Horse Back Riding


The last portion of the tour that my family and I went on deserved it's own post.  We signed up to go horseback riding at a small farm up in a hillier area, and it's safe to say that everyone was excited to go. My sister and I used to ride when we were younger, and we used to compete in small equestrian shows in the summers. As life goes everyone got busy and we weren't able to continue, but that didn't stop either of us from looking forward to this portion of the tour. My poor dad though, he might be a little spooked by horses since he had a bit of an experience when my mom used to ride and they went on a trail ride together and my dad's horse decided that it wanted to take a quick run to the other side of the trail. It was a bit chilly in the area since it had been raining all day, but for the moment it seemed that we might get off the hook and have a dry ride. They brought the horses in and they were so gorgeous, the one that I got was named chocolate, and she had a personality, my dad (the one scared of horses) got the biggest horse there named literally Big Tom and I was trying so hard not to laugh at the pure horror on his face when that horse walked in, and then my sister got the smallest of the group and I forget the name of her horse. After everyone was settled and the trail guides were on their respective horses and the rest of the group was good to go we set out of the barn and towards the trail. 
We had a quick ride on tarmac but then we got through to the pastures and then to the trail. Getting there it started to rain again but the area was still very pretty, and I could tell that this ride through the forest ahead was going to be one of my favorite parts of this trip. I was leading the group with the guide next to me and we were just talking about some of the other things I've done in Ireland and what I'm studying while I'm here, it was a nice conversation and it took away from the couple of times Chocolate tried throwing me off via yanking her head down while I'm distracted (she liked me by the end don't worry). Going through the most of the trail it was very green and the branches and leaves were all low hanging which made the experience so nice. It started to pour about halfway through the ride which was a little miserable but when we got to a quarry and you could see the rain falling in front of you it made the whole ride worth it. We took another hour going through the rest of the trail and it was nice to not have my phone on me and out so I could really appreciate and be in the moment, I listened to the birds and the rain around me, I was able to notice the little things that I usually wouldn't have if I was closer to my phone and it was just an overall really lovely experience. For this one I was reading The Wild Swans and Coole by Yeats, or at least I read it on the bus after the tour when I was dry and warm. I thought of; "The trees are in their autumn beauty, The woodland paths are dry, Under the October twilight the water, Mirrors a still sky" because while the woodland paths were in fact not dry, this really made me think of how beautiful the trail was, and the part about mirroring the sky reminded me of when I was watching some of the rain in the puddles near my feet and I could see the reflections of things around me and the sky above me.

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