Took a lovely hot shower (forgot my towel, but my EMS techwick t-shirt worked like a charm!) and off we went, back up near Richmond to Stonehurst Farms for a trail ride!
Wendy has plenty of experience with horses, but not me. Yet for some reason, I got it in my head that I wanted to go on a trail ride in New Zealand. Don't ask me why, I don't know. It sounded like a great idea at the time!
The land was beautiful, we pulled up to the barns around 9:30 for our 10 a.m. ride. The sun had finally come out and we were ready to experience three hours on the "Musterer's Trail," the route that they use to round up the sheep and walk them onto other pastures.
Our guide, Sue, was originally from Dunedin, much further south on the island. She works with the horses and also shears sheep on the side! She seemed like a tough but cute chick! Sue set us up with our horses for the day--me with Dinky, a grumpy old work horse who was very food motivated (huh, some similarities with the rider...) and Wendy with Rodney while she rode Oyo.
We rode through the floodplain filled with eucalyptus trees, through the river, by very steep pastures, near the forested hills. Dinky was not a fan of me being on his back. He rode under low-hanging branches, very close to wire fences, brambles and stopped quite often to eat. I still had a blast!
We stopped in a lovely meadow in a mountain pass at the musterer's shack is located. The horses got a break and a chance to eat (as if Dinky needed more to eat).
It was getting hot but was a gorgeous day. After a short break of cookies and the NZ equivalent to Tang, we got back on the horses and headed back to the barns on a somewhat different route. A loud noise from the nearby forestry crew startled Rodney and then Dinky and both took off with a start, leaving me clinging to his mane for dear life!! After that little experience, Sue showed us how to "post," whereby the horse is trotting faster and the rider is supposed to ease up and down so as not to hit one's rear end as hard and fast as the horse is riding. So, yeeeeaaaahhhh. Let's just say posting didn't go so well for me (although quite hilarious at my complete lack of ability) and needless to say that my rear was sore for days. Yeeeouch.
But gorgeous scenery was all around us and it was easy to get lost in the rural romance of it all. Sue pointed out a white horse in one of the farm's many pastures and said, "that one on the left is named Percy. It was Gandalf's horse in the LOTR movies." Pretty cool!! Although the name "Percy" isn't quite cool enough for a LOTR horse name, sorry to say.
We said our goodbyes (our first round of goodbyes, as it turns out) and went to get in the van. The engine wouldn't start...oh no!!! I had left the lights on, so we had a very dead battery and needed a jump start. Luckily, Sue found one of the farm hands to help and we were back in business. Such awesome, friendly and helpful folks!!! Native NZ'ers are really so cool.
We headed west towards the ocean by way of some amazing gorges and beautiful scenery.
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