With a week off from camp, several of the camp staff (myself included) decided to go visit one of the local Sports Friends teams. The game plan was to meet at the stable at 12:30 pm and be loping down the road by 1:00 pm so that we would be at the training before 2:00. It seemed like a great plan – that was until we arrived at the stable :)
To our surprise when we arrived at the stable, neither the horses nor the stable worker were in sight. After about 20 minutes we finally found the stable worker. He was sweating profusely and looked extremely defeated. He explained that he had been trying to catch the horses for the last hour but was very unsuccessful. Since we live on a compound that is surrounded on each side by either a body of water or a fence, the horses are allowed to roam the grounds during the day. On this day the horses decided to be particularly ornery. As soon as we would ‘corner’ the horses, they would take off sprinting to the other side of the compound. During one of our attempts to catch the horses, Asse and I stopped to re-hydrate at the home of one of the clinic nurses. Lucky for us it was lunch time and the nurse joyfully gave us several mouthfuls of gorsha (a sign of friendship where you feed each other). An hour and 45 minutes later we finally had the horses saddled. It was at this point my boss turns to me and asks if I felt comfortable running the horses. I smiled, looked at the saddled horses and assured him that I would be fine. Hahaha. The whole time I’m thinking ‘is a lope the same as a run? I’ve only loped a horse for about 6 strides…how much harder could a 10 kilometer ride be?’
I mount the horse and we hit the road. Who knew getting a horse to run would be sooo hard. I kicked, whipped, and tried every noise I knew how to make with my mouth to get the horse to run. Once I finally got him running, it became very apparent that my stirrups were about 4 inches too short. Oh good times. It took every muscle in my body to stay on that horse. During the entire ride I kept trying to remember what Jacki and Hannah Cook had taught me during my lesson back in Idaho, but all I could think about was how to keep the horse running without falling off. At one point my foot slipped out of one of the stirrups just as the neighborhood boys thought it was a good idea to run along side the horse and crack their whips. Talk about exhilarating.
We finally made it to the training session and were able to watch the boys play. We engaged some of the spectators in conversation and spoke to the team and crowd after the training. I was excited because there were a couple small groups of teenage girls gathered to enjoying the sporting activities. Who knows, if there is enough interest I may start a team and ride a horse to practice!
Oh…in case you were curious, we made it back home safely and I was RIDICULOUSLY sore the next couple of days!!!
To our surprise when we arrived at the stable, neither the horses nor the stable worker were in sight. After about 20 minutes we finally found the stable worker. He was sweating profusely and looked extremely defeated. He explained that he had been trying to catch the horses for the last hour but was very unsuccessful. Since we live on a compound that is surrounded on each side by either a body of water or a fence, the horses are allowed to roam the grounds during the day. On this day the horses decided to be particularly ornery. As soon as we would ‘corner’ the horses, they would take off sprinting to the other side of the compound. During one of our attempts to catch the horses, Asse and I stopped to re-hydrate at the home of one of the clinic nurses. Lucky for us it was lunch time and the nurse joyfully gave us several mouthfuls of gorsha (a sign of friendship where you feed each other). An hour and 45 minutes later we finally had the horses saddled. It was at this point my boss turns to me and asks if I felt comfortable running the horses. I smiled, looked at the saddled horses and assured him that I would be fine. Hahaha. The whole time I’m thinking ‘is a lope the same as a run? I’ve only loped a horse for about 6 strides…how much harder could a 10 kilometer ride be?’
I mount the horse and we hit the road. Who knew getting a horse to run would be sooo hard. I kicked, whipped, and tried every noise I knew how to make with my mouth to get the horse to run. Once I finally got him running, it became very apparent that my stirrups were about 4 inches too short. Oh good times. It took every muscle in my body to stay on that horse. During the entire ride I kept trying to remember what Jacki and Hannah Cook had taught me during my lesson back in Idaho, but all I could think about was how to keep the horse running without falling off. At one point my foot slipped out of one of the stirrups just as the neighborhood boys thought it was a good idea to run along side the horse and crack their whips. Talk about exhilarating.
We finally made it to the training session and were able to watch the boys play. We engaged some of the spectators in conversation and spoke to the team and crowd after the training. I was excited because there were a couple small groups of teenage girls gathered to enjoying the sporting activities. Who knows, if there is enough interest I may start a team and ride a horse to practice!
Oh…in case you were curious, we made it back home safely and I was RIDICULOUSLY sore the next couple of days!!!
