Becoming MarieRidesinAccra

From as early as I can remember I always loved horses, growing up in Berlin we had a Pony Stable around that was the home to multiple ponies and donkeys. Here is where I encountered my very first equine love. Laura, she is a lovely donkey that I rode several times as a young kid and anytime possible I would just pass by the paddock and just marvel at the animals grazing.

Around the time I turned 6 we moved closer to the horse stables and it was around that time I discovered another horse stable that was right across from our house housing two lovely horses. Betty and Andy, from the moment I met them I remember always climbing down the hill and just sitting right in front of their little paddock and spending time petting and just looking at them in awe.

My mother made contact with the owner of the horses at some point and he allowed us to start feeding them treats, that was my new favourite thing to do.

Unfortunately growing up in germany horse riding lessons were always outrageously expensive, so I was never able to get any closer to the horses than grooming and feeding them.

The Ponyclub

Luckily my mother always cared about my fascination with horses and got me a subscription to the Ponyclub magazine that kicked off an obsession with collecting everything horse related. I remember reading horse care books and sitting infront of my horse breed poster just dreaming about riding a horse one day.

I had sat on horses at that point of my life but only for short 10 minute Pony rides that were always guided. I loved them nonetheless.

At some point my whole room was plastered in pony posters and my book shelfs were boiling over with books about horses and even grooming kits and other materials.

Unbecoming MarieRides

Around the time I was 12 a different realization kicked in, I would possibly never ride a horse properly as long as I was still a child. A period of frustration about this prompted me to cancel the pony club subscription and banning all the horse books and equipments into our basement because not being able to be as close to horses as I was wishing to be, was just too painful. It was around that time I subconsciously decided that I didn't want to be around horses anymore. That period was more than 10 years long and in these ten years I even forgot I liked horses at some point.

coming to ghana

So when I came to Ghana with my son and my friend told me about the horse riding classes her kids were taking it didn't even occured to me to try and take riding classes at first. I had basically closed that chapter on myself. Even going to the beach I always declined riding offers and didn't mind the horses a lot.

Until in the beginning of 2023 I let my son ride a horse at the beach, which was Laboma No. 3. Our very own Golden Boy. This will become relevant again later in the story, since life always moves in circles it's not surprising that Laboma No. 3 is now the people that I am working with.

Looking for things to do in Accra

It wasn't until March 2023 that I decided I wanted to do something special for myself and I was gonna try out riding classes. This wish led me to a very certain riding school in Accra here and my journey introduced me to the first horse I has a class on, bushboy. Bushboy is a calm and gentle horse and I always felt like he didn't particularly like me. Nonetheless I was hooked. From that moment on I was at the riding stables atleast 2 to 3 times per week to hone my skills. I liked riding at the camp until one day I showed up at the camp, was told I was going to be riding my regular horse, when one of the staff members decided it would be very funny to put me on a very stubborn pony, even tho something inside of me even wants to call him a donkey, lol. Galloper.

When sitting on this short and stubborn one my mood was instantly killed and the horse wasn't having it either. Because it was a group riding class and I still had very little skill whatsoever I ended up having the 9 year old kid that was riding MY horse, make fun of me for the fact that Galloper was not really cooperating with me at all.

In true npc fashion we ended up in a corner of the paddock, glitching.

Meanwhile people were gathering around the paddock and I remember that instead of helping me get my horse out of the corner, everyone was just laughing at me.

It was at that moment that I decided that I don't deserve being the laughing stock of this class, so I dismounted my disobedient donkey, rushed out of the paddock and went home. I remember crying the whole way home on the Uber as my little safe space had just popped open and broken apart and I was pretty sure I was never going to go back to the camp.

When I got home tho I received a call from my trainer who was apologizing for the situation and asked me to come back to the classes and forgive them. I agreed. Nevertheless it took me 2 weeks to gather my courage again and go back there.

Things went well for some time until after one riding class where me and my trainer had felt that I was doing particularly well, that I was standing the parking lot after my class only to be approached by a man who I had never seen before in my life. Who decided that shouting at me that the way that I ride is not appropriate for how much time I had spent learning and that I needed to do better. I don't think I have to explain to you how annoyed and disheartened and also confused I felt after this interaction, because like I said, I had never seen that man before in my life.

The Riding Master from Hell

A couple of weeks passed and everything went it's regular way, until at a certain Saturday I joined the riding class again with my regular instructor, when from the horizon a certain figure made his way into the paddock. It was mystery confrontative man, who introduced himself as "The Riding Master". I cannot tell you how stupid I already felt that entire introduction was. After introducing himself he decided to position himself on the opposite end of the paddock than my instructor and he started barking instructions and commands my way. This went on for some time and I was starting to feel increasingly confused and frustrated. Learning to ride as an adult is already challenging and I was always feeling utterly stressed on horseback. And this "teaching method" was not making it any better.

It got to a point where one instructor was telling me to turn left and the other one was instructing me to go right. That was the moment I decided to stop the horse and inform them that unless they could figure out who was the teacher here, I would dismount the horse and find a different stable to ride at.

Mr Riding Master didn't like that and started telling me how I didn't have to come back ever if I dismounted the horse at this point.

Don't have to tell me twice, I got down, exchanged a few heated words with this man and got myself banned from the camp.

Looking back this was one of the best things that ever happened to me in regards to my riding. Unfortunately I didn't know that yet on my Uber ride home, so I cried all the way back to my house again.

Beachboys and Heart Horses

It took me a while to want to start riding again, I remember regularly going to the beach around that time but rejecting every horse boy at the beach that was trying to get me on their horse. It wasn't until my mom visited me from germany and we went to Laboma together, that something felt different.

I was entering the beach from the Trophy Tavern side, when a guy approached me leading a beautiful paint horse, that I decided I was going to ask him if he could help me with some riding classes. He was tell, sweet and had a crooked smile with a chipped tooth. I fell for him head over heels.

The paint horse's name was Pepper and she took me on my first ever ride on a horse that is not trained to just walk in a circle. I felt like she wanted to throw me off and I felt like I hadn't learned anything at the camp about riding "real" horses.

The next couple of weeks I fell more and more deeply in love with HorseyBoyfriend and his horses and his life all together. One of my favourite memories is riding his friends horse home to their house together. He was sitting behind me but letting me hold the reigns and navigate the horse to the house. I am tearing up while I am writing this because there was a lot of love lost between me and the guy in the past couple of months and my heart aches so much thinking about this. But we are not at that part of my story yet.

He introduced me to his youngest stallion Network and if I tell you that there's nothing like meeting your heart horse, I won't lie to you. Regardless of how green and difficult Network was being at times, I have never loved a horse like this before. And he loved me too.

HorseyBoyfriend and I decided to start working together on generating more clients for him and it is as it always is, working together as a couple is not easy and it led us from one disaster to the next. So bad that one day I ended up falling from the horse into the river between Laboma and Labadi while we were arguing and I decided that I wasn't going to ride with my boyfriend anymore.

That obviously didn't make anything better, except for my riding maybe.

I found a lovely riding teacher who is also a Polo Player and I ended up perfecting my riding with him instead of riding at the beach. I will be talking about him and his stable more at a different point.

Whiplash and other headaches

The issues between me and my horsey boyfriend at that time got worse and worse and we ended up breaking up multiple times. One of these days I decided that I was an independent woman and I could do whatever i want to do. So I went to Labadi Beach, sat on a couple of random horses until I found a black beauty I felt confident riding., Daakye.

We were speading down the beach when I could feel her start flying faster and faster and I knew I had to make her stop because I was not ready for this level of speed. Tried to emergency stop my horse and found myself smacked onto the ground, because the stirrup broke and it slammed me off the horse. That day I learned the importance of always checking your gear before mounting a horse, because this surely could have been prevented.

Anywho I ended up with a concussion and a whiplash and stayed off the horses for a couple of weeks.

During these weeks the issues between horsey boyfriend and I were just increasing and increasing and we ended up breaking up, over a lot of issues. But I think the main thing that really broke my heart was that he had promised to sell Network to me and when I was finally ready to bring him the money he called for him he informed me that "he would never sell network for me". I have had relationships end but when I tell you I never cried over anyone as much as over losing this horse, I am not lying to you.

But because everything happens for a reason I met a very good friend of mine in the high times of this struggle and I started riding his horse, Ruffian. Those who know me know that Ruffian is now the man of my house and I wouldn't have it any other way. So regardless of how much it broke my heart to lose Network, I am grateful because it led me to Ruffles.

After breaking up with horsey boyfriend I wasn't about to stop horsing around because at that point the love for the horses and the beach ran too deep, the people were loving what I was showing them on my instagram account so I knew that regardless of what Horsey Ex Boyfriend has to say about that, I was gonna bring people to the beach and share my love for riding with them.

Going full circle

I ended up trying to collaborate with a couple of different people but reliability issues made that harder than expected. After some time I decided that the best thing to do was to work with someone who has their head screwed on straight, so I ended up calling Horsefather and offering a collaboration to him and his Riding School, Mokins Horse Riding.

Now do you remember GoldenBoy and Laboma No. 3? That's his horse and his stable so spirit lead me right back to where I had started, sometimes we need a detour or two to get ready for what's about to become.

And that's basically where we are right now, me at Mokins in Laboma. My own horse in my stable around my house with all the horse love and horse support I could ever ask for.

So I want to thank Horsefather and Amina, his wife, for showing me that collaboration and partnership in the horse world in Ghana is possible after all.

So now here we are sharing our passion and love for riding with you guys. creating gentle and supportive learning environments for people who are learning to ride and hopefully turning beach riding into the attraction that it is supposed to be.

Stay tuned, cause this is only the beginning.

Don't believe me, just watch.

Marie