Good afternoon wonderful people! I hope you’re all well! Todays throwback will be to a holiday I had about 6 years ago. Me and my mum went on a cruise and one day we stopped off at Turkey. We decided to book on for a tour excursion whilst we were there. My mum decided to book us on a horse trek near the beach. She’s not a huge fan of horses…so it was a nice thing for her to do I suppose.

We arrived at the yard, signed our forms and got our riding hats fitted. We then got escorted to our ride for the day. We waited with our horses for a bit. Gave them some hay and bonded with them. Then our tour guides came and helped us on. My mum isn’t really a horsey lady. As evil as it may sound, watching her try to board the horse was hilarious. But just to let you know she is a lot better nowadays!

It was a beautiful place! We walked through a bush/desert almost. Very much in the middle of nowhere. There was just us and the horses. There was a group of us from the cruise ship and my mum and me were at the front of the herd. The tour leader was a lovely guy. Very chatty and sweet. He didn’t know much English but my mum managed to have a good conversation with him! There was also a photographer who followed us for the whole day. I can’t quite remember how the conversation started, but my mum and the tour leader were talking about cowboys and how he feels like a cowboy when he rides his horse. Next thing, they have their hands in the air, waving them around *like they just don’t care* as though they have a lasso. Nobody else in the group did this, so it led to this amazing picture…

It is still one of my favourite pictures. Mother is proper embracing her inner equine girl. After a lovely horseback stroll we arrived at the beach where we jumped off our horses and went to play in the sand and sea. Whilst in the middle of chilling out, our tour leader comes galloping onto the beach bareback and goes crashing into the sea. I was impressed with his riding skills! Watching him play in the sea with his horse was just amazing. The horse looked so happy and it was clear that the two of them had a bond. After a while he starts shouting people from our group into the sea. Turns out his horse is trained to rear on command. So people jumped on his horse bareback whilst his horse reared up in the sea. It would have been rude of me not to have a go!

It was amazing! Something every horse obsessed human should do! Definitely something to tick off my bucket list. Obviously my mum didn’t do this but she did watch from the shore. It’s one of my fondest horse memory. It was spontaneous and magical!

Once play time in the sea was over, we got back on our horses and strolled back to the yard. Mum and our tour leader were at the front chatting about nonsense whilst I was still in my own world of amazement. It was a euphoric feeling that I can’t really explain. We looked at the pictures the photographer had taken and decided to get them all! It was a memory that we both needed to have pictures of.

If you ever get a chance to try this, I highly recommend you do! It’s definitely something that could be crossed off a bucket list. Whether you’re a horse rider or not, it’s an amazing experience. Best thing is, if you slip off you’ll have a soft landing in the water! Of course if you can’t swim, this might not be the best thing for you to do but other than that give it go!

I hope you all have a lovely day!

Lots of love,

Emma xo