Horse riding with the Marlborough Women in Cintsa...

Our last full day in Cintsa, Ozell and I went on a horse ride through some of the coastal scrub on the rolling hills and along the beach near our hostel.  The horse tour operator is independent from the hostel, but highly reliant on them for customers.  It was a mother and daughter team whom looked every bit the parts of the Marlborough Women- if you allow yourself to creative license to alter the gender of the Marlborough Man.  Neither were manly, the were country tom boys who spent everyday outdoors and in the sun and rain.  They were rugged and weathered.  I'm sure the two-pack-a-day habit they each had also contributed to their rugged and weathered image.  Hahahaha.

 

They take in abused and neglected horses and take care of them.  When they are in good health, they are put to work by carrying people on horse rides on nearby trails.  The income the women receive for the horse rides pretty much provides for the care of the horses.  They have about 40 horses of varying size and ability so riders with varying size and ability can be accommodated.  Ozell and I enjoyed the horse ride.  It was only the third time I have been on a horse and my first since I was 14.  It was Ozell's first time.  I think the part that we both liked the most was the opportunity to walk, trot, and cantor with our horses.  My other horse rides have only been walking with one short trot I think.  It was both our first times cantering which is faster than trotting.  I guess it goes, walking, trotting, cantering, and then galloping.  Cantering was pretty fast and fast enough for both of us on that day.  I wouldn't mind trying galloping sometime.  Trotting was the least comfortable- it was very bumpy until you got the rhythm down, but even then, it was hard to stay in that rhythm.  Cantering, although faster, was a much more comfortable body motion.  And that was the most interesting part.  I got to literally feel the difference in the physiology of a two-legged mammal's mechanics of mobility (me) and that of a four-legged mammal's mechanics of mobility (a horse).  Basically, our legs use the same motion between walking, jogging, and sprinting.  We just move our legs more quickly to go faster.  (I know this isn't exactly correct.)  But with the horse's mechanics, body parts move completely differently and at different rhythms for each of the types of motion: walking, trotting, cantering, and galloping.  It was neat to actually feel those differences rather than to just muse over them purely intellectually in my mind.

 

Here is a pic from the ride.  There will be more posted in the photo album soon.

 

Cheers,

 

Sean