Day 4

This morning the van picked Eva’s best friend and me up at 8:30 in the morning to take us to the stables. On the way, we picked up more passengers including a few Bay area Californians. One of them knew Chase Crewdson one of my classmates from kindergarten to high school.

Once we arrived, we did our paperwork first. Our trip was the longest and needed to be started as fast as possible.

We soon meet the other riders, a guy from England who did competitive jumping and had helped with retraining racehorses for pleasure riding and two people from Connecticut who owned their own trail horses.

Our trip was rather flat and uneventful, but we had a few challenging rides. One of them was going across a wide and deep fast moving river. The Water reached the bottom of the horses barrels. To the point were our feet if not elevated would get wet. The water was so fast. That we had to direct the horses into the current to get across the river, and the point were we exited was further down the river than the point that we entered.

I rode a horse called Omar, a sweet yet grumpy black ex stunt horse. We had a lot of fun. While not super responsive to my leg. He was really good and walk canter transitions when he had to catch up with the herd. Also, he had a nice comfortable canter and trot.

A polluter as well, he urinated in a wonderfully clean stream.

Supposedly, our trip was following the path of Saruman’s army in The Lord of the Rings but I couldn’t really tell even after I saw all three movies again. However, I enjoyed the scenery and the ride.

By the end of my three and a half ride, my ass was killing me.

That night we went out to Fergberger, the most popular burger restaurant in Christchurch to eat.  We stopped for desert at a local gelato. It was then off to The world Bar. A bar where mixed drinks are served in teacups. Later that night there was a live band. Dancing with Eva, I had a blast.

Tomorrow, it is bungee jumping.