Outer Banks - OBX Horseback - Nags Head, NC

Erika S.

This was hands down one of the best rides I've ever paid for. I'm from Montana and have horses of my own but love to ride when on vacation, especially on the beach. But not all riding outfits are created equally. First of all they picked the perfect horse for my level of experience (Colt 45), and seemed to do a great job doing the same with everyone else. There were a lot of first-timers and the wranglers made sure everyone had the instruction they needed for a fun yet safe ride. We were allowed to go at our own pace, however slow or fast that might have been. The horses seemed very well cared for, and are only used for three one hour rides every other day, M W F. I would not hesitate to ride with them again, in fact I already know I'm going to book a ride (or two!) next time I'm at the OBX. I wish all rides were like this. Can't say enough good things about this experience and outfit.

AGY

Place is a nice place to walk the beach, has showers 🚿, restrooms, and a very nice walkway to the beach. There is an upper deck to sit. Wheelchair ♿️ access.
Lg parking lot, but you can not spend the night. They Patrol the area and will tell you to leave.

LaJoie L.

Made my family’s dreams of a ride on the beach come true! They were professional and great to work with, and I even took my toddler along with me, strapped to me in my front carrier (note there was an extra fee for this, which was not stated on the website, but it wasn’t outrageous). I would only recommend doubling up with a child for a very experienced rider, which I am. I will say some of the horses were definitely better for experienced riders, which we were. They definitely wanted to move quickly so it was a little tough for some of the beginners to hold them back. But the guides were great about coming alongside and helping if anyone was having issues. Splashing along in the surf on horseback was so fun! It was a long and beautiful ride.

These are not your standard boring walk-in-a-line trail ride horses. Many of them are eager and willing to actually run on the beach, which was really fun for those who wanted to! But again, just be aware of this if you’ve never ridden a *real* horse before. You do have to actually steer and control the horse’s speed with the reins on this ride. That said, we had a range of experience in our group, including my husband who had never been on a horse, and everyone did ok.

**Full disclosure, one of the horses had an itch and decided to lie down on the beach to try to scratch the itch with my mom still in the saddle. She is an experienced rider and was able to get her foot out from under the horse, but just be aware that this is a thing the horses do sometimes. The guides did warn us about this possibility, and with the soft landing of the sand, she wasn’t hurt besides a small bruise from the saddle. Just know that there are some risks when riding and take that into consideration!**

All this to say, this was an incredible adventure for everyone in my family, my toddler was absolutely delighted, and we are so grateful for the experience! I would totally do it again.

Elena J.

Horrid experience. This was my first vacation in 9 months I was really looking forward to having a wonderful relaxing experience. I’ve ridden on trails and beaches before.

First. It took over an hour of waiting to Mount the horse. Immediately I could tell my horse wasn’t listening and did whatever it wanted by chomping on grass and wouldn’t move to a better spot.

When we started going to the beach, my horse was trotting trying to be first in line. Note, the organizers were not in the front. They were somewhere in the middle I think.

I don’t like to trot, so I was correcting my horse over and over and over again. It insisted on trotting the whole way back. I was yelling STOP and pulling on the rains then releasing over and over and it just kept trotting. Other riders had the same exact issue and were panicking. I was panicked. I thought I was going to fall off and die. I was ready to walk back. I finally saw a trainer and asked what to do, he just said “keep your balance”. That was it.

I have ptsd now and lower abdominal pain days after. I’m considering going to the hospital for the pain. The slamming onto the horse over and over in panic might have done some damage to my lower abdomen.

If you want to have a near death experience - then this place is for you.

Erika C.

Surprised my wife for her birthday taking her here and although it was scary it was such an amazing experience and beautiful memory we’ll always remember! I’ve gone horseback riding before but my wife hadn’t and her horse was calm and slow which made the experience better for her (the horse she rode was named Faith). My horse (named Lady) was a bit fast and kept trying to go to the front of the line although I wanted to stay back with my wife where we were second to last in line and when I pulled the reigns she didn’t seem to like that at all and rushed even faster for a moment in the wrong direction. After some help from the people in charge my horse finally calmed down and walked at a reasonable pace back to where we were supposed to go. Aside from that mini heart attack the view was breathtaking. If you want to check riding horses on the beach while the sun sets off your bucket list this would be a great place to do it. 🙂

Emily M.

If you’re a first time rider or even somewhat of a beginner, this is not the ride for you. The beginning of the ride was pleasant, but once we all turned around to come back, most of the horses didn’t seem to want to listen. I was consistently pulling back the reigns which didn’t seem to do anything. The horses don’t seem to be trained extremely well considering the lack of listening to the reigns. I have rode before this experience, but am no where near comfortable to just getting on a horse and allowing it to full run once we turned around to come back, I have been on horseback rides with a group before and no where has ever been like this. It seemed as though there was no controlling the horses, not to mention being extremely sore after what was supposed to be a fun and calm ride along the ocean. Again, if you’re very experienced I’d say go for it and you may enjoy it, but if you’re a beginner or even close to one I’d say this ride is definitely not for you, not to mention it cost almost $300 for us to do and was not what we expected at all with how it was ran and the horses not seeming to be trained enough. One of the members in the group also fell off coming back as their horse was running back, the saddle seemed to have come loose.

Jaeme G.

This was an amazing experience for myself and the five other people in my group. We will definitely do this again every year and the people in our house who chose not to go this year will be joining us next year! We've been coming to Outer Banks yearly for ten years now and this is the best excursion we have been on. The only one that we will return for; again and again. The guide was professional. The horses were well mannered. I cannot recommend this place highly enough.

Amanda F.

Riding on the beach was definitely a 'bucket list' adventure for me, and OBX Horseback made it happen! After asking a few questions they matched me up with the perfect horse ( I <3 Tank). Weather was a little hot the day we went, but not like they can control the temp. Was able to splash in the waves to cool down.