Horsin' Around

After storming the castle yesterday, we headed off to do a little horseback riding through a great little company called Horsin' Around. They were a really fun group of tour guides who did an amazing job of handling our extremely mixed experience group and we had a blast!

As always, safety was our number one priority, demonstrated by our sweet hats:


When one guide, Claire, went around asking our group about each person's riding experience, Jason summed his up by saying, "I've seen a horse before..." Needless to say, Claire decided Jason should spend some extra time bonding with his horse, Galaxy, before the ride.


In no time at all, they were best buds and Jason was ready to receive his "driving" instructions:


Obviously, my previous riding experience did little to make me feel at home on a horse this time around. It is clear from this picture that I really have no business being on a horse.


After spending a few minutes practicing around the stables, I felt a bit more confident, however Minty is clearly less than thrilled to be spending the next hour and a half with me...


Terry, on the other hand, seems right at home on a horse; way to go Terry! Most of the pictures in this blog are thanks to her. She was riding with no hands, backwards, doing handstands on the saddle, snapping away with her camera. Meanwhile, I was too busy holding on for dear life to even think about taking my camera out!


Here we are about 20 minutes into the ride, heading down the sugar cane lined riverbed. The scenery was beautiful, but, as you can see, I still hadn't convinced myself that I was loving this horseback riding thing:


After we came up out of the riverbed, we had wonderful views of Frigiliana, another of Spain's white villages and widely thought of as one of the most beautiful (definitely still on my list of places to visit while here!):


We also rode through tons of avocado, mango, and olive groves. It was so hard to resist the temptation to pick something!


And finally, we made it back to the stables safely, protective helmets used for little else than deflecting low hanging sugar cane stalks (whew!...did I mention that I once watched my brother get bucked off of a pony!? Didn't exactly trust these big guys wholeheartedly...).