April of 2008 found Jen & I on a cruise ship in the Caribbean. The ship stopped in Jamaica and we decided to try horse back rinding. I had promised Jen that we would do it at least once in our life. After a very nail biting bus ride to the ranch. (They drive like crazy in Jamaica.) We were given helmets and assigned to horses.
Jen got hers first and started riding her horse in a circle to get the feel of horse riding. She took to it very quickly and looked like a natural. I was placed on a male horse, which later would give me some unwanted excitement.Riding on the horse was not to hard. I had to get used to the rocking motion when the horse moved and learn how to lean forward or back when going up or down hill. My main problem was making sure my horse followed my directions and not try to go his own way, which was always to the nearest plant or grass.
After a few minutes getting used to our horses, we started on our trek. I was behind Jen the whole time and had the camera. So most of the pictures were of her.We started climbing a hill, which was difficult for a first time rider. You had to lean forward on your horse so that you were almost laying on the horses neck. I did this for most of the ride up until I looked behind me and saw the view. We had a wonderful view of the Caribbean and the island. So I got my camera out and while still leaning forward on my horses neck, I pointed the camera behind me and took a few blind pictures. I think they still came out well.
Our ride took us through some of the beautiful countryside of Jamaica. It has a a lot of vegetation on the island and there was green everywhere. We passed by a few homes, if you could call them homes. They were more like the type of homes that people built during the great depression and called them Hooverville. Anything thing that could be found was used to make the home. You could tell that after a hurricane, these people would lose whatever home they had and just scavage for any material they could find to rebuild it.My guide told me about how poor these people were and encouraged me to donate money to charities that would benefit people like these.
We had guides on their own horses accompanying us on our tour and I was enjoying the friendship of one. The problem was that every time he rode by me, my horse was start bucking or trying to move away on his horse. My guide told me it was because the horse he was riding was a female and mine was a male. And for some reason, my horse was not liking his horse and so would try to move away or buck so that his horse would get away from him. This made me gain a very sudden respect for any rodeo rider who gets on a horse that bucks violently. Mine did not buck as violent but it was enough to make me nervous.Our tour also took us by some steep declines that we did not have to go directly down, but did have to ride by very closely. Those made me nervous as it is not easy to control a horse who may want to head towards that tasty looking plant by the cliff. But having a powerful horse at your control is also exciting. Once you can control them, they can get you almost anywhere and quickly too. It was fun and I felt like I was in the old west.
When we returned the ranch, we changed into our swim suits and then took our horses out into the bay for a swim. It was wonderful. The water was warm and the horses can swim fast. I would have loved to just ride that horse through the bay all day. But it was over too quickly for me. My guide asked me how it was and I replied that it was wonderful but too short. He told me to wait just a little bit, then he took the last group out, returned and had me and a few others saddle up again. I got to head out into the bay again. Jen stayed on land this time and took some pictures of her very untanned husband enjoying the swim.This ended our horse riding experience. We loved it very much and will do it again whenever we get the chance. If you have not had the chance to ride a horse, you need to try it at least once in your life.
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