Trail Ride Archives - Page 5 of 6 - Horse Riding Malaysia

40 KM Endurance in TIEP by RTES

July 14-16 was the long awaited endurance competition I have been preparing for in Terengganu International Endurance Park, Lembah Bidong by Royal Terengganu Endurance Stable (RTES).

I have prepared specifically for this competition for more than a month with my coach, Abang Iskandar in Batu Arang. Here and here are some of my training footprints although I did train for average 3 times a week for a month.

We went up there on Wednesday night about 8.30 P.M.

A day before the vet check, Bang Is got me to practice trotting Jacq (the horse I was riding for competition) at the vet check zone.

Of course not forgetting to let Jacq familiarize with the area.

Vet Check Day

The actual day of vet check. Black vest is for 40 KM participant. Maroon vest is for 80 KM.

Lucky enough to get No.1 vest for my maiden competition

On the actual vet check day, the doctor on site was checking Jacq after trotting.

A lot of the horses got excited during vet check because there are a lot of horses gather.

Rider No.20 having a special hard time with his stallion (if not mistaken). Well, there were a lot of mares around including Jacq.

The surrounding of the site during vet check day.

The rest area where horses can cool down after each loop for competition.

On the same day we went for a briefing conducted in the open space next to office area.

We were given the following notes for the competition.

This map shows 40 KM participant need to follow Green arrow in 1st loop and Blue arrow on 2nd loop.

In the evening, I got my helmet taped with the head lamp in such artistic touch… Better be safe than be sorry!

After dinner to discuss the strategy on what is the pace to ride, we head back hostel for rest.

Competition Day

Ready to go Rider No.1!

My crew members (Riena and Wan) were helping me to do a final check and some gave me a few final reminders before heading off.

Warming up Jacq in the field.

Flag Off

Flag off was at 3.15 A.M. for 40 KM participants.

Here is a very clear video posted at the courtesy of Ramis Karymshakov, a visiting official from Kyrgyzstan. Please spot for Rider No.1 🙂

1st 20 KM Loop

I started off trotting for the first 5 KM until the 1st water point, as planned. Frankly the initial trotting 5 KM was the hardest part of the competition. It was early in the morning and doing active trot to warm up both the rider and the horse were pretty exhausting.

Water Point 1

At the first water point, I did not stop for rest, again as planned. I cantered into the direction of 2nd water point.

The stamina was much forgiving when I was cantering. Although I still have to ride in the darkness with my tiny head lamp, it was good enough for me to focus on the next 50 M and seeing the Green arrow sign ahead clearly.

Water Point 2

At the 2nd water point, Bang Is and Riena were waiting for me to cool down Jacq. I had a quick stop at 2nd water point and proceed cantering to 3rd water point.

After water point break and cool down Jacq, I could feel she was cantering much lighter than the previous round. I felt like cantering in the air. It was like yeeeehar~ moment.

Water Point 3

Cantering into 3rd water point, again Bang Is and Riena were waiting for me there to cool down Jacq and I got the chance to have drink. After a short break, I continue cantering back into flag off gate to complete the 1st loop.

In the last 1 KM before reaching the gate, I started walking Jacq to allow her heart rate to come down. In fact, the earlier 4 KM was a breeze too. I was wondering how did I got back to the gate so fast.

Once I came back, I checked my time, it was 4:43 A.M. (We started off at 3.15 A.M.). The 1st 20 KM loop took me approximately 1 hour 30 minutes – as planned. My departure time for next loop is +40 minutes which made it to be 5.32 A.M.

1st Loop Vet Check

Jacq’s heart rate came down in 9:30 minutes. We proceed to vet check once her HR was about 56.

Abang Is helped me with bringing Jacq for vet check while I can take a rest myself for the next and final loop.

Everyone (including Jacq) were resting in our tent. We fed Jacq with sufficient food and drink before the next loop begin.

Not forgetting the rider was pretty exhausted after 20 KM ride.

After resting a bit more and it was about 5.20 A.M. we started preparing the horse for the next loop.

2nd 20 KM Loop

My take off time was set to be 5.32 A.M. Wasted no time, I got myself ready prior to that and head to the gate right at the dot.

At the point of taking off Abang Is already asked for me that I was at place No. 5.

I cantered my way to the 1st water point in the Blue route. Abang Iskandar and Riena did not wait for me there.

Water Point 1

Jacq did not want to drink water at 1st water point. I believe I made a mistake there when I cantered all my way to the water point. According to Abang Iskandar, I should be slowing down Jacq in about 200 m prior to the water point so that when we got there Jacq would be relax enough to want to drink.

Moving forward, I cantered a little faster in the next 5 KM heading to 2nd water point. At this point I was able to over take a few riders ahead of me and placed at No.2. I was excited that I was going to get at least top 3.

Water Point 2

Unfortunately upon reaching water point 2, Jacq heart beat got super fast and it didn’t seem like I could continue fast cantering as I earlier did. Not even to proceed the route before her heart rate slow down.

We took a lot of time to cool down Jacq and let her rest.

The riders that I overtook earlier has arrived to water point 2 and continued to water point 3 while Jacq was still resting in water point 2. Ouch…

We knew that Jacq is not going to make it to vet check if we were to force her with the fast pace. So while moving to water point 3, I was only doing slow canter.

Water Point 3

The good news is at water point 3, Jacq heart beat appeared to be better than when she was in water point 2. While the bad news is, I did not manage to overtake any of the riders went ahead of me while I was resting in water point 2.

At water point 3, Abang Iskandar and Riena updated me with their plan. After leaving water point 3, I should walk for 1 KM, canter for 3 KM and then finally walk for 1 KM before arriving to the gate.

I continued as planned and arrived to gate at 6.52 A.M. In other words, it took me 1 hour 20 minute to complete the 2nd loop. This is way beyond the planned time which was 1 hour sharp.

Jacq took 8:22 min to cool down before heading for vet check.

Here is the health report card for Jacq after completing 40 KM.

The game was over. But we didn’t know our placing until later on the official result came out.

We head for breakfast and only came back collecting the result at approximately 11 A.M.

I was placed at No.5 out of 19 riders. Not too bad for maiden ride. Feeling highly grateful that I got No.5 while some riders were not able to complete the competition.

The rest of the results.

On the next day, I managed to meet up with some riders in the stable.

Selfie with Leong, who was another rider during the 40 KM competition.

Summary

In summary, it was an amazing riding experience during the endurance competition. I couldn’t have done it without the help my coach Abang Is, and the crew, Riena who updated me with the plan along the way and get me on almost every water point. Terima kasih Abang Is, Riena!

Also not forgetting Jacq who has gave her very best to go through the journey with me. Thanks Jacq!

In total, it costed slightly below RM3,000 for the entire game. The breakdown as follows:

RM2,500 – horse rental and training
RM200 – registration
RM200 – hiring crew members at RM100 each member
RM50 – vest deposit (which unfortunately I lost it)

It has been a long journey since I first started riding in Putrajaya about 2 years back. I could still vividly remember how awkwardly I did my rising trot. I’m grateful for all the people and horses who taught me how to be a better rider.

You’re only given a little spark of madness. You mustn’t lose it.

– Robin Williams

Putrajaya Equestrian Park with MM2020HorseAdventure

It has been more than 1 year since I last rode horses in Putrajaya Equestrian Park with MM2020HorseAdventure. I always like the horses there (a lot of polo horses) and track is fairly well maintained.

The beautiful horse statues were added since the last time I came visiting:

Jaclyn and I went for a ride last Friday morning and it was a really adventurous trip. This is the first time we went out without a guide. I became her partner in crime.

Before heading out, Jaclyn reminded me, it’s selfie time!

Athirah, the lovely facilitator for MM2020 was behind us. The horse being groomed was Sombra, Jaclyn’s favourite horse.

Heading Out to Trail

We took the standard route to reach to the lake. Boy it was so enjoyable to be slow cantering on an ex-polo horse. Felt like sitting on sofa with wind blowing on my face.

The head movement of Gatita was so soft that I worried I might hurt her while riding her. Such a lovely horse. I have to be really gentle on the rein.

Before you know it, Jaclyn reminded me again, do you know what time is it?

IT’S SELFIE TIME!

We got someone walking along the trail to take a photo for us.

Daniel on Gatita, Jaclyn on Sombra at lake side

We made a big circle along the lake. Jaclyn had a really good time galloping with Sombra and I had hard time catching up!

After we completed the loop, we realized it was still a little early so we decided to “explore” some new path lead by our first time leader.

At one point we were so far out we were going opposite direction of the stable, according to Google Map. This photo is taken at the junction we decided to turn back as we were too far out.

Overall we did approximately 19KM in 1:22 hour. That’s quite close to 1 loop of endurance competition on both timing and distance although the horses heart rate were definitely less than ideal.

Here is a summary of our ride.

Well, good news is we made it back safely from Holland although we were unsure half of the time when we were crossing junctions. Most of the time, it was the horses, Sombra in this ride that brought us back to stable. Thanks Sombra!

The trail riding fee is RM120. If you would like to make a visit there, feel free to contact Athirah at +60 14-518 9147⁠.

Here is the location to Putrajaya Equestrian Park with MM2020HorseAdventure

Endurance Training 2

Endurance training continues in Batu Arang for 2-3 sessions a week. Last Thursday Jaclyn Seng and Suki Low joined me for a ride. This was the week right after Hari Raya.

As usual, Abang Iskandar came to town to pick us up with his pick up truck. This is the clearest shot I have. You can probably tell how shaky it was in the truck while going up the stable.

It was 7-ish A.M. when we arrived the stable. Looks like Abang Suhairi (on Mizumo) and Sara (on Danit) were even earlier than us!

Abang Suhairi always has a big wide smile on his face. It was his first ride after the month of Ramadan and Hari Raya… to trot off all the delicious lemang, rendang and ketupat obviously.

Sara just done flatworking Danit. I took the chance to play with Danit for a little while.

And thanks Sara for the portrait shot with perfect filter!

Shortly after, we head off to the trail. Here is a video of our trail ride.

And here are some more photos that are not included in the video.

Wefie of the Raya riders! Yeeeeehar!

When we were exiting palm oil farm.

A photo from my helmet camera.

On our way back. The sun is much brighter but cloud also gathered in the sky. Jaclyn has the fully matching attire, including her whip.

The background made Jaclyn look like she was filming ancient Korean drama on a horse.

On our way back, Suki’s horse (Joker) right shoe came off. Abang Is exchanged horse with Suki. So Suki was riding Shadow on the way back and it was really cute to see Suki bouncing on the little pony.

Abang Is shared a trick with me that if a shoe came off, we should either walk or canter. When we canter, we should canter on the lead where the shoe is still on.

More photos on the top of the hill…

Everyone with their signature pose!

On our way walking back to stable.

Jaclyn looked like having a really good time with Love while Suki has been “bouncing” all her way back 😀

When we got back to stable, Abang Iskandar wasted no time and brought out Jack for jumping practice.

How well can Jack jumps? A photo speaks a thousand words.

The little fans who has been admiring at the side just now decided to give it a try to jump herself!

Looking good jumper!

Great job! Keep going!

Go Jaclyn, go!

The face Jaclyn made after a really awkward jump.

Jacklyn getting a bit more coaching from Abang Iskandar.

Satisfied with her virgin jump. Finally getting off Jack.

It’s now Suki’s turn to jump with Jack.

Woop! Looking good Suki!

Since it was the week right after Raya, everyone was still in Raya mode. Abang Is prepared Teh-O with Raya cookies for us in the stable. Yummie!

It was a fun time training with Suki and Jaclyn. We covered 15KM which was a really comfortable yet satisfying distance for an outride.

Looking forward to ride with you both again, until next time~

Riding in MAEPS with long lost friends

GoPro mounted on Aina's helmet and video edited by Ili.

It has been 9 months since I met Amirul, Aina and the family in Paya Indah Wetlands. I did not get their contact and have never seen them since. It was a pleasant surprise to see you guys again last weekend!

It was pretty early in the morning (7.45 A.M.) when I got there. The arena was rather quiet.

We got our horses and started off by warming up the horses in the arena.

Wasted no time, we head out to our ride!

It was really shaky while taking a photo on the horse back.

Rusdi, our trail lead was leading the trail. We took a break half way in. (Well… Aina and Hanim were hiding behind the tree.)

It was my first time riding Magoo. Back in arena in the morning, Magoo was a little lazy boy. It took me a lot of energy to get him to trot and his trot was choppy. But once I got him warm up, he cantered like a champion in the trail. It fact, his trot was fast enough to overtake the other horses!

His trot got much more steady when we were in the trail. Most importantly I had a really good time with Magoo!

The trail took us about 1 hour. It was especially fun when we were cantering together in the small path. It was quite an amazing scene sitting on the horse to see each other cantering.

Back to stable, we could see many students were training in the arena.

Doing good riders!

If you are interested to ride in MAEPS, feel free to contact En. Faud (+60 19-277 0449⁠) to find out more.

Until next time!

Batu Arang

Batu Arang is located approximately 50KM away from KL city center. It was a coal mining town and its prime time was during 1930s. By the 1930s, the developing town had an airstrip, a railway line, Gurkha’s police base, police station and a brick factory. There were also houses for the miners, British officers and bungalows for the mine managers.

Today, Batu Arang is a famous spot for cyclist for off-road biking during the weekend. The roti bakar in front of Batu Arang Police Station is a must try.

That’s not all… The most exciting part is a new horse stable is open for operation in Batu Arang!

The stable is not made known to public yet. It was through the invitation of Abang Iskandar whom I met in ESAR Bukit Beruntung that I got to know about this trail. I have a ride with Abang Iskandar and his son, Opie few months back in ESAR. Abang Is highly recommended me to go to Batu Arang for a ride.

Long story short, I went to Batu Arang with Suki on last Sunday morning. There is no direct access to the stable yet. We met up with Abang Iskandar in front of Batu Arang Police Station at 8.00AM so that he could pick us up with his 4-wheel drive to bring us to his stable.

We have Roti Bakar for breakfast in the shop Batu Arang Police Station.

After breakfast, Abang Is diving his 4-wheel to bring us to his stable.

On our way in

The happy faces in the car. Smile 😀

Almost there!

The stable has an unfinished arena at the point of writing this. But I’m sure Abang Is will get it ready by the time I come back on next visit.

The arena no doubt is surrounded by breath-taking view!

The horses in the stable

The beautiful girls spotted around stable!

My horse for the day, Love is geared up ready for action

Group photo before heading out

Let’s head out to our ride!

It was raining!

At the top of the hill.

After our ride, we went to the same place we have breakfast. We have satay kambing, satay ayam and mee goreng this time!

If you would like to visit Batu Arang for a ride, please contact Abang Iskandar at 011-21277822. Here is the place I would normally wait for Abang Iskandar for him to pick me up:

Trail Ride @ Bukit Beruntung with ESAR (Empayar Sunnah Archery & Riding)

Empayar Sunnah Archery & Riding (ESAR) at Bukit Beruntung has always been my favourite track to ride. I especially like their challenging track and my chatty guide, Boy. Last Sunday I went there with Suki.

We got there about 8.30AM. Wasted no time, we mounted on to our horses. Suki got Love. Her name is Love because she has a love mark on her head. Love is a lovely Anglo-Arabian.

While I mounted on Joker who is a tall retired horse from police force. He is like the model among the horses.

We got ready at the back of the stable and ready to head off to the trail.

On our way heading to the trail. We were cantering on the grass.

We were walking slowly at the entrance. In front of me is a Abang who recently started riding. This is his first time going for an outride.

Here is where the track started to get exciting. We arrived to a little slope where we (I mean the horses) have to climb up. The horses will automatically canter up. All we had to do were to bend a little forward to lighten the seat.

Then the horses can trot freely at the open field.

We cantered deeper into the greener part of the trail.

Since this is the first time Abang going for outride, he got tired quickly. Suki and I overtook him to meet boy in front.

Boy was waiting for us in front of a junction.

We walked passed the tall grasses. As always, Boy is happy to explain to us where does each trail will lead us to.

This is one of my favourite spot in this trail. It is a long straight path where I could canter without much worry about the path condition.

We took a turn and move into another farm path. This is also another favourite of mine – thanks the beautiful scenery. Tall coconut trees in front, variety of vegetables at both side and straight clear path ahead of us. This is also a path where some horses can get into galloping!

I was doing slow canter at this point. Suki overtook me with fast canter.

We make 2 loops in this path. On another loop, Boy was galloping with his horse, Faraz. It was as if he just bounce by. He overtook me and got out of sight in less than 5 seconds!

We ended the trail by dropping by the pond. The pond was not fill with deep water but it was good enough for Lizaz, Love, Joker and Faraz to get a drink… and have some fun playing water. The Faraz and Love got a little cozy on the water and decided to take a bath! They lied down on the water and got Suki and Boy wet. Too bad we didn’t get to take any of their embarrassing photos!

We head back to the stable after a satisfying ride.

Empayar Sunnah Archery & Riding - Daniel & Suki — Empayar Sunnah Archery & Riding – Daniel & Suki

Further Details

If you would like to do a similar outride, please drop by Empayar Sunnah Archery & Riding (ESAR) at Bukit Beruntung. The outride fee is affordably at RM120 per session. Please contact Boy (018-918 8871) to schedule your ride. Check out my other trail riding experience with Empayar Sunnah Archery & Riding (ESAR) at Bukit Beruntung here and here.

Location:

Until next time!

Outride @ MAEPS

A Walk with Faana in MAEPS

Two weeks back I had a good time hacking with Aziq in MAEPS, I went back for another ride.

It turned out this week I had a rather special experience with the horse (Faana) I was riding.

When I arrived, the groomer brought Faana to the entrance for me.

En. Faud was explaining to me that Faana’s legs are all good. The only problem he has is a little attitude by not obeying to rider’s direction.

As I was the last person to get my horse, I got a bit of catch up to do with the rest of the group. Good thing is Abang Fauzi and another rider were walking slowly to wait for me, while another 3 riders were going fast in front.

Saying hi to the rest of the group, who appeared to be frequent riders in MAEPS.

Abang Fauzi on left. We were trotting toward the trail entrance.

Ta-da! The entrance to the trail is locked and there was no one there to open the gate for us. Abang Fauzi was shouting for a while guessing there was someone in the little hut can come out unlocking the gate for us.

I moved up with another rider to check out the other entrance. Too bad, luck clearly wasn’t on our side. The other gate is closed and locked too.

We trot back to the initial entrance, hoping Abang Fauze has already got someone’s attention to unlock the trail entrance gate.

Nope… We were still on our own. Our group waited there for another 5 minutes. A lot of cars passed us by. Yet, we didn’t manage to get the door unlocked.

A group of passionate riders hanging at the road side. In retrospective, I’d imagine it’s going to be a really fun time hacking with the group…if we actually made it.

Abang Fauzi moved on further back up to another entrance. Although it is blocked by the barrier, the side was big enough for the horses to walk in. Unfortunately, for some reasons the horses refused to walk in.

Abang Fauzi was having a little hard time controlling his horse to get him walk into the grass.

Same situation for me. Faana started acting up, refusing to move near toward the entrance.

Faana decided to move to somewhere else against my will. I probably spent 5 minutes “battling” with Faana to get him to walk back to the entrance.

I could hear someone was calling my name asking me to get back to the group. Faana was rather stubborn, insisting to move away from the entrance. This is the time I decided alright Faana, you won…

I rode Faana further down the road. The plan was to make a circle to go back to the entrance where I lost the group.

As I rode further down, there is another stable with another paddock.

I could hear Faana’s neigh a few times along the way while walking near the other stable.

I met another rider who is not from our initial group. He is from another stable. I did not spend too much time chit-chatting as I got a lot to catch up with my group.

When we walked near to the other stable, Faana rushed into it. I’m guessing that felt like home for him.

Faana has a rather strong opinion on where he wanted to go. It was a little hard to control him. In the stable, I realized that I could no longer direct Faana and I got down from Faana to pull him and walk back out.

I walked a long way to go back to the stable. Along the walk I tried to ride back on Faana but he has a habit moving away while someone approaching from the side. Adding to his earlier attitude, I figured out it was best to walk him back to stable by foot.

Upon approaching the stable, Aziq came to me riding a motorbike. Obviously he could guess what happened because the other riders must have went back to stable earlier except me.

Aziq swiftly took over Faana, took my whip over and ride on Faana to go back to stable. He left me with the motorcycle for me to ride back.

Well, the last time I rode a motorcycle was illegally in an island in Thailand. Before that, it was many many years ago since I last rode a motorcycle. I’d imagine it is going to be really funny scene if I could not ride a motorcycle. First they send Aziq with the motorcycle rescue Daniel and Faana, then they have to send another motorcycle and 2 persons to rescue Daniel (again!) and the motorcycle. The good news is I did manage to ride the motorcycle to go back on my own. Hooray!

Back in the stable, I saw the rest of the riders whom I went out with earlier has already got back and was having a good time riding in the arena. But I also learned that they did not end up going into the trail because the horses were not cooperating.

In the arena, ZK (one of the earlier riders) offered her friend’s horse, Bicara for me to ride for a while. It was a beautiful gray horse but boy he sweats a lot! By the time I got down, I noticed he is so wet as if he just finished a shower. I only manage to ride him for about 5 minutes. I took off shortly after for another lunch appointment.

Afterthought

Obviously that wasn’t as pleasant as what I expected in a trail ride. It involved a very long walk alone with Faana. During my walk, few things popped up in my mind.

The frustration could get pretty intense when a 400 kg beast is not being a nice boy. Is dealing with problematic horse one of the reasons why people stop riding?
When we are lost we should still hold our head high. Keep going and keep moving forward no matter how small you are feeling.
The universe has a strange way to expand your comfort zone. Just when I thought I was getting pretty good with riding horses, the universe gave me Faana with an attitude. It kinda served as a reminder for me to stay humble.

Although I wouldn’t wish for this happen frequently, it was nevertheless a rather interesting experience with horses that I never have. Definitely going back to MAEPS for another ride to enjoy the beautiful greenery!

Find out more about riding in MAEPS in my previous post.

MAEPS

MAEPS (Malaysia Agro Exposition Park Serdang) is located in Serdang, approximately 30KM from KL city center.

I went to MAEPS for a ride on Kolonel Fakharuzi’s recommendation whom I met in Unit Ekuin UPM few weeks back. He is one of the guys who helping running the stable operation in MAEPS. Last week, he was out of town so he got his partner, En. Faud to take care of my riding arrangement.

MAEPS is a massively huge place. The stable in MAEPS takes a little effort to find. Make sure you check out the map at the end of the article to get there easily.

After circling around for 10 minutes and asking 3 different people, I finally arrived the stable.

There was a stable management course going on. The staff was explaining the importance of horseshoe the participants.

This handsome young man is Aziq, son of En. Faud. Aziq brought me out for the trail ride later on. Aziq is only 17 years old but he is already a solid rider. He has been riding for many years. He is now actively training for endurance competition and he even trains horses for other private owners.

I got my horse, Rohill for my trail ride. Although Rohill is a schooling horse, he is surprisingly responsive. I could easily pop him into trot and canter without using a whip. With a whip, a light tap on his shoulder will get him to canter really fast.

I brought Rohill into the arena to warm up while waiting for Aziq to get ready. The arena is pretty big to the point there are another 2 smaller circles within the big arena for other riders to train.

I was trotting and cantering in the arena for about 15 minutes to warm up Rohill.

Shortly after, Aziq and I left the arena to head to the trail.

Trail at MAEPS

Here is a video of my ride inside the arena and at the trail.

We walked on tar road and passed by a pineapple farm.

Aziq got back up on his horse after he got down to open the gate to trail entrance.

We started trotting at the entrance of the trail.

One thing you can be assured is to get a good view of greenery and wide clear sky in MAEPS.

The trail has swallow trace.

You can also spot a lot of trees along the trail although they are not big enough to provide shade.

There are plenty of hilly path where you can canter up comfortably.

Overall Riding Experience

The track in MAEPS is not particularly long. If you are new to trail riding, this will definitely be a good start. I spent most of the time trotting. I did not get a lot of chance to canter because there are plenty of turns I was not familiar with. Once you are familiar with the turns, it will be a really good place to test your cantering skill. Also, we took the shorter trail because the night before was raining hence we could not go to another trail which is supposed to be more challenging. I will definitely go back for another ride to try out another trail. The fee is affordably at RM80/hour.

If you want to ride in MAEPS, feel free to call up En. Faud (019-2770449)

Vistapolo Equestrian

Vistapolo Equestrian is located in Kota Kemuning, Shah Alam, approximately 40km from KL city center.

I typically go for a trail ride on Sunday morning because the traffic is super clear. It took me less than 1 hour to arrive Vistapolo Equestrian from Kajang.

The Stable in Vistapolo Equestrian

The stable in Vistapolo Equestrian is surprisingly big. The stable operation is built on top of a big piece of land. There are enough boxes to home 40 horses, although currently they only have 18 horses in the stable for various activities.

img_20160911_100514 — Horses in Vistapolo Equestrian Stable

When I arrived, Fendi came to greet me and got me to wait for a while, while he prepares the horses.

Fendi preparing Ashante, a beautiful white horse although might get scared easily.

Another groomer was preparing my horse, Lym, a solid endurance horse which has completed 80KM.

Lym is one of the best horses I have ridden so far. He is super responsive to my signal. I didn’t even need to carry a whip during the trail ride. One light touch on the leg will get him into trotting. Releasing the reins a little and few more kisses sound will get him into slow canter. From there, all I have to do is to hold him back from cantering too fast. Totally awesome horse!

Trail Ride

Here is a trail ride video with Fendi.

Another groomer, Doha followed us along on a bike. He asked for my phone to capture some really fantastic video and photos along our ride. Thanks Doha!

We head out to the trail passing a long stretch of tar road. Of course we try to walk on grass whenever possible.

The entrance of the trail.

We passed by a lake on our way in.

Fendi trotting in front and I followed closely behind.

We make an entry to the long stretch of red earth path.

I shifted gear into canter to overtake Fendi. Yeeeeeehar~

From there on, it is a fairly long stretch of path for me to canter on. If you are into cantering, this is the best place I have visited so far for cantering. I probably spent 10-15 minutes non stop cantering on this path.

We took a break to let the horses walk. In this stretch of the path, I have a good long chat with Fendi on endurance competition.

We move on to canter on the remaining path

At the end of this path we passed by RimBayu project by IJM.

After that we walked along a tar road to get back to stable

Back to Stable

We head back to stable in about 1 hour time.

Kak Nuri walking her horse.

The hospitality of Vistapolo Equestrian totally impressed me. The staffs even brought nasi lemak and drinks for the riders. This is the first stable I have encountered that serve refreshment. Although the refreshment doesn’t cost a lot of money, it’s the thought that counts!

Kak Nuri was cutting cake for me. Thanks Kak Nuri!

This stable really gives a sense of belonging with the warm hospitality.

The horses took a shower after the trail ride.

Further Details

These are the activities offered by Vistapolo Equestrian.

Vistapolo Equestrian activities — Source: http://www.vistaequestrian.com.my/packages.html

If you want to find out more about Vistapolo Equestrian, please contact Kak Zah (019-6627144) or Kak Nuri (019-2408184).

You can also check out Vistapolo Equestrian webpage here.

Here is the location if you are planning to go for a visit.

Until next time!