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It
was 8:30am and most riders turned up nice and early to get their horses
ready for the
long ride. You always have to wait for someone don't you??? By 9.00am we were all tacked up
ready to go, the last two had now turned up.
Armed with our ruck sacks, we
were loaded with food and water and lots of hyper activity from seven excited
juniors. As we left the yard, they all waved good bye to their parents.
We set off on our little adventure up through the hills towards Benidoleig. |
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At first we rode through the
orange groves, our big horse "Eagle Star" of 18 years of age, usually slow,
decided it was fun to be at the front, then also our little mountain pony
Freddy, was at the front too, and the higher we got the more in front he wanted to
be.
Every now and then he stopped,
looked behind towards us as if to say "Come on then!!!". He was the unfittest of all the
horses but I guess he felt at home riding up through the hills...
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Half way up the hill, we
stopped to have a rest in the shade. One of the riders forgot she was
holding a horse and let go... as her horse started making his way back
down the hill, two girls shrieked "Catch him!" so as he went past, the
rider got hold of his stirrup which came off the saddle, in a bit of a shock at the stirrup being
pulled off, he came trotting back to me (the horse that is - not the
rider).
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After
all the excitement, we got back on our way and made our way to the top of the hill where we spent time
looking at the breathtaking view over the Marina Alta. We made
our way through a small part of an urbanisation towards Benidoleig where we found a nice quiet
shady place for the horses to rest and we could have a break. |
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One
of the horses thought it would be funny to undo the ruck sack of his rider and help himself to her
snacks. When she realized it, he had already helped himself to an apple and a
packet of crisps while another horse thought it he also deserved an apple also
hidden away in the rucksack of his rider...
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After the break, we set off down
the hill and through the village. People looked at us as we rode through the
village but everybody smiled and gave us plenty of room to pass. On our
way back to Ondara, riding through the orange groves, everybody was having
fun, and no one could stop giggling.
The irrigation system was
running fresh cold water which all except two horses were happy to drink from. they
were too posh to drink from there. When wearrived back with all the
horses, they were all ready for a nice cold hosing off, a good old roll... and
their feed. One of the mothers was an absolute star, she bought fresh cold
Coca-Cola for us all which went down a treat and also a big bag of juicy
apples for the horses. All in all everyone had had a very enjoyable day... |
