Today is horseback riding day. That is, I signed up for a day of horseback riding at a ranch that sits in an active volcano crater that is smack dab in line with the equator. As with my mountain bike trip, they pick you up near your hotel and transport you to the location of your activity. Except, instead of picking up some interesting people from a funky cafe, like mountain biking, the horse ranch picked us up at the 5 star JW Marriott Hotel.
And the people? All a bit odd in some way. There were ten people packed into the van, which included six United Airlines stewardesses, all dresses in formal horseback riding kit, and four blokes (including myself) dresses in street clothes. The airline stewardesses talked non-stop for the entire drive and joked about how they couldn’t live without their makeup for the three days they were planning to ride. The guys were all a bit quieter and only there for the one day or riding.
The crater valley was beautiful and full of farms. The drive in was half on paved roads and half on a very bumpy dirt road that repeatedly switchbacked to get to the bottom of the crater. The ranch itself was very nice and owned by a Dutch woman who had been raising horses there for 18 years. We were each teamed up with a horse that suited our experience level and sent off in two different groups. The airline stewardesses all seemed to be quite experienced and many seemed to own horses back in the U.S., so they went off on their own. The rest of us were of varying skill levels, so we went out together – perhaps on some easier trails.
My horse was named Sam. Sam was good for the most part, but would lag behind from time to time until I kicked him to catch up. He also seemed very keen to cherry-pick his favourite plants for snacking along the way. On the whole, however, he was a much better horse than any I have experienced before. He did get spooked and bolted for several meters at one point. Not sure if he was startled by the black dog following us, named Shadow, or by stepping on something. I thought the quick bolt was rather fun, but the two young Scandinavian backpacker guides we had kept asking me if I was okay.
We followed dirt roads for the first half, until we met up with the stewardesses for lunch. Bland Dutch lunches aren’t as tasty as spicy Ecuadorian lunches. after lunch we followed some really neat trails that plunged down from a lava cone we were up on top of. The terrain was very green and dense and the trail very narrow and steep, which made the ride quite fun and interesting. We trotted quite a few times for about 50 meters a stretch, but that was something that didn’t quite agree with my butt. I guess I have to work a bit on a better technique. I’ve noticed the pros bouncing every other trot when I find myself hitting the saddle with every trot.
All in all it was a nice experience, but I can’t say I enjoyed it as much as mountain biking. Perhaps if the horses were faster? Not sure.
