Thursday, March 22, 2010 - Two Rides at LaEnsenada

The howler monkeys woke me up around 5:00 this morning, but Hubby said he didn’t hear a thing. I went right back to sleep and didn’t think they hooted any more, but Bill said they went on for another hour, so I guess I was oblivious. Breakfast at 7:00 followed by another ride at 8:30. This time was mostly walking with the occasional jog at first, riding slowly and quietly through fields, forests and a bit of jungle before we reached a lovely spot with large rocks near a young teak forest. We rested there for more than half an hour (not that we really needed the rest, it was just part of the ride I guess) before heading back the way we came until we picked up the road where we came in. We saw a crocodile in a ditch near one farm, and admired the work of a melon plantation, as well as a salt farm. It was a lovely ride, but frankly the pace we were keeping was making me crazy, just a bit too fast to do a slow jog, a bit too slow to canter (though I discovered my horse Lucero had a perfectly wonderful slow canter, the kind that’s almost standing in place!), but I eventually discovered a fast walk that turned out to actually be a "pace" step, which is when both legs on the same side of the body go at the same time, rather than diagonally as most horses do. It’s the kind of movement a horse that pulls sulkies in harness races do. It’s not normally a natural gait, it’s one that’s learned, but apparently, Lucero had learned it somewhere along the line, and I was extremely grateful! It was wonderfully smooth and kept up to the slow jog of the horse master beautifully. Loved it! Then, as we neared home, we started cantering for a bit across a field, and before you know it, on the turn for home, we were all galloping like madmen, stones flying everything, Hubby almost lost his hat, mine came off though my string kept me from losing it, and we carried on like that around the home stretch, again for at least a half a mile. It was incredibly exhilarating! Not many places I’ve been, or even heard about, let you race like that, but we loved it, though it’s not necessarily a good practice for the last stretch back to the barn. Got back around 11:00, rested until lunch (though Bill went out to the pool), where we met a birding couple from Grant’s Pass Oregon for a nice lunch conversation. After lunch and an afternoon siesta, we dressed again for riding, and headed off from the stable. It soon became clear that the path we were on was mostly the path we took yesterday in reverse, but at a much slower pace. After walking for quite some time, Bill (in response to my body language, which was frustration that we had these great horses but were simply walking all the time) finally requested that we be allowed to canter a bit across a fabulous field we were crossing. With some reluctance and some urging from our guide Paulo, the wrangler finally agreed, and we had a lovely canter, across the field, then back again, then across again, just to enjoy the moment. There were some cows there, too, so we were able to circle around them a few times, which added a little variety. It was a good time, but one that probably should have been included without us having to ask. Anyway, we walked some more, until we finally climbed a hill to the lookout point that was to be our vantage for the "sunset" portion of our sunset ride. Unfortunately, it was still 45 minutes before sunset, so instead of taking the chance to ride for another half an hour, we were compelled to sit there looking at the view, which was quite stunning, but we didn’t need to look at it for 45 minutes! Bill was ready to leave earlier, but was patient enough to wait until the actual sun went down before we headed back, at my request. Once again, we walked, then sort of pushed the wrangler into a canter, until we were on the home stretch. At least I thought it was the home stretch, but I was wrong. We were galloping along the gravel road when we suddenly came to a turn which I had forgotten about, and we tried the make the corner too quickly just behind Hubby, and I was a bit worried about my horse slipping on the gravel, and didn’t balance properly on the turn, so as a result, my horse turned faster than I did and I flew off. Fortunately, I held onto the reins long enough to break the fall, but then my horse got too excited at the other horses coming up behind us (and the reins are really short), so the rein was ripped from my grip and the horse took off. Fortunately, having had the fall broken, I landed without any injury, except a tiny rope burn on my pinkie from where the rein slipped out. I got up and walked the rest of the way back, encouraging everyone to just keep going. Hubby couldn’t get his horse to stop, Bill kept going after my urging, Paulo got off his horse to walk with me just to make sure I was okay despite my reassurances. No big deal, really, I seem to fall off horses all the time, and it was entirely my fault for not keeping my balance on the turn. Afterward, I had a stiff drink (always a cure for whatever ails me), had a nice dinner, had more active discussions with two Belgians and another Tico astronomer who was there to observe the stars before retiring for the evening, with a hot shower and looking forward to a good night sleep. (pix to come)