Horseback Riding

We went horseback riding this past weekend with Valerie through Rainforest Riding and had a blast.   The rain made me fairly skeptical about whether we would be able to ride, but the guide assured us it would be fine, so we threw on our ponchos and geared up for the ride. I had been on a horse once before, but didn’t ride it very far, so this would be a new experience for me.  I greeted my horse, Lucy, as I hoped on her back.  Lucy was a race horse from St. Lucia in her glory days. 

Our only instructions were to control our horses and follow the stallions.   That would’ve been reasonable, except we had no previous significant experience riding a horse.  I assumed she said control the horse as a formality, as  I would surely be helpless if Lucy decided to take off or buck me off her back, so I took it to mean that the horses were well trained and not much controlling would be necessary.  This proved to be the case.  There were moments when I channeled my memory of horse movies and whipped the rains while yelling “yah, yah”.  Lucy responded by turning around pursing her lips and snorting, as if to say “you can’t be serious right now.”   She would then take a bite off the grass and proceed to move when she felt ready.  Only later did she start to respond to my commands, as I gave her a firm smack on the hind leg.

We split up our big group into two, one group went a couple hours before us, and there were three people riding in my group.   We were instructed to follow behind the stallion and not to pass it, as the stallion has a huge ego and will attack the other horses if “disrespected”. 

We rode up a trail high into the mountains through to an area dense with trees forming a high-rising canopy creating a cooling mist from the rain.  It looked like a scene out of Jurassic Park.  We heard the noisy national birds, a green parrot, with red underneath its wings, as they found shelter in the tree barks.  We caught glimpses of them flying away, flapping vigorously through the wind.  After exiting the canopy, we overlooked Cabrits (two volcano elevations where the remains of an old English fort are located) and the beach.  We made stops along the trail to view sugar cane plantations where Dominican slaves used to work.  We also stopped to collect bay leaves and cinnamon leaves and bark to make tea.  We also ate fresh cocoa off the tree.  The white outside layer surprisingly tastes like a sweet/sour candy while the brown inside is grinded to make chocolate.   It was a great experience, enhanced by the rain.  After all, what’s a rain forest without rain?