Privater Bali-Reiten am Strand von Seminyak

A lovely hour on the beach on horse Nellie - the guide was lovely and took pictures and videos and was gentle with the horse. A lovely experience and this was worth the money

Eine völlige Geldverschwendung. Unsere Pferde waren so müde, dass sie auf die Knie fielen und sie führten uns wie Kinder auf Leinen herum.

I have ridden with Mesari Stables several times before on previous Bali visits and always had a good experience. Unfortunately I cannot say the same this time around. I was paired with a horse called Millo that I did not realise was a stallion until my friend pointed it out. (Yeah I should have checked but I assumed a Stallion would never be used for tourist rides) The guide lead us out to the beach and asked me to keep the horse away from my friends. (Which kind of defeats the purpose of riding together) I thought at first it was just that our horses did not get along as happens but turns out the guide went to great lengths to ensure I did not go anywhere near any other horse. He told me the horse never listened to him and was cheeky. Turns out he didn't listen to me either. When I tried to gently turn him around to see where my friend was he latched onto my leg with his teeth and the guide had to smack his head for him to let go. I stayed on the horse for the rest of the ride so my friend could still enjoy hers but was not at all comfortable. While I consider myself an intermediate rider and more than capable of handling myself on a horse I was not confident I could control him nor was I confident the guide could. When the ride ended I showed them my bite mark and they offered antiseptic but I declined as I required ice first for the swelling and they did not have any. When I contacted them the following day they were reluctant to help as it was the following day. I had at this point iced my leg for several hours, applied antibacterial cream and covered the wound. After several days they finally agreed to refund my ride but this did not cover the costs of seeing the resort Doctor and the course of antibiotics I had to take for the infection that kicked in. Two weeks later and back at home I still have a large area of crushed muscle, swelling and discomfort. Overall I don't think this is a bad place to ride in Bali based on my previous good experiences but I do think they should not be offering a Stallion for tourist rides and I'm disappointed they made me feel it was somehow my fault.