The Sumba Ride

We ask globetrotters to fly into Denpasar City, Bali the day before the ride begins, so that you’re ready to take your flight to Sumba on day one at around 1pm.

After touching down in Sumba, you’ll be met at the Tambolaka airport by a grinning Nihi Sumba staff member, then you’ll be driven for approximately 1.5 hours in an open-air safari car across the island to Nihi Sumba. You’ll get a real sense of island life on this drive as you watch scooters whizzing past carrying entire families (including the odd chook or goat), pass villages with their unusual peaked bamboo and thatched houses, and spot plenty of Sandalwood ponies tethered to trees and water buffaloes being taken for a drink. After coming from Bali, you’ll appreciate that Sumba is far less populated, with only 700,000 residents. It’s at the edge of the wilderness that your five star resort appears like an oasis crouching sensitively on the pristine coastline. You’ll be welcomed by the staff and shown to your gobsmackingly bespoke villa, where you’ll be met by your own personal butler who will take care of your every need throughout your stay.

You’ll have a chance to take a swim in your own private pool and unpack before getting ready to meet at 5pm for a sunset welcome drink or a sunset beach ride at the Sandalwood Stables.

*The sunset beach ride will depend on how late you arrive into the resort. Rest assured if you can’t fit it in on day one, you’ll be able to do this on another day of your itinerary.

If you have time for a sunset ride you’ll be paired with a Sandalwood pony, and once comfortable in the saddle you’ll head out to the beach. There is something truly magical about riding a native horse on this vast, magnetic coastline as the colours of the sunset dance across the sky. It’s also a brilliant way to blow out the jet lag blues and reinvigorate the mind and body. These ponies love to splash in the water, so some salty canters along the shoreline are a MUST.

Dinner at the resort’s wonderful Ombak Restaurant.

Today you’ll experience a very special ride out from the resort of Nihi Sumba, where you’ll get a sense of traditional village life and glimpse the stunning beaches surrounding the island. After breakfast at Ombak restaurant, you’ll leave the stables and ride from the beach overland through palm groves, rice fields and rainforest alleyways. You’ll no doubt pass herds of placid water buffalo wallowing in the muddy rice fields, wave to excitable village children, and dodge yapping dogs and tooting scooters. There is never a dull moment when riding in Sumba, that’s for sure!

You’ll be riding through traditional villages on the island, welcomed by the villagers along the way to view first-hand their everyday life, which has been unchanged for generations. The Sumba people mostly live by farming, cattle breeding, rice field farming and trading. It’s quite common to see an entire family in the paddocks planting corn by hand. It’s a far cry from our cluttered and complicated life in the western world and certainly gives perspective, that’s for sure.

After visiting the village, you’ll ride back down the mountain to the beach, finishing with a windswept beach canter. This will be a two hour ride today, leaving plenty of time to enjoy all the off-the-horse activities Nihi Sumba has to offer.

Today you’ll be riding to Coconut Cove, which already conjures up images of some magical tropical oasis. I promise you one thing: it won’t disappoint.

At the crack of dawn you’ll meet down at the stables, have a small breakfast snack with the horses, then mount up and set off for Coconut Cove, which sits at Rua Beach. En route, you’ll cruise through the local village of Gallowatu. Going from our personal experiences, you’ll never get tired of peering into the world of the Sumbanese, and no doubt you’ll have a trail of excitable village children waving as you walk on by. You’ll ride over grassy hills and through paddocks of alang alang grasslands, which are used to construct the traditional huts in Sumba, before reaching the coast. Arriving at Nihi Sumba’s Coconut Cove Boat House on Rua Beach, you can cool off your horse by taking it into the ocean for a swim, before enjoying a nutritious lunch.

After some relaxing beach time, you can remain on in this pocket of paradise and sign up for a surf lesson depending on the tides (this is the best spot to book a beginner’s surf lesson, at an additional cost) or take the lazy route back to Nihi in a car.

Wake up to another day in tropical, pinch-yourself- paradise! You’ll be itching to get back into the saddle after yesterday’s exhilarating encounter, and you’ll definitely have a thirst to learn more about the wonderful people of Sumba. Today you’ll ride to Nihioka, which is an award-winning spa destination that is completely unimaginable until you see it in the flesh. Perched on a dramatic, rocky escarpment overlooking the sea, you’ll leave your horse in the capable hands of your guides, who will take them back to the stables while you make your way to the Nihioka tree house which is suspended above gigantic boulders.

After a well-earned cooked breakfast, you can relax in the pool or wander through the manicured gardens that surround the spa. Now if you’re up for an extra cost, you’ll have the opportunity to add the option of a spa safari, which gives you unlimited spa treatments for the remainder of the day. It’s a little unbelievable, right? You’ll have your own private bale suspended over the clifftops, where your own personal therapist will pamper you with a choice of facials, massage, reflexology – the list goes on! Should you not wish to add the spa safari onto your stay, you’ll be transported back to Nihi paradise, where you’ll have the afternoon to ponder, relax and explore.

After your final breakfast, and in a dream-like state, you’ll say goodbye to all the wonderful people of Nihi Sumba. Once you’ve settled your account, you’ll take the two-hour drive back to Tambolaka airport in time for your flight off the island.

You’ll soon come to realise it’s nearly impossible to describe this awe-inspiring, out-of-your-skin experience to family and friends, no matter how many photos you show them. Nihi Sumba is a place that certainly touches your soul, embedding memories that last a lifetime!

For the people of Sumba, their life is inseparable from their horses. After spending time on the island you’ll soon realise that the Sumbanese soul is spiritually linked to the horse, and that’s why this island excites us here at Globetrotting to no end. The horse culture is wild and exciting, and the backbone of this ride. It’s believed that horses have been part of Sumbanese life since the mid 18th century.

The Sumba pony breed is named after the island itself. These horses are quick, agile, athletic and fast, with great endurance and a willing temperament. Sumba ponies have a heavy head, a short, muscular neck and low withers. In village life, they are used for packing, riding, light draft work and of course for Pasola.

The other local breed of horse is the Sandalwood pony, which is named after the sandalwood trees, which were one of Sumba’s major exports. The Sandalwood breed is one of the finest in Indonesia, partly due to the Arabian blood running through its veins. Sandalwood ponies are exported to Southeast Asia for racing and also used for amateur bareback racing on the island. They are also used for pulling carts all over Indonesia.

The Beginnings of the Sumba Sandalwood Horse 

“The history of mankind is carried on the back of a horse, let us never forget and celebrate this hard-working, human companion and overall extraordinary beautiful artwork of mother nature”

The arrival of the Sumba horse dates back to the eighth century when traders from China first visited Indonesia. Sumba island was richly populated with Sandalwood trees, a highly sought after expensive wood and oil. The Chinese brought over their hardy Mongolian ponies to work the land and collect the wood, after which they were left on the island. Later, traded rs from the Middle East arrived with their spirited Arab horses to trade for the rich spices of these islands and that’s how the hardy and spirited Sumba Sandalwood Horse came to be. The traditional people of Sumba utilized the horse as value in wedding dowries, ceremonial rituals and sacrifices and their meat was considered a delicacy in Java. More recently mix breeding with Australian Thoroughbreds brought the people higher yields for horse racing and riding. 

This intelligent breed though small in stature is physically agile and spirited. The mind and makeup of the Sumba horse is not compatible with western horses, they are very much attuned to the Sumbanese traditional, unstructured lifestyle and Sumba’s rustic, untamed environment. Though, this environment has challenged them physically, particularly with poor nutritional resources, a harsh climate that bares tropical disease and parasitic infection. The latter is a major contributor to their slight build and underdeveloped size compared to their original breed lineage. 

At Nihi, we wish for the unique rustic and slightly wild Sumba spirit to remain glowing in the hearts of our horses. 

The true Sumba horse is nowhere else found than on the islands that are not yet polluted with the intense breeding for racing, like Sumba or Sumbawa. It’s important to preserve the breed and their unique characteristics.

To be honest, your biggest problem will be fitting in the time to enjoy all of the other exceptional activities offered at the resort besides riding. And that’s why this ride is perfect for partners or family members who are non-riders. There is a plethora of activities available including fishing, jet-skiing, surfing (the beach is world-famous for its surf break and suitable for both beginners and experienced wave chasers), snorkelling, spa treatments, yoga and meditation, at an additional cost. It’s certainly worth considering spending some extra time at Nihi Sumba after your riding itinerary since you’ve travelled this far.