# swimming with horses (photos)



## Magaidh (Apr 13, 2011)

My gelding and I went for the second swim of the summer yesterday. I just love going out in the lake with him! Our summer pasture is 1/4 mile from a beautiful lake with gradual depth and a sandy bottom.

Does anybody else swim with your horse(s)? I'd love to hear about it and see photos. I've always been jealous of people who can take their horses to the ocean.

Some photos from yesterday in the lake, on the ride home and 9-month-old Finnegan greeting our return!


----------



## ridingismylife2 (Nov 4, 2008)

I absolutely love swimming with horses! It's so much fun.
I don't have my own horse, but last summer went swimming a few times with a horse I loaned for 2 days (lol) and a horse that my aunt rides fro someone.
The pics are of the horse my aunt rides.


----------



## Magaidh (Apr 13, 2011)

Great photos!


----------



## serafina (May 5, 2011)

oh my gosh, that looks like so much fun!!


----------



## ItzKayley (Jun 8, 2011)

Sadly, my horse hates water and we live so far away from the beaches, lakes etc. 
Looks like alot of fun though! Nice photos!


----------



## SEAmom (Jan 8, 2011)

Yeah, there's definitely nowhere to do that around here, but it looks like a blast.


----------



## atreyu917 (May 22, 2011)

I've never been swimming with horses, but it l9ooks like so much fun! Do most horses actually like getting in the water?


----------



## Shasta1981 (Nov 12, 2010)

Great pics! I was lucky enough to go swimming with horses in the ocean on our last vacation. I've set one of the pictures as my avatar! =) So much fun and definitely something that was on my bucket list!


----------



## Hidalgo13 (Dec 24, 2010)

snif... one of my dreams is to go swimming with a horse. >< Oh well, maybe someday...


----------



## smrobs (Jul 30, 2008)

I have been swimming a couple of times and it was thoroughly enjoyable. I have a bit of a phobia when it comes to water but I can swim with the horses just fine. Odd, huh?

Anyway, here are a couple of pictures of me and Dobe at our local lake a couple of summers ago. That lake is not my favorite to swim in because it is man-made and the bottom drops off in steps instead of gradually.



























And I don't have any pictures of the second time that I went to a small artesian pond by my Mom's house but I do have a bit of video.




 




 
I plan to go again sometime this summer.


----------



## serafina (May 5, 2011)

smrobs said:


> I plan to go again sometime this summer.


Sorry if this is a stupid question, but is that special not-leather tack (bridle or harness, I can't see from the vid on this monitor) on your boy? Or does the leather stand up to short periods of water?


----------



## smrobs (Jul 30, 2008)

In the pictures, I had a regular leather bridle/reins on him with a home-made cloth bareback pad type thing. I've never had that much problem with them getting wet, I just make sure to oil them if they are feeling a bit stiff.

As for the videos, I just had a halter with a long lead rope on both of them. The excess rope from the lead was tied around their neck.


----------



## aspin231 (Mar 20, 2010)

Check my avatar! Unfortunately that's the only picture I have, as my friend decided to take pictures of her horse rolling as I was in the water, even though it was my camera and I took tonnes of her. Oh well.


----------



## heartprints62 (Feb 27, 2010)

I absolutely LOVE swimming with my horses! That was the best way for both my horse and I to excersice (and the most comfortable way to ride!) when I was pregnant with my son!!! I rode til I was almost 8 months, then I was too big to fit in my saddle! But we got kicked out of the lake by my house anyways. They said they had some law about no livestock contaminating the water source.... have they seen some of the PEOPLE swimming there?!?! OH WELL! We found another place to swim!


----------



## tinyliny (Oct 31, 2009)

Do the horses like doing it? When you swim next to them, don't you have to be very, very careful not to get kicked by accident? 
Looks so fun. have never done it.


----------



## waresbear (Jun 18, 2011)

Yeah! That's what it's all about, recreation at it's max with your horse. Melts my heart. Kudos to all you girls!


----------



## apachewhitesox (Dec 9, 2010)

Those pictures and videos make it look really fun. I hate going in water that you cant see the bottom, a bit stupid but true. I know all my horses love water and we have a dam. I would really like to try it, see if I can make myself next summer.


----------



## smrobs (Jul 30, 2008)

Tiny, mine seem to enjoy it. The first time I took Dobe out (in the pictures above), he had never been in water above his belly. After the initial urging to get him to go deeper, he kept wanting to go back out to the deep parts. Of course, it doesn't hurt that both times I've taken them swimming, the temps were in the upper 90s and lower 100s. I've never gotten the chance to swim beside them because the places that I go to swim have deep spots in the middle of shallow areas so you never really know when you're going to hit a deep spot. Then when you do, they don't last long enough to get off and still have time to get back on so I just stay centered.

Apachewhitesox, I am the exact same way about water and not being able to see the bottom. By myself, you won't get me out past my knees, but it's different on a horse. I just feel so much safer with them.


----------



## apachewhitesox (Dec 9, 2010)

Haha good hear I'm not the only one smrobs hopefully when it warms up again I can have a go with a friend on a couple of my horses. Maybe I will get a bit confident if I dont think about what could be in there and there is a horse I can hold onto


----------



## Tokoneki (Mar 28, 2011)

I took Scar to a lake and she was a little jumpy ( I think its bc she was stepping on a lot of broken shells) and walking her on them made me cringe at the thought) however, I found a spot free of shells, and when I got her in up to her "knees" she kept pawing at the water. Any idea why? Initially I thought she was gonna roll or getting anxious, but then I recently drove pat a lake that had a pond and I saw there were horses all playing in the water and all of them pawing vigorously so now I don't think it's so bad.

I want to go back and actually swim. Any tips? I live in Florida and live up the street from the beaches and lots of bodies of water.


----------



## RedTree (Jan 20, 2010)

Havn't been swimming yet, but have taken Buzz to the beach a few times last summer now 
So much fun, the water didn't get that deep, the highest it got was up to his belly maybe, still a lot of fun 

first time I went me and Buzz and my friend and a horse she was leasing Kahula who has unfortunatly passed away 

















about the deepest it got










bareback canter


----------



## A knack for horses (Jun 17, 2010)

I want to try that sooooooooooo bad!!!


----------



## waresbear (Jun 18, 2011)

Riding in the surf in Santiago was fun, same beach where the movie "10" with Bo Derek was filmed. Couldn't swim though, waves were too powerful, churned the sand under the horse's feet.


----------



## equiniphile (Aug 16, 2009)

I've always wanted to go swimming with my horse, just once--it looks like so much fun!


----------



## Reiterin (Mar 28, 2010)

I would love to try it. Haven't yet though.


----------



## JustAwesome (Jun 22, 2011)

My boys been to the beach once which was the start of the year! He absolutely loved it and nothing phased him at all! Even the trotter being driven in the water! ha ha!


----------



## blue eyed pony (Jun 20, 2011)

It needs to be summer again so I can go swimming with my horses :[

Swimming with horses = FUN. It's really great for horses of all ages, and especially so if they have an injury somewhere. The salt hastens healing (I think because it irritates the wound??) and helps fend off infection.


----------



## Jessabel (Mar 19, 2009)

I'm so jealous. Riding in the water looks like so much fun! 

OP- Your horse is simply divine. :wink:


----------



## Magaidh (Apr 13, 2011)

Jessabel said:


> I'm so jealous. Riding in the water looks like so much fun!
> 
> OP- Your horse is simply divine. :wink:


Thank you! I love him very much, he's a lot of fun.


----------

