Heh, I think it’s inevitable once you get into a particular ‘thing’ that you’ll judge it extra harshly in media! I couldn’t tell you if a particular type of firearm or vehicle is appropriate for the country or time period but I can definitely let you know if the
horse or tack is wrong! XD (there was much grumbling from a lot of my horsey friends when the new live action Mulan film came out as the
horse in the poster was wearing a decidedly modern bridle that wasn’t invented until around the 19th/20th century, and certainly not ancient China! Not to mention the fact the actual breed of
horse was totally wrong too but that’s another story...)
That entire riding holiday with the beach ride was a bit of a disaster tbh as the yard we stayed at had little regard for safety and put complete novices on very strong and bolshy mounts with no brakes. I’d been riding for about nine years at that point so I wasn’t inexperienced, but I felt decidedly unsafe on some of their horses. There were multiple falls by other folk; including one by my friend who we’re pretty sure now ended up with a concussion and lasting neck damage but they refused to take her to hospital to get checked out which in hindsight should have been our cue to gtfo but we were only 16 and didn’t know any better.
The one saving grace of the place was that we got to go on two beach rides at Lindesfarne and it was absolutely spectacular.
I’m quite a nervous rider and all the horses they’d put me on that week were very fresh and excitable (turned out it was primarily a hunting yard so none of the horses were what you’d normally find at a riding school!) I asked if they could give me the quietest, most unflappable
horse they had...and that was Jazz. She was in her early twenties at this point and seemed really sweet and calm so I thought I’d be absolutely fine. We unloaded them on the beach and she immediately got super excited so we spent the next few hours bombing off in all directions as she just wanted to go fast and I didn’t get much say in the matter!
There were loads of us on the ride so we split into two groups and went for a gallop. I’d never had the opportunity to gallop before so I was really looking forward to it, and so was Jazz apparently as she took off before everyone else and I had the most exhilarating few seconds of just flying ahead, wind in my hair, salt on the breeze, it was magical...right up until all the bigger horses overtook us and Jazz was like ‘oh F that, I can’t be bothered now’ and dropped back to trot.
The walk of shame back to the rest of the ride was so embarrassing, but at least someone managed to get a photo beforehand!
Cantering on the beach by Christine Sutcliffe, on Flickr