAdventure

It’s been almost 2 months since I last ride in Paya Indah Wetlands, Dengkil.

This time I got Negro (again), the black mighty horse. Athirah booked Langkaputra for me. Unfortunately Langkaputra has its shoes removed and yet to put back. The only horses with their shoes on are Negro and Kate.

Nazirul (Naz) was my trail ride guide. He is a passionate young horseman. He has been playing with horse riding since young age. It is pretty pleasant to talk to Naz. We talked about horses in the stable and also some of Naz’s education background.

Naz got Kate and I got Negro. We head out to our trail ride at 8.30AM.

Trail Ride @ Paya Indah Wetlands, Dengkil

The view at the entrance of the trail.

Trail entrance view at Paya Indah Wetlands.

Slightly after the trail ride entrance, we walk through a short stretch palm oil trees to warm up the horses.

I like part of the trail as it is surrounded by peaceful lakes. The ground is covered by dried brown leaves. We can see long stretch of green ahead of us. It feels like the scene in Korean drama.

dried-leaves — Dried leaves all over trail path.

Naz leads the way trotting to get the horses hotter.

Naz makes a turn so we could get deeper into the trail.

As the place name Paya Indah Wetlands suggests, this place is surrounded by both big and small lakes. In retrospective, I image it will be a really peaceful time if I stop by to appreciate the calmness of water by the lake. Perhaps that’s exactly what I should do the next time I come again.

We walk on big open ground in the trail.

Another lake in the trail. This lake definitely looks deeper than all the other lakes.

While we were walking through the trail, Kate suddenly stopped walking. Usually that means the horse is answering the call of nature. Naz was checking Kate’s back to see if she is doing her business. However, this time she is not. For some reason, Kate just decided to stand there for a little while.

check-shitting — Is Kate answering call of nature?

Naz asks me to go ahead cantering as there is long straight path ahead. Naz is giving me direction where should I make a turn when we get to the junction.

naz-gave-direction — Naz explaining, make a left turn at the junction.

The junction that Naz mentioned earlier. Go straight ahead is to go back to stable. Turn left to get deeper into the trail.

Along the trail, we saw an abandoned boat.

abandon-boat — An abandoned boat at the side.

At the end of our trail, we make a u-turn to go back.

end-u-turn — Making u-turn at the end of trail.

The short grasses and wide flat ground give a sense of peacefulness.

This is a typical view you can find throughout the trail.

deeper-into-wood — Typical view in the trail.

Back to stable

On our way back, we walked passed tar road. There were some cyclists cycling at Paya Indah Wetlands.

IMG_20160821_095907 — Cyclists drop by to visit.

There were also some kids with their parents. There were screaming “Horse! Horse!” in excitement from far. I slowly walked Negro near them for them to see the horse up close. Ironically, when I walked near them, they were afraid to get closer to the horse and hide behind their parents. I asked if they (the parents) want to take a photo and they politely rejected. I wonder if the parents were scared too. Hey, it is a horse, not a T. Rex, ROAR! 😀

Kate is munching grasses on the ground.

IMG_20160821_100430 — Kate is having breakfast!

Negro having a feast! He has been eating non stop since the last 15 minutes. Now you know where does the phrase “eat like a horse” come from!

IMG_20160821_100221 — Negro is doing his horse thing… Eat!

Trail Ride Experience in Paya Indah Wetlands.

The last time I got Negro, I was having a little difficulty to ride his canter. This time, his canter was pretty easy to ride.

Naz said he has been doing some training with Negro. He trains Negro to canter in a small circle to make his canter less bumpy. This might be the reason; or perhaps since the last ride, I got more used to Negro’s big stride; or maybe a little of both.

Generally it was fairly relax ride in Paya Indah Wetlands. The trail is clean. There are plenty of long stretch of flat ground to canter. In short, this trail is nice and easy to ride. If you are new to trail ride, this trail is highly recommended.

If you want to do a similar trail ride in Paya Indah Wetlands, please contact the lovely administrator, Athirah (014-5189147) to arrange a time slot for you.

Empayar Sunnah Archery and Riding Club

Empayar Sunnah Archery and Riding Club (ESAR) is located in Bukit Beruntung, about 45KM north of KL city center.

Few shop lots are renovated to be the stable. The stable set up is pretty new. The stable is also surprisingly clean. Although not huge, the stable currently comfortably homed 4 horses for riding school and a few more horses for private owners.

The Horses

Some of the horses in Empayar Sunnah Archery and Riding Club stable.

I have been in contact with Boy before visiting, one of the founders in Empayar Sunnah Archery and Riding Club. Boy has a really tough look, but once he starts talking to you, you will agree that he is extremely friendly and chatty. I did not have a bored moment throughout my trail ride with Boy.

Boy introduced me to another partner running the stable, Muhammad. Muhammad is a Level 1 Coach. It is quiet rare to meet horse riding coach certified as Level 1 Coach in Malaysia. Being Level 1 certified is one of the more credible qualification for horse riding coaches. Muhammad definitely has the right skill set to run the stable.

Trail Ride @ Empayar Sunnah Archery and Riding Club

We head out to our trail ride at 8.45AM. Boy was riding Faraz. I was riding Lizaz, a very interesting horse that will start cantering very quickly. Here is the video from our trail ride:

There are a couple of very steep uphill slopes for us to canter up. The horses will automatically canter up when they see an uphill slope.

While we were walking, Boy kept me company by sharing his experience in this trail. He always has a big smile on his face.

Whenever there is uphill slope, there will be a downhill slope. This is one of the short downhill slope where the horses like to canter down.

Boy leads the way cantering on open ground!

Boy leads cantering — Boy leads on cantering.

Boy signals me to turn right on the junction.

Boy signals right — Boy signals turn right.

We canter around the hill that we would go up later on. This section of the trail offers more greenery to cool the eyes.

Boy explaining each direction is which part of town around Bukit Beruntung. I have to say Boy is the best trail guide I have ever met so far.

Boy explains direction from the hill — Boy explains directions from the hill.

Another view on top of the hill.

daniel-foo-bukit-beruntung — Daniel on Lizaz.

We slowly walk down the hill. Boy’s horse (Faraz) is a little afraid of going downhill. I got Lizaz to lead the way walking down.

I lead the way going down. — Lizaz leads the way going down.

We walk passed narrow path with little beautiful flowers on the sides.

Walk passed green — Walk passed narrow path.

There are also a lot of areas with green in the open ground. The morning sun made the photo looks more yellowish than it really is.

Vegetable Farm @ Bukit Beruntung

We slowly canter passed a vegetable farm.

We canter passed more farm path.

We walked into vegetable farm area to check out the farm up close.

Boy has experience farming before venturing into the world of equestrian. He is familiar with various plants. He was passionately explaining different type of plant to me.

We exit the farm after a short break from cantering.

Back into Trail

We get back into the green.

This is another place where we canter down. Cantering down is a really amazing experience. The horse moves really fast yet you do not really feel the bumpiness like when you canter on ground. It felt like you slide down through the slope with amazing speed.

We met some kids doing jungle trekking in the trail.

Boy shared with me some of his horses training experience while we walked out. He claimed the horses he trained does not require riders to use whip. The horses are really responsive to riders’ clue by just using body and legs.

Boy explains how he train horses. — Boy explains how he trains horses.

Boy get back on Faraz after he came down picking up my whip. Thanks Boy!

On our way going out of the trail.

On our way get out of trail — On our way get out of the trail.

Boy explained to me the importance of going trail ride with the riders with equivalent riding level. If there is a greener rider in the group and the rest of the group is more seasoned, the greener rider might slow down the rest of the group. In this ride, although I only spent 45 minutes in the trail, I had plenty of satisfying canter time.

Here is an area that will be filled with half feet of water height during rainy season. Since this spot has rather flat ground, it is also safe to canter here. Imagine cantering on water! It will be like a pond with shallow water. The horses will start playing water and sometimes even lying down at this spot. Unfortunately during my visit, Bukit Beruntung did not have much rain hence the dry ground.

The pond area but was dry. — The pond area was dry.

I asked Boy to inform me the next time Bukit Beruntung has a lot of rain. I will definitely be back to canter on water!

Overall Trail Experience

We completed our trail ride in slightly more than 1 hour. It is a huge track but we completed it in relatively short amount of time. Largely because we spent a lot of time cantering.

Generally, the trail has wide even ground but not lacking of slopes for uphill canter and downhill canter. The trail is one of the most satisfying trails I ever had. Best part is, Boy adjusts his riding speed according to the rider’s’ ability to ride to gain the most rewarding experience.

I go riding every weekend. Sometimes I get muscular pain and sometimes I don’t. This outride track is one of those that gave me a bad muscle stiffness from shoulder till lower back. It took me a few days to recover. It is one of those tracks that are pretty challenging to canter. Of course, if you prefer to have a smoother trail ride, you can always opt to walk and trot in the trail.

Back to Stable

Here are few more photos in the stable. Decorations in the stable.

In the stable, Muhammad proudly display his Level 1 Coach certification. Below it, the schedule for horse riding activities.

And of course, you can give the horses a carrot treat for just RM1 😉

The gears are organized neatly in the office.

Student having riding lesson in the arena.

Here are some of the activities Empayar Sunnah Archery and Riding Club (ESAR) offers. This is by far the most affordable fee you can find in town.

The affordable fee does not compromise on your riding experience at all. You get well trained horses and great coaches. It is definitely the most value for money riding school I have seen so far.

The stable and the paddock is a bit of distance from each other.

Please contact Boy (018-918 8871) if you are visiting Empayar Sunnah Archery and Riding Club (ESAR).

You can also follow Empayar Sunnah Archery and Riding Club Facebook page. In the Facebook page, the location will point you to their paddock where the training happens. The following map points you to their stable, which is about 200 meter away from each other.

Trail Ride @ Gombak Horse Riding Club

Yup! Another trail ride video – this time I was at Gombak Horse Riding Club. My ride was joined by Irene van Eldik, a very experience rider from Netherlands and Suki Low, another experience rider born in Malaysia and grew up in Netherlands.

When I arrived Gombak Horse Riding Club, it was about 8.10AM. Irene and Dick were already waiting. I called Jai to wake him up telling him we were already there. Suki arrived shortly after. (Dick did not join us riding)

Sharil (and Jai) helped us to prepare the horses for our trail ride. Irene got her horse first, but she decided to change her horse later.

IMG_20160806_084638

Suki (left) and Irene (right) exchanged horses.

Suki and Irene put on a big smile on their face posing on their horses.

Suki on Sofia, Irene on Ray (also known as Express)

We have a round of warm up before heading out.

I got my horse, Timing. A beautiful and tall horse with long legs. He is a model among horses. And boy, his canter is really fast and smooth! In fact, he is the fastest cantering horse I have ever ridden. According to Sharil, he was an ex-racer which probably explained his fantastic canter.

As I have the “honour” to get the most energetic horse, during the ride I have to intentionally stay behind instead of leading in front so that Timing will not get overly excited.

There is a dog in the arena. His name is Jockey. Jockey followed us out for our trail ride, which made the whole ride much more lively!

We brought our horses out of riding school through the main road. It was about 500 meter down the road before we hit the trail entrance.

We got plenty of straight path to trot while riding in. However, it is not a very good place to canter as the trail is covered by little stones and turning slightly downward.

Irene turned back with a thumb up to check if I’m okay (how thoughtful!)

The first round of canter going up a slope.

The end of our first round of canter where you can see the trail going downward.

There were a lot of steep downhill.

As usual, there will be a lot of leaves and branches along the trail. You either avoid it like Irene did or crash it through using your body… and probably leave some scars on your face and neck (which I heroically did few weeks back).

Looking at the degree Irene and Suki bending down their body, you can definitely guess how steep the uphill trail is. It is time like this that reminds us how powerful horses are!

bending

Jai, our escorter stopped by to make sure we are doing alright.

There are a few spots with bamboo. It was similar to the scene when I was visiting a shrine in Kyoto, Japan. Except that this time I’m on a horse!

bamboo

Irene got stuck when Ray decided to stop to have a snack (munching leaves).

We had to carefully walk down this slope. On our way back, this slope gave us pretty good length for a long canter.

As my poor Timing has been following Ray and Sofia the whole journey. It is time to unleash Timing’s suppressed energy to run wild!

While cantering, I could hear Irene was following closely behind. I’m sure Ray and her had a good time cantering behind Timing. (Yeeeeehar!)

After the long canter, we took a short break before going downhill. Irene was explaining to me how Ray gave her a canter plus an “extra canter” a moment back.

irene-explain-canter

While Suki was busy taking photos with Sofia.

suki-taking-photo

Irene was leading on our way back. Suki caught up to walk passed me.

irene-leading

And… Anytime is a good time to talk!

On our way back, we could see across some mountains.

Now it’s Sofia’s time to munch some grass on the ground.

The hungry Sofia was reluctant to move and fell behind. She was barely moving and probably mumbling “I want food… I want food…”. Irene and I decided to overtake Suki. Sorry buddy!

Here is another very steep downhill slope. Jockey catch up with us to show us the way. We were walking down carefully.

downslope

A view from Suki on her horse on our way back. — A view from Suki’s horse on our way back.

One selfie before leaving.

cameraman

On our way out leaving the trail, Jai helped us to snap a few more photos.

IMG-20160806-WA0016

IMG-20160806-WA0018

Generally it was a pretty good ride. The trail took us 2 hours to complete. We spent a lot of time walking slowly downward but that later gave us very good room to canter back up. This trip is really fun thanks to Irene, Suki, Jai and Jockey making this ride so much lively!

If you want to do a similar outride, feel free to contact Mr. Sharil from Gombak Horse Riding Club.

Until next time!