Oregon Beach Rides

What a pleasant adventure! Things felt a little rocky in the beginning, with the owner taking a pretty stern approach to us that I didn’t fully appreciate, but I think once she realized we weren’t going to run amok with her horses (we DID have a big group — almost 20 people!), she relaxed a little. Because they didn’t have enough horses to accommodate all of us at once, we were split into two groups. The rides last about an hour, so those of us who were in the second group headed down to the nearby Pelican Pub to grab a bite while we waited.
When we headed back, we were each assigned our horse based on a physical assessment (and sort of on our previous riding history). I’ve had riding lessons in the past, and love horses, so I was given the privilege of riding Bella, a beautiful but somewhat finicky horse. She was very engaging to ride… as in, you had to stay engaged the whole time or she might take advantage of you, haha. None of these horses are really the trail-​broken ones you’ll find at some riding companies. They each have minds of their own, though some are definitely more… headstrong than others, haha.
The trail we went on took us up the sand dunes and down onto the beach, then back up onto the dunes further down. The beach was lovely, but once we hit the top of the dunes, the views were incredible! I only wish it hadn’t been so foggy on the day we went, because I can only imagine how far the view goes on a clear day!
On the way back, we headed onto the beach again, where the winds had turned up something FIERCE. I was pretty severely wind– and sunburnt by the time the ride was over, so please, please, for the love of God, wear sunscreen. You’ll also want to make sure you have a windbreaker or hoodie of some kind on, because even in the middle of July it was downright cold on that beach.
All in all, I thought this was a very pleasant riding adventure, and since the other company we used to ride with on the coast is no longer in business, I imagine that if we have another trip out there, we’ll definitely be going with Oregon Beach Rides again.