Monday – horseback riding

The big event for Monday was horseback riding, mostly as a treat for Maeve who’s been begging us to ride horses.  But also as fun for Jane, to experience some new riding. 

The scowl you see on Zeke’s face and the smile you see on Jane’s face, was pretty much par for the day.  Beyond those 2, Theo enjoyed the horses a lot, especially having his horse go fast (no surprise there).  Maeve rode with a local 12 year old boy, Jeffrey.  Jeffrey kept it fun for Maeve.  Blasting ahead of us a few times letting Maeve be in the lead, and sneaking up behind us and letting Maeve slap our horses butts so they sped up on us.  Maeve loved it too.  Bryce enjoyed it as well.  He said it was only his 2nd time riding.  We started in the city and rode out to the countryside.  We saw a lot of poverty on our ride, but everyone seemed happy and comfortable with their lives.  Our jeep safari guide, Elvis, said it best the Dominicans have all they need.  Radio for the music and TV for the baseball.  Even in the country many families have these.

 

Nathalie was our guide.  She was a tourist from Belgium 1.5 years ago, when she took a 6 day equestrian trip through the DR, and fell in love with and married a Dominican man.  She spoke English, Spanish, French, and some German and Dutch.  I spent much of my time watching Jane and Kate, trying to emulate their form.  Only to realize that they rode a lot more forward than I could afford to without getting myself hurt.  Truly enjoyed riding out of the city and seeing the city fade into countryside.  On the way back we were stymied by a bridge that was out and under reconstruction. Nathalie phoned ahead and they decided to have the car pick us up near the highway, and they would ride the horses back to the ranch. On our redirected route towards the highways, we came across this “park” which was really just an open field with lots of kids gathered playing soccer.

Further down 4 young boys were swimming or possibly bathing naked in the stream under the modern bridge we crossed on.  The horses were great and never spooked despite numerous dogs coming up to greet us.  Another fun day.  (not as fun as Jeep Safari, but fun nonetheless).  Theo also enjoyed the “taxi" ride to and from the ranch, which turned out to be 3 of the 7 of us riding in the open bed of an extended cab pickup truck.  Theo chose the outside bed of the “taxi” both directions.