Horseback Riding in Costa Rica

I absolutely love horses. I think they are amazingly beautiful animals and when I vacation by the beach, I always try to go horseback riding on the beach when possible.  I went to Costa Rica with my mom and my niece but my mom refused to go with us because since she had a terrifying experience years ago, she made a promise to God that if she got off the horse safely she would never get on another one.  So, it was my niece and I and we had such a lovely time riding. We had a 2 hour ride that took us through neighborhoods that we wouldn’t have been able to see otherwise. Here are a few of the horses we had to choose from.

My niece was new to horseback riding so getting on was a bit difficult for her. The man was helping her, giving her instructions as to how to mount the horse but the first few times it didn’t work.

I was laughing cause she was trying so hard to get on but just could seem to get it together. You can see her getting frustrated by her hands on her hips. She didn’t have an attitude or anything which you can see by the smile on her face, she was really good natured about it cause she’s just cool like that.

And finally! She gets on and you can see she’s really happy about it.

So how did we find these horses? We were on the beach and saw a guy standing around with a bunch of horses. We walked over to him and I asked him about riding, we set it up and a few hours later we were on the tour.  We were staying in Esterillos, between Jaco and Quepos and they were literally right down the road from where we were staying. The next few pics are things we saw along the way. I couldn’t take as many pics as I wanted cause believe it or not, it’s a bit difficult to sit on a horse and snap pics at the same time.

I thought this house was interesting, I don’t remember seeing a house this color before but it totally matched the tropical location.

I wasn’t sure what these guys were playing, they had a ball and if you can see, there was a makeshift net made out of sticks.

Me and my baby girl (that’s what I called her, but she’s a married woman now so I guess I have to find a new nickname).

After an afternoon of horseback riding in Costa Rica, our butts were sore but we didn’t care. Having the ocean and the tropics as our backdrop as we explored a bit of the city was amazing. If you vacation near the ocean, think about taking a guided tour on a horse. Unless like my mom, you have made a promise to God, then you can just enjoy the scenery from your own two feet.