Traveling The Friendship Highway
Wednesday, October 3rd, 2007I had one more adventure near Lhasa before heading out on the seven day trip to Nepal. On Wednesday morning Greg, Kera, and I, along with four other people, were shuttled by van to the Denchen valley. There I met up with the first of the three horses that I would ride that day. Before continuing, I should say a little about Tibetan horses and riding styles. The horses are smaller than western horses (more the size of a large pony). The stirrups on the saddles tend to be non adjustable, and the saddles are not cinched as tight as on western horses. The saddles are also a hodge podge of styles including wood, steel, and old British calvary saddles. You can imagine what happens when someone of my height gets on a short horse with short stirrups. The ride though fun left me cramped and bruised. After meeting the horses, we mounted them and went on our way riding through several small villages and along an arid mountain valley. My first horse (the Toyota Corolla of horses) responded well to commands but was very thirsty. He stopped at every watering spot and drank copious amounts of water. I could feel him swelling up like a balloon. I had to constantly hurry the horse along to catch up with group. After lunch, we switched horses. This time I ended up on a grandma horse (the Buick of horses) with graying mane. She couldn’t be hurried and was content to stay in the center of the pack. She appeared to have a male admirer who wouldn’t leave her side despite repeated attempts from his rider. At one point another male horse appeared to show some interest but was dismissed with a kick from my horse (while I was on her). My last horse of the day was a male (sports car horse). This was the first time that I have ever galloped (or very fast trot) on a horse. At one point I almost fell off the horse sideways due to the loose saddle but managed to right myself. The saddle of this horse was very male unfriendly. It had a foward lean that squished me against the saddle horn. Not good when going fast on a horse. During the ride we were accompanied by a young colt whose mother was part of our pack. The colt was constantly backing up to convenient trees to get a good scratch on his rear. It was also interesting to see the ruins of the fire stations high on the hills. The Tibetans used a system very similar to Lord of the Rings to alert neighboring villages of imminent invasion. They would light fires atop tall hills. Each within sight of the next station. [read on]
cjun