Princess - Horseback Riding

[Nymue]

Has anyone ever tried this excursion, in St Martin, thru Princess? Any thoughts?

 

Anne

[DeltaDL]

We are doing the ocean ride and swim in St. Marten also. I would love to hear feedback on this as well! :)

[dsfitz]

We did this on our CB cruise in December.

 

You take a bus from the pier to the stables, about a 20 minute ride. Interstingly, the stables are located in a residential area, not out in the "country". You are assigned a horse and then you depart in groups of 5 or 6 along the trail.

 

The trail goes through the residential area and then through an electrical power plant up a hill. You then go down the hill toward the beach area. At all times, you are only walking on the horse, though you may trot for a few steps if your horse falls behind. The beach area itself is quite small, maybe 40 yards long.

 

Once you arrive at the beach, you ride the horses into the water. The guides encourage you to ride the horse out to sea far enough so that it is swimming (i.e. the water is deep enough that the horse's legs do not touch the bottom.). However, the horses are not eager to do this, and complain vocally as well as turn to try to get back on the shore. In our group, one woman was thrown into the water (not injured, but completely instead of just half wet). My horse reared a little, but did not throw me. When you're done in the water, you walk along the same trail to get back to the stables.

 

The only thing "unique" about this ride is swimming in the ocean with the horses, which in my opinion is not that enjoyable. You get totally drenched from the waist down (since all of that part of you is submerged in the water) and the horses really aren't interested in doing it. You do have an opportunity to remove your shoes before you go in the water and carry them around your neck.

 

Although it was an interesting experience, had I known what it was before I did it, I probably would have chosen something else. However, if it sounds fun to you to be on the back of a horse while it is swimming, then by all means go for it.

[Nymue]

From what you described it doesn't sound like the ride TO the beach is very scenic. Am I wrong?

 

Anne

[dsfitz]

It's not really that scenic as most of it is through a residential area and then through an electrical power plant. Once you leave the plant you climb up a hill and from the top of the hill you get a bit of a panoramic view of the coast. Then you descend again. The trail itself is just a dirt path through ground brush. Then when you get down to the beach you have the view of the water.

 

All in all, I would say it is not particularly scenic, but there are points along the trail where there is some kind of view.

[woodofpine]

I wouldn't really imagine St. Maarten as the greatest riding place. It's pretty small, arid, and heavily land developed along the coast (nice place though).

 

I've riden on Aruba, St. Lucia, and HAL's Half Moon Cay. We didn't surf ride in Aruba but they let you really cut loose if you had experience (galloping the dunes and flats was INTENSE). St. Lucia was a much more controlled trail ride but the scenery was awesome with horse swim and BBQ on the beach. Both of the foregoing were on the Atlantic side of the islands. HAL has a nice set up, a beautiful beach ride and swim with a pretty nice trail albeit fairly short.

[rtroeh]

I did this excursion 2 weeks ago and agree with dsfitz's description. The one thing that I would add is That the bus had an unpleasant odor. We finally figured out that it was probably from constantly carrying people with wet clothing so the cloth seats ended up with a funky smell.

 

I'm not sure if Princess uses Lucky Stables for all of their horseback excursions in St. Martin but that's where we ended up. http://www.luckystable.com/