This weekend was another wild one.  We had a two day ride yesterday and today. Yesterday was a bit of a mess because two of the riders were over an hour late for the ride, so the rest of the ride went out and I waited for them and was to meet up with the rest of the group later. When the couple came they turned out to be great!  I was left with Fly, for whoever turned out to be more experienced, Peter, for the less experienced, and Snowy for ME!!!  The couple was from Canada and Ann was a quite experienced rider and her husband had only ridden a few times, but he was very capable.  For us to meet up with everyone we had to do quite a bit of cantering, but we made it there in one piece and happy!  We met the rest of the group at the lunch stop.  Yet again it was a great lunch of roll ups with tons of veggies and cheese and meat with yoyos for desert.  YUM!  Snowy was a complete different horse than the first time I took him on the two day ride.  He didn’t jump over the creeks, he calmly walked through.  He only jumped logs when I asked him to.  He is very responsive and has a great neck rein.  The only time I had trouble with him was when I got off to open gates.  When I went to get back on he was a prancing spinning mess.  Luckily I am used to getting on a moving horse.  After I got on I tried to make him stand so he was bucking and half rearing a bit.  When we got to Sarra’s riverhouse we untacked the horses and washed them down.  Then we got drinks and nibblies to everyone and Michael and Sally left Steph and I to cook and take care of everyone for the night.

We had some free time so we went for an amazing swim.  The newly engaged couple was there, the English cousins came out, and the Canadian couple also came out to the pool.  Everyone was highly amusing and very pleasant and the cool swim was awesome after a long ride.  Everyone helped out with most everything.  After the swim we showered then got ready to cook dinner.  Steph cooked the meat while I set up the tables, set the table, and prepared the salads and drinks.  Dinner was a great success and we had great conversations. 

The next morning I had to head back to the stable to lead out other rides while Steph went on with the two day ride.  In the morning I brought the herd in by going out with a feed bag and shaking it until the herd followed me in at a trot. I tacked up Snowy and led Jaffa and the new gelding.  Snowy was great and Jaffa ponied right next to me.  The new horse really hung back, but by the end he was alright.  Once I got those three horses back to Camp Haqua I had to drive back to the stable.  It was a bit tricky to drive on the left side of the road, but easily doable.  The biggest difference is the turning signal is on the right rather than the left and the gearshift is on the left rather than the right. 

I got back to the stable just in time to jump on my horse and leave on the ride.  I rode Raff for the day, he is a big annoying gray gelding.  He is slow going out and needs a ton of leg, he gets prancy heading home and pulls like a freight train.  I did not like him at all.   His gaits were long, but nothing special.  We had a two hour ride in the morning and the people on it were great, but we couldn’t do much with them because they had a seven year old who had never ridden before.  So we took it slow and only did a small bit of trotting and we were unable to go up the big hill like we usually did.  The ladies on this ride were great and told me that I am really good at my job.  This made me rather happy because I am still getting used to being a horseback guide.  After ten minutes to grab lunch we had an hour ride.  It was another group of four and this time none of them had ridden before.  So again, we only did a little trotting and overall it was a boring ride, but the kids and the mom seemed to have fun.

After this ride Nina and I had a small bit of time to untack the horses and wash them down, then Sally came to pick me up and take me to the winery.  I joined the group for a glass of wine, then we had to ride and pony horses back to the stable.  This time I rode Bert… my third horse of the day.  Bert is an adorable little chestnut arab gelding.  He has a bit of spunk and sometimes gets a little wound up.  I was ponying Fly, the bitchy chestnut mare.  As we left the winery Bert was bouncing up and down as Fly was pinning her ears.  Michael of course was urging Bert on… taunting him with are you excited Bertie… do you want to go Bertie.  At this point Bert’s front end was bouncing off the ground non-stop in harmless half rears.  As we kept riding he settled first into a frantic jig then finally into a nice walk.  Near the end of the trail we decided to go on a canter.  Michael was first on Lawson and ponying two horses and he went great.  Next one of our guests was on Jordie and did great, then a guest on Nelly ponying Ox.  I was next and rather than cantering Bert started bouncing up and down while Fly pinned her ears at him and attempted to attack him.  I couldn’t stop laughing… I was attempting to get Bert to stretch his stride out and actually canter while trying to yell at and correct Fly.  It was rather entertaining.  Steph was behind me on TC leading Pete.  TC really wanted to move out, but Pete wouldn’t break into a canter so she ended up almost laying completely back on TC trying to drag Pete.  It was a great end to a great day.