Paardrijden in St. Lucia

Not what the picture shows... our ride was out to a beach filled with seaweed. Not very picturesque! The ride also went over some very unstable ground whereby the horses kept slipping. The guide was just ok and not very personable. It’s been a long time since I rode bur I don’t ever remember the horses having such a difficult time carrying riders.

Please skip this one! These poor horse are underfed and in poor condition. The “jungle” ride is poor footing and lined with trash. When we finally reached the water, the smell was so bad that I had to breath through my mouth. We found out that it was due to rotting seaweed that was covering the entire beach. It looked and smelled like raw sewage. My poor starving horse took at bite at anything he could and my guide kept yelling at me to “smack him”. I’ve owned horses 20 years and never saw such a sad situation. Like other reviews said, your then brought to local spot and pressured to buy over priced food drink and souvenirs that you see everywhere. Then put back on your poor horse, and back to the run down stables where you’re expected to tip them for your experience. Just depressing!!

The reasoning behind only two stars is because most of your time spent horseback riding is not on the beach. You start out at the stables and it is about a 50 minute ride through very poor neighborhoods to get to the beach, it will also be very hot there as there is no breeze. Then you get to the beach and they bring your horses in the water for about 15 minutes to get pictures where you will ride bare back, this can be a little difficult for some. Then you take another 50 minutes to ride back to the stables the same way you came. The point is, you only get a very small amount of beach time so I don't think it't worth the amount of money they charge. Finally, I was a little sad to see that all of the horses looked a little malnourished.