Great article, but a few comments, based on personal observation...
First, these large animals on a crowded beach often serve only to fulfill a romantic fantasy at the risk of those simply seeking Sun and sand. I really wish the bridezillas would get over themselves... let the flaming commence on that one.
Parents... Keep a bridle on your kid. A couple years ago, while walking the beach, a young girl, perhaps 9 or 10, had her mount at full throttle on the water line, with the animal's handler in full pursuit on foot. The kid was obviously an experienced rider, but I doubt she had given any thought to the possible consequences of her actions.
Finally, it's also about the animals. On another reach, I was out on my early morning walk on the beach, and saw a horse with its handler chatting with a couple who were quite obvious in their love of horses, and very knowledgeable about them. The gentleman was gently chiding the handler to see to a health issue that the animal was symptomatic of. He went so far as telling the young kid that he was going to watch for him during their stay to monitor the animal's condition.
Frankly, I don't get the attraction of horses on the beach, mostly because of their size and the sanitary issues... but then again it might be a case of "if you gotta ask the question, you wouldn't understand the answer".
My most recent experience from early August:
Had a couple of local pre-teen girls (longtime friends' kids) visiting me at Treehouse and we walked down to Margaritaville to get my first-time visitor friend a margarita and let the girls swim out to the trampoline. One of the girls was not a confident enough swimmer so my friend sent her back to me on the shore and headed out to the trampoline with the other. The girl with me is swimming in the water and making friends with the family next to us with young kids. We are in the area nearest the ropes because the entire water area between ropes were packed with people. Two horses with their handlers come riding come up. The horses stop at the edge of (i think) Crystal Waters and Margaritaville. The family who we have "befriended", the mom goes to get her camera for a picture and says something to me about the horses and I tell her very nicely and privately that the beach is very crowded and that, it has been my experience, the horse handlers act recklessly with these poor animals and also that they let them defecate everywhere, without consideration of health hazards. This obviously discouraged her and she decided against the picture. The guy on the horse waiting for people to come get riders or pictures takes the horse in the water IMMEDIATELY on the other side of the Margaritaville ropes and the horse poops in the water RIGHT NEXT TO ALL THE PEOPLE (MANY CHILDREN) SWIMMING. As all the people (including my young charge) come running out of the water, I say to his friend who has actually moved quite close to me - "shame on him for letting that horse poop next to all of these people" and he yells back at me (in front of the children) to SHUT THE F * * * UP.
In defense of Margaritaville, one of the employees came up and after relaying the exchange, he had words with the guy and strongly suggested they move on - but here's the catcher - the "tourist police" walked by within a few minutes and we all watched them walk right by the horses without a word. Now I have seen these same "police" "interact" with almost every vendor walking on the beach (from my perch at Treehouse - it's like a tv show!), but with these guys - not so much as a glance. SO, from my understanding they don't have Vendor's Licenses nor Insurance, but noone stops them...??? Seems a little odd to me...
After about 10 minutes people got back into the water....
I had a horse get away from me once in Jamaica. Was not on the beach, but I've never gone horseback riding in the 15 years since it happened.
Key Word in Article - "Insurance" They don't have any....
Exactly Gail and another phrase is " horseback-riding operations that stipulated that guests could not be taken anywhere but the properties where the stables were based."Originally Posted by gailnegril
This favors outfits like Chukka Cove who have stables on lots of land where guest can ride. It would be hard for a places like Babbu's Horse Stable to offer the same services anyways.
No hate mail here but...... too often I have found while living in Jamaica that people expect the government to supply them with land and facilities to do their business. This is how the Private Enterprises System is supposed to work. A person with a service finds a person with the land and they do business either in partnership or landlord/tenant relationships.
Getting the PWC and the horses off the 7 mile beach is a good thing for tourists. If you want to ride the waves or a horse, you just have to go elsewhere to do it.
My opinion.
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Gail, I understood the insurance issue in the article. The gentleman in the article, who is no longer in business due to such expenses, made some good points about how a riding attraction might work well.
But all the insurance in the world will not salvage a vacation I've waited a year or more for, should something untoward happen to me due to negligent use of a horse, PWC or other attraction by someone else.
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