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.
Suki and Irene put on a big smile on their face posing on their horses.
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 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!
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!
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.
While Suki was busy taking photos with Sofia.
Irene was leading on our way back. Suki caught up to walk passed me.
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.
One selfie before leaving.
On our way out leaving the trail, Jai helped us to snap a few more photos.
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!