Lucky for me this trip both offers the opportunities and good company to boot.
So here we are in, or somewhere near Bariloche, and Brendan recommends this place that will let us ride all day. And even better, they will feed us all-you-can-eat BBQ and red wine for lunch in between rides! Does life get any better?
First stop is... Nope, not a waiver, not a helmet, not even a brief overview of the ride...Its the "get on a horse" part!
I should have suspected something was amok when my horse was named Samantha. Its just not the name of a spirited stallion is it?! Worse still, she had to be almost dragged out of the shade to meet me.
As you can probably guess, Samantha's heart just wasn't in it. While all the others cantered merrily down the trail, I was offered a green branch (whip) to help give Samantha the message... like kicking her repeatedly wasn't enough! She was described as stubborn by the staff. I prefer to think of her as "almost dead".
After several hours of this, I had made up my mind that I needed a different horse if I was to continue riding after lunch. So while the others finished off another bottle of vino tinto, I went outside to have a word in English with our Spanish-only speaking riding guides.
(Just for the record, I believe my Oasis friends found that last bottle of vino tinto on the table next to ours... at around the same time they relieved that table of their excess BBQ beef!)
Getting back to my quest for a horse that could keep up;
Imagine this... Me using broken and very poor Spanish (mostly made up) along with hand gestures to indicate that I needed a more lively horse AND while we were at it, my butt was sore, so could we add a sheepskin blanket to the English saddle I was enduring? Yep, they understood alright. And once they finished laughing themselves silly, I was assured my next horse would be faster.
Lesson of the day: Be careful what you wish for.
Cordito was a good looking horse, definitely taller, more muscular and his eyes looked sparklier too.
Definitely a better looking horse than Ewan's.
I tried him out with a gentle nudge and a "giddy-up". And we were off! From 0 to 60 in only a few seconds, I barely had time to hold on before having to rein him in.
The rest of my day was great. Even though I have no doubt the riding staff were probably teaching me a lesson, I had fun and managed take a few photos and video as we enjoyed the hills and vistas in the brilliant sunshine. Life is good.
In fact the only thing holding me back in the afternoon, was George and his slow-poke horse! If he hadn't been so entertaining, sitting upon his horse, legs straight out, singing "Summer breeze makes me feel fine..." I might have felt more frustrated. But before I got to that point, others did.
I would loved to have captured on film the part when Brendon came trotting up behind George and whipped the rear of his horse with a long green stick! Apparently old slow-poke had it in him to canter after all!!! The important thing is that George (a first time rider?) did manage to hold on, and in fact looked just as ready to hit the disco when finished, as when we started. Nice job George :-)
