This past weekend Charlene and I went to her friend’s house in Olds to celebrate her purchase of a new home. It looked pretty sweet. Fully renovated from the 60s.
I think Charlene and I were pretty tired from the week because we were laughing uncontrollably at things that weren’t really all that funny. (Ange, I’m sure you can relate to that!) A cell phone cover for instance….
Anyways, the next day 5 of us went horseback riding in Dry Island Buffalo Jump at Canyon Ranch. It was fantastically beautiful to drive through flat prairie and then all of a sudden come upon some coolie/valley with unending views!
We started by picking horses and going through open, flat fields through small thickets of trees and Charlene noticed that my horse would go astray off the trail everytime I turned around to take pictures of our group. I thought it was pretty funny. We all managed to figure out our horses personality by the end of the 3 hour tour through the valley. Cream Puff, my white horse, had a great personality: hates getting her hooves wet and looks grossed out when walking through wet puddles (kinda like “EW”) and loves to get that snout of hers too close to the one in front (risk getting kicked by the horse in front) and also loves to trot (or strut her precious stuff). All the less comfortable riders wanted to stay away from following Cream Puff and myself because she would stop to take a bite to eat and then look up, and rush back to the lead horse. Every other horse waited patiently while mine ate and then also ran after mine which, gave them quite an uncomfortable ride.
I, on the other hand, enjoyed the challenge of trying to time the movements of the horse as it jogged. (I don’t know what it’s called… riding… where you stand and sit in the stirrups as you time the gait of the horse to prevent bouncing into the saddle. Instead you rise and fall in time with the horse).
One of our group fell off her horse and didn’t want to get back on. She chose to walk back to the stables. We rode on ahead so we could send a car back to pick her up. During the final 10 minutes of the ride, the leader of our group, Debbie, rode on ahead to send a car to get her because it started to sprinkle. And it’s not cool that you fall off a horse and then to add insult to injury, you get rained on!
Once Debbie left us, I was with the other trail riders and Stanley, they once bringing up the rear. All of them were enjoying their leisurely ride down the country road leading back to the ranch while Cream Puff kept picking up speed. At first I was practicing my riding skills but then suddenly she was gallopping. That was a little freaky! I brought her back to a stop and from then on she knew she could only trot. It was either trot or stop. I couldn’t get her to walk. Gave me a rush though so it was pretty cool.
I would definately go back there again. I didn’t know that place exsisted! The Buffalo Jump is a micro climate too with snakes, cacti and scorpions living there which I thought was much to cold here in Alberta. Anyways, if you have a chance, please check out that area of Alberta and have a ride with Deb and Stan!
Bertha