SANDBRIDGE — Jennifer Slan led her horse, Danny Boy, near the ocean’s edge. She walked him in and out, from sand to water and back, while they waited for the return of comrades, members of Danny Boy’s “herd,” which already had set off along the beach during the recent Beach Ride supporting the Virginia Beach Police Mounted Patrol.
Nearby were Anna DeGraaf of Virginia Beach and her daughter, Emma, 8, who would ride Danny Boy during the event on Saturday, Nov. 4, in the residential resort community along the Atlantic Ocean.
But not yet. The wait was hard.
“Let’s go,” Emma said at one point.
The Beach Ride brings folks from Hampton Roads and beyond together each year, usually in Sandbridge, to support the police and the Friends of the Virginia Beach Mounted Police, the nonprofit that helps the patrol. It is also a chance for horse lovers to ride on the beach with like-minded souls.
Slan has always loved the animals, but riding and ownership came later.
“He’s my first horse at 49,” the Chesapeake resident said. “It’s a dream of mine.”
Danny Boy came to her by way of the Pungo nonprofit Circle A Home for Horses, which rescues horses as part of its work. Danny Boy was from Texas. There, he had been destined for slaughter.
Slan gently led Danny Boy to keep him occupied because he wanted to be with the other horses from his herd. Those horses were well north on the beach.
“Emma will ride,” Slan promised.
But Emma could ride Danny Boy only when the other horses returned. Danny Boy had just recovered from a hoof infection, and he might try to reach the other horses by taking off too quickly. That could be a safety issue for Emma.
Danny Boy seemed restless.
“He’s a gentle giant,” Slan said. “Though you can’t tell that now.”
“They are herd animals,” Anna DeGraaf said. “They will take off. … He really wants to be with his horses.”
Anna DeGraaf grew up in Great Neck, not a rural place, but she rode when she was young.
“I did Triple R Ranch,” she said, speaking of a horse ranch in Chesapeake. “They used to bus us out there. They wanted city kids in the country.”
Now she was waiting.
“People will be coming back,” Anna DeGraaf told her daughter.
Emma loves to ride.
“Because it’s fun and I get to be around horses,” she said.
Another group passed.
“Look at all those horses,” Emma said.
“Those are not Danny’s herd,” Anna DeGraaf said.
Moments later, Danny Boy peed on the beach. Emma laughed. Then the girl noticed something else.
“Mom,” she said. “A puffer fish.”
“Really?”
A bloated, spiky fish had washed up and lay in sand. Anna DeGraaf moved it back to the water. Waves fell over it, but the little creature was beyond swimming away.
“It came right back,” Emma said.
“I can do it myself,” Emma said.
Sure enough, she threw her leg over a bareback pad strapped to Danny Boy.
“Smile, Emma.”
Emma smiled.
Slan took a picture of the girl and the horse together.
“I think they’re coming back,” Emma said.
“I think so, too,” her mother agreed.
But not yet.
Danny Boy’s herd neared.
“I told you they were coming back,” Anna DeGraaf said.
“Yay,” Slan said.
“Finally,” Emma said.
“You want to see a little girl with wings, stick around,” Slan promised a visitor.
She has always loved horses.
“I think the beauty of horses is they lend you their beauty and strength,” Slan said. “I think every little girl needs that because the world is tough. It doesn’t teach you that you can be graceful and strong. Horses teach you that.”
Slan loves the relationship between Danny Boy and Emma.
Slan even penned a story to one of the girl’s teachers about them. It is written from Danny Boy’s perspective.
“Emma is super brave,” the story says, “and isn’t afraid to fly like the wind.”
Slan always wanted a horse when she was a girl. She never rode when she was young, aside from pony rides.
There is something about horses.
“They just give you wings,” she said.
She has Danny Boy now.
“I didn’t start taking lessons until I was 40, and then I had my first horse at 49,” she said. “I’m 52 now. I hope I’m like the Queen of England, riding till the end.”
The herd arrived.
Emma and Danny Boy finally rode together at Sandbridge, and, for a moment, the girl put her arms out like wings while the horse carried her above the beach.
© 2023 Pungo Publishing Co., LLC
One thought on “Ready to ‘fly’ during Virginia Beach Police Mounted Patrol’s annual beach ride at Sandbridge”