BEFORE hitting 50 next year, former SNJ news editor Sandra Ashenford has compiled a bucket list of 50 goals to achieve before her birthday.

The aim is to do one every week.

List Item No. 2 Ride a horse along a beach

I HAVE loved horses for as long as I can remember, and spent my childhood reading stories about mythical horses, riding stable ponies and inanimate equines who somehow came to life.

Of course I cried my eyes out at Black Beauty and for years my favourite film was National Velvet.

Even though my riding skills have never matched my enthusiasm, I love nothing more than pottering about on my very own pony.

Having my own horse has been a dream come true (even though the reality is much harder work than you could imagine) but what I have always really wanted to do is gallop across a beach.

So I did.

Well, I didn’t actually gallop but I did enjoy the most fabulous ride on the beach at Ogmore in South Wales.

What made it even more wonderful was that friends and family who generally think that horses are dangerous and smelly agreed to come and ride with me.

I found Ogmore Stables on the internet and my friend Faye said that she knew the area well.

So Faye and I and another friend, Anna, along with Spouse and daughters three and four, and daughter three’s fiancé Harry, set off over the Severn Crossing.

The non-riders in the group – everyone except the daughters and I – were a little apprehensive, but our ponies were lovely and no-one fell off, even though at one stage Harry’s pony wanted to have a bit of a lie-down with him on board.

We forded two streams on our way to the beach and then enjoyed the glorious sensation of trotting across the sand, before completing a circular route through beautiful grassy tracks back to the yard.

Afterwards we staggered to the pub across the road, and pledged to make this an annual outing.

Two days later we had aching muscles in all sorts of strange places, but it was still worth it.

The whole experience reminded me of a story I heard on the children’s television show Jackanory as a child, and which I’ve searched for on and off for years as an adult.

It’s called Moon on the Water, by Nina Warner Hooke, and it’s about a group of carousel horses who come to life.

It’s out of print now, but if anyone knows where I could get a copy, I would be thrilled.