(no subject)
Ok, so this post is a little dated--I started it and then got distracted...and here it waited for me, so I suppose I'll finish and post it.
Actually, as far as Mondays go, this wasn't TOO terrible.
Had an excellent weekend--went and saw Pirates with Liddy, Katie and Thomas, then we all went out to lunch at BJ's in Roseville. Pretty tasty--the pizza I ordered was quite tasty. After we got back from the movie, LIddy and I drove back to her house in Walnut Creek so we would be closer to our Sunday adventure destination--Olema, CA . We made reservations to go on a guided horseback ride for 2 hours. I, knowing how to ride a horse and how much fun it can be, was a little bored, but I was prepared for the "joy" of a group ride. My horse was Dancer---one might invision a spirited horse with lots of energy--he was, however, more of a SLOW dancer. The guide, knowing I could ride, made (though still gave the lecture on how to get onto the horse and how to get my horse to go places) sure to tell me that Dancer would take his sweet time if allowed and that I should keep my leg on him., If anyone has ever been on a guided trail horse, you would know that these horses are SOOOOOOOO pushbutton and on complete automatic pilot. Day after day they have idiot people ride them in a line up the mountain and back down. Dancer was quite set in his ways on how this trail ride was to go--and no amount of kicking did much good to get him to go very fast. I'm confident, however, that had I NOT kept my leg on him that he would have been 20 horse lengths behind the horse in front of me. The guide told me he had smooth gates (the guide also knew that I did mostly english riding--though I did tell him that I learned westsern first) so when we went to do our little trotting bit, I tried so hard to sit his trot and decided to post a little to his ROUGH trot. The guide saw this and made sure to tell me that it was OK if I posted. Gee, thanks for the permission.
So, up the trail we go--there were 7 riders and the guide--Liddy was behind a mother and her two children . Following Liddy was myself and then a guy and his girlfriend. The guy was on a Belgian mare that had to endure my horse farting all the way up the hill. Comedy. I swear that the draft horse was behind me as a way to remind Dancer than he needed to keep moving forward. Even so, the thundering hooves behind him did little to convince him to go any faster. The Belgian kept on our ass the entire way up. The girlfriend and her horse stayed about 5 horse lengths behind the entire time because she couldn't comprehend the idea of kicking her horse to go a little faster. Every time we trotted, the woman did nothing to get her horse to trot, so he took complete advantage of this and kept at a walk. I can't blame this woman--she didn't know how to ride and was afraid to make her horse do anything it didn't want to do. We finally got up the hill and turned around--how exciting! The slow poke horse in back turned into the horse that just wanted to stop and eat...and with no true direction given to him by his rider, I and her boyfriend had to stop several times and try to help her get her horse back on track. The kids up in front had similar issues, and it was interesting to see how the guide handled it all. He shouted directions at the children and even stopped to help them one on one on how to properly handle their horses. With the woman at the end, however, he pretty much just screamed at her. Felt bad for her, but she wasn't following simple direction very well. Toward the very end, after all this talk about how to be gentle and kind to your horses, the horse following behind the guide was threated to be hit by his reins if she didn't stop riding his horse's rear. Is that a way to speak to an animal??? Yes...he was obviously the tough and rough cowboy. He did little to impress me. We got back to the barn and said goodbye to our horses. It was a fun adventure, but I'm not sure I would go on another guided tour there. Does make me wish I had my own horse, again. *sigh* Someday....
So, Liddy and I got back into my car and decided to drive to Inverness and get lunch. Liddy's family owns a house there, so she's grown up visiting there. We stopped at the town store and ordered deli sandwiches. We took our lunches and hiked to a couple of little beaches. We were not planning on this adventure, so we were totally not dressed for the beach, but we had fun. Ate lunch and watched the people swimming. Liddy really wanted to swim, so she changed into some shorts and a shirt she had in her bag and dove in. This is typical of Liddy--she loves to swim. After our hike back to the car, Liddy took me to her family's house--I'd heard so many stories of the place, I was curious to see it. It's a very old, very cool house with an amazing view!!
Drove Liddy back to Walnut Creek and drove home. Slept well that night. Wished I had an extra day to do nothing, but duty called....
Actually, as far as Mondays go, this wasn't TOO terrible.
Had an excellent weekend--went and saw Pirates with Liddy, Katie and Thomas, then we all went out to lunch at BJ's in Roseville. Pretty tasty--the pizza I ordered was quite tasty. After we got back from the movie, LIddy and I drove back to her house in Walnut Creek so we would be closer to our Sunday adventure destination--Olema, CA . We made reservations to go on a guided horseback ride for 2 hours. I, knowing how to ride a horse and how much fun it can be, was a little bored, but I was prepared for the "joy" of a group ride. My horse was Dancer---one might invision a spirited horse with lots of energy--he was, however, more of a SLOW dancer. The guide, knowing I could ride, made (though still gave the lecture on how to get onto the horse and how to get my horse to go places) sure to tell me that Dancer would take his sweet time if allowed and that I should keep my leg on him., If anyone has ever been on a guided trail horse, you would know that these horses are SOOOOOOOO pushbutton and on complete automatic pilot. Day after day they have idiot people ride them in a line up the mountain and back down. Dancer was quite set in his ways on how this trail ride was to go--and no amount of kicking did much good to get him to go very fast. I'm confident, however, that had I NOT kept my leg on him that he would have been 20 horse lengths behind the horse in front of me. The guide told me he had smooth gates (the guide also knew that I did mostly english riding--though I did tell him that I learned westsern first) so when we went to do our little trotting bit, I tried so hard to sit his trot and decided to post a little to his ROUGH trot. The guide saw this and made sure to tell me that it was OK if I posted. Gee, thanks for the permission.
So, up the trail we go--there were 7 riders and the guide--Liddy was behind a mother and her two children . Following Liddy was myself and then a guy and his girlfriend. The guy was on a Belgian mare that had to endure my horse farting all the way up the hill. Comedy. I swear that the draft horse was behind me as a way to remind Dancer than he needed to keep moving forward. Even so, the thundering hooves behind him did little to convince him to go any faster. The Belgian kept on our ass the entire way up. The girlfriend and her horse stayed about 5 horse lengths behind the entire time because she couldn't comprehend the idea of kicking her horse to go a little faster. Every time we trotted, the woman did nothing to get her horse to trot, so he took complete advantage of this and kept at a walk. I can't blame this woman--she didn't know how to ride and was afraid to make her horse do anything it didn't want to do. We finally got up the hill and turned around--how exciting! The slow poke horse in back turned into the horse that just wanted to stop and eat...and with no true direction given to him by his rider, I and her boyfriend had to stop several times and try to help her get her horse back on track. The kids up in front had similar issues, and it was interesting to see how the guide handled it all. He shouted directions at the children and even stopped to help them one on one on how to properly handle their horses. With the woman at the end, however, he pretty much just screamed at her. Felt bad for her, but she wasn't following simple direction very well. Toward the very end, after all this talk about how to be gentle and kind to your horses, the horse following behind the guide was threated to be hit by his reins if she didn't stop riding his horse's rear. Is that a way to speak to an animal??? Yes...he was obviously the tough and rough cowboy. He did little to impress me. We got back to the barn and said goodbye to our horses. It was a fun adventure, but I'm not sure I would go on another guided tour there. Does make me wish I had my own horse, again. *sigh* Someday....
So, Liddy and I got back into my car and decided to drive to Inverness and get lunch. Liddy's family owns a house there, so she's grown up visiting there. We stopped at the town store and ordered deli sandwiches. We took our lunches and hiked to a couple of little beaches. We were not planning on this adventure, so we were totally not dressed for the beach, but we had fun. Ate lunch and watched the people swimming. Liddy really wanted to swim, so she changed into some shorts and a shirt she had in her bag and dove in. This is typical of Liddy--she loves to swim. After our hike back to the car, Liddy took me to her family's house--I'd heard so many stories of the place, I was curious to see it. It's a very old, very cool house with an amazing view!!
Drove Liddy back to Walnut Creek and drove home. Slept well that night. Wished I had an extra day to do nothing, but duty called....