Our horseback ride was amazing and yet, at the same time, rather surreal. Natalie, Trip, Jay and I mounted our loyal steeds of the day and followed Charlie, a blond, exuberant Swedish woman in her 50s or 60s who’d been living in Belize for decades. She led us out of the town and into the jungle, where she occasionally had to pause to hack a path with the machete she carried at her side.
Natalie and Trip had relatively normal horses... but ours had personality! My horse, Niño, enjoyed lagging behind and swiping mouthfuls of whatever plant he could find. When we fell too far behind, he cantered smoothly to catch up and then proceeded at a snails pace again to enjoy the scenery and scope out the culinary options. I loved it! Time to take pictures, plus the opportunity to canter? All right!
Jay was not quite as pleased. His horse, Niña (strangely, Niño’s mother) sensed from the start that he was inexperienced, and she also tended to lag behind. Everytime she had anyone but Niño behind her, she threw a fit and anytime Jay tried to speed her up, she turned and gave him a withering glare before continuing to go at whatever pace she damn well pleased (I thought she was great!). So we stuck together in the back of the group, with one exception: water.
We had to follow the other horses closely when crossing water because, despite the sun and heat, both Niño and Niña were incredibly hydrophobic. If not directly following another horse, they would not cross. Even when they could see the other horses, and even when it was just a trickle or a muddy patch, they would balk, pace, try to find an alternative and finally either trudge bitterly through (Niña) or, far more exciting and yet rather whiplash enducing, jump (Niño).
In total, we spent about 8 hours, taking a break near a river for lunch and another by an old Mayan arch and steps to admire the ruins. The day was amazing and, although we were sore for days afterwards, completely worth it.
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| Horseback riding near San Ignacio, Belize |
2 comments:
Hey, so I just Googled Trip and I and I found you guys, and a post including us. HA, weird! Hope you're doing well, wherever you may be.
Hey, you guys! Sorry, I forgot to check comment moderation for a reaaaally long time :-) Thanks for the note, and we hope all is well with you!
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