Last Sunday, I have a trail ride with ESARBukit Beruntung. This time we went out in a group of 4 riders. Boy (ESAR operator), Abang Iskandar, his son Opie and myself.
Trail Ride @ ESAR Bukit Beruntung
Abang Iskandar is a very seasoned rider. He has been training endurance horses and riders for a decade and he even ride 120km himself!
Opie is a really talented kid. He is only 9 years old and he is already a solid rider. Abang Iskandar put Opie on horses as early as age of 2! In fact, he wasn’t riding for fun; he was helping his dad to train a new horse.
The 2 horses Abang Iskandar and Opie riding have been together for a long time. They always stick together even in the trail. Lizaz, the horse that I was riding seemed a little tired, probably was exhausted from previous day training.
You can see the video that we first canter our way to the entrance of the trail. Then, we spent most of our time cantering in the trail. Although it was a lot of slow canter, it was pretty satisfying.
It took about 1 hour to complete the trail, across 17 KM. The outride fee was RM120.
Please contact Boy (018-918 8871) if you would like to do a similar trail ride with ESAR Bukit Beruntung. You can also find out more about Empayar Sunnah Archery and Riding Club in the previous post with more details.
You can check out Empayar Sunnah Archery and Riding Club Facebook page for more updated activities. 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.
Tips berikutnya adalah hasil perkongsian daripada rider Zulidia Kamaruddin
Zulidia-Kamaruddin
Untuk rider baru dan ingatan diri saya.
Tips pengalaman tidak formal apabila Ride kuda ex-race yang kita tidak pernah Ride / Tunggang @hacking dalam keadaan kuda sukar dikawal.
Disiplinkan diri:
Note: Tanya stable kuda itu ex-race atau ex-show jumping atau ex-polo.
Harus beringat ex-race “kebanyakan” mempunyai kekuatan yang tinggi. Lebih sesuai penunggang lelaki dan perempuan yang bertenaga. Ex-race juga berupaya menukar kelajuan ke tahap maksimum tanpa batasan.
Boleh dikawal untuk berhenti dengan gerakan reins secara zig zag @ gergaji. Pastikan badan disandar ke belakang. Heels down. Jangan tarik rein secara terusan. Harus tarik dan lepas secara berulang kali.
Bersuara supaya rider lain boleh dengar kita sedang dalam masalah.
Jika ada rider lain di depan, minta mereka perlahankan kuda mereka ke tahap paling perlahan kerana kuda bersifat mengikut kuda lain.
Jika kuda kita di luar kawalan dan memintas kuda lain, alihkan pergerakan kuda ke kiri atau ke kanan asalkan bukan terus kehadapan.
Jika di luar kawalan, dan and nampak bukit, arahkan ke atas bukit kerana kuda bersifat laju mendaki bukit tetapi auto berhenti di puncak bukit.
Jika di tepi pantai, kuda yang di luar kawalan, arahkan kuda ke laut dan bukan memandang ke hadapan, mereka tidak akan bisa lari di dalam laut.
Samada kuda ex-race anda baik atau perlahan, pastikan genggaman jadi pada rein dalam keadaan berjaga2. Jangan alpa. Di kebanyakan waktu rider jatuh waktu kuda sedang perlahan tetapi menukar pergerakan secara tiba2 dan rider dalam keadaan alpa Dan terlalu santai.
Biasakan tanya sifat kuda yang anda naiki dari stable dan dari rider yang pernah tunggang kuda tersebut. Terutama apa yang kuda itu tidak suka. Elak lakukan perkara yang kuda itu tidak sukai.
Tanyakan cara terbaik pengendalian kuda tersebut. Ingat sifat kuda berbeza beza. Ada kuda tidak boleh bawa whip. Ada kuda tidak boleh rein panjang atau rein terlalu pendek. Ada kuda pergerakannya ranggi. Ada kuda laju bila balik. Ada kuda persekitaran. Semua ini amat penting untuk diketahui.
Berterus terang pada stable tahap riding kita, kelebihan kita dan kekurangan kita. Pihak stable selalunya akan memberi kuda yang sama dengan keupayaan kita.
Ex-Race bila di trail bersifat jiwa bebas. Kita sebagai rider baik untuk merendah diri, jangan mencabar kuda. Harus ingat sebaik mana pun kuda, mereka tetap haiwan apatah lagi tenaga kuda jauh lebih kuat dari kita.
Admin rasa amat berbangga dan berterima kasih kepada rider Zulidia Kamaruddin kerana sudi mengambil masa untuk menulis tips-tips di atas.
Unit Ekuin UPM is the stable for University Putra Malaysia, located in Serdang, Selangor.
Unit Ekuin UPM sits on 4 hectares of land. It consists of two stables that can comfortably home 47 horses. There is a 150 ft x 20 ft sand paddock of international standard. The most exciting part is the riding trail that run across a 160-hectare grazing field, with a 30 km riding track in the farm area.
There is a round paddock for students to develop their basic riding skills.
The student in his 3rd lesson practice trotting without holding reins.
The bigger paddock for students to practice trot, canter and various riding activities.
A big white board for scheduling the horses activity.
I went there on a Sunday morning. Haji Kordi is the trail leader for Sunday; while Mr. Azmi is the trail leader for Saturday.
The groomer helped me to get my horse ready. We chatted a little on preparing the horse. I got a beautiful horse name Bucky.
Naughty Bucky likes to bite. Sometimes biting people when they go near him. The staff put a small warning signboard on his stable to warn people that Bucky might bite.
I brought Bucky into the big paddock to warm up. Perhaps Bucky has been serving as school horse for far too long, he was not very responsive to the my leg, sound and even light tap with whip.
Later I found out that Bucky is one of those difficult horses to ride in Unit Ekuin UPM, especially inside paddock. However, he does follow another horse that is in front of him to trot and canter. So I guess Bucky is more likely to be a follower horse.
In the paddock, Haji Kordi adjusts the stirrup for me. Thanks Haji!
We have a round of warm up in the paddock. There is another student practicing in the big paddock. I took the opportunity to get Bucky to walk behind the student’s horse while she trots so that Bucky starts trotting 😛
Lt Kol Fakharuzi, a retired army (with his private horse, I Told You in Unit Ekuin UPM) gathered us in the paddock to give us a short briefing after the warm up.
This is the first time I had a briefing before heading out to trail ride. He told us the do’s and don’ts while in the trail. He even put us into a sequence labelled us as Rider 1, 2, 3, 4 and reminded us not to cut queue. It sounded exactly like when I was serving in National Service.
Shortly after the briefing, we head out to the entrance of the trail.
Trail Ride in Unit Ekuin UPM
Haji Kordi leads the way. He was riding on Arjuna, an elegant Arabian. A breed that dominates endurance riding. However Arjuna was a little scared in the trail as I noticed he abruptly avoids objects on the ground and stopped several times while trotting. It takes a skillful horseman like Haji Kordi to handle Arjuna.
We passed by a lake in UPM. The highway on the right is SILK highway, the highway where I occasionally drive by to notice the wide hilly field in UPM.
Haji Kordi trots on the really clean trail and I follow behind.
Haji Kordi opens gate for us that leads us deeper into the trail.
Haji Kordi trots into an uneven narrow path to get into the hill.
We canter our way up the hill. Yeeehar~
I overtake Haji Kordi while cantering up, then Lt Kol Fakharuzi overtake me on his I Told You. It was amazingly fun racing on the hill!
Gazing down the wide green field from the hill. I’m guessing that is the highest point in UPM. It was a little hazy on the Sunday morning else the view is going to be more magnificent.
Back on the track. I was able to canter on this clear path.
Overall Experience
The trail in UPM has a few highlights. The top of the hill where we canter up is one, where we can appreciate the far reach greenery. There is a deer farm and a cow farm along the trail as well.
The trail in UPM is clean and flat. Not a lot of trees which means we did not have to avoid tree branches all the time. We could do a good mix of trotting and some canter. Well, actually there were a lot of clear path where we could canter however Haji Kordi was leading the trail ride trotting most of the time as we have one rider falling behind.
UPM claims to have a track of 30 km however our ride was only slightly more than 8 km. If you are a more serious rider looking for something more challenging, you might feel like just getting started and then whoops… you are back to stable already.
Back to Stable
Arjuna, the gray Arabian is taking a rest to dry his sweat.
The groomer, instructor and Lt Kol Fakharuzi are chilling out in front of the stable.
Other Information
The list of activity offered by Unit Ekuin UPM and the fee are published in their webpage. Have fun!
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.
Further into the trail entrance.
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 all over trail path.
Naz leads the way trotting to get the horses hotter.
Naz cantering.
Naz makes a turn so we could get deeper into the trail.
Naz making a turn.
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.
Peaceful lake view.
We walk on big open ground in the trail.
Open ground.
Another lake in the trail. This lake definitely looks deeper than all the other lakes.
Deep lake.
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.
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 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.
The junction to go back to stable or go further in.
Along the trail, we saw an abandoned boat.
An abandoned boat at the side.
At the end of our trail, we make a u-turn to go back.
Making u-turn at the end of trail.
The short grasses and wide flat ground give a sense of peacefulness.
Peaceful view.
This is a typical view you can find throughout the trail.
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.
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.
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!
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 (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.
Empayar Sunnah Archery and Riding Club stable
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.
Canter up steep uphill.
While we were walking, Boy kept me company by sharing his experience in this trail. He always has a big smile on his face.
Boy kept me company while walking.
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.
Downhill slope
Boy leads the way cantering on open ground!
Boy leads on cantering.
Boy signals me to turn right on the junction.
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.
Canter around hill.
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 directions from the hill.
Another view on top of the hill.
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.
Lizaz leads the way going down.
We walk passed narrow path with little beautiful flowers on the sides.
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.
Green view.
Vegetable Farm @ Bukit Beruntung
We slowly canter passed a vegetable farm.
Slow canter pass vegetable farm.
We canter passed more farm path.
Farm path.
We walked into vegetable farm area to check out the farm up close.
Inside vegetable farm.
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.
Boy explains type of vegetable.
We exit the farm after a short break from cantering.
Take a turn to exit farm
Back into Trail
We get back into the green.
Get back into 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.
Fast canter down.
We met some kids doing jungle trekking in the trail.
Kids 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 trains horses.
Boy get back on Faraz after he came down picking up my whip. Thanks Boy!
Boy gets back on horse.
On our way going out of the 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.
Boy explains riding level.
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 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.
