Riding in Costa Rica (6/5/23)

On my last post, I didn't mention that these rides are past rides, and I'm just now getting back into blogging/getting caught up. I haven't been riding my own horse recently, so I might as well re-live and share these.

In June of 2023, my sister, her boyfriend, my cousins, Jay and I went to Costa Rica for our "birthiversary" trip. Nebalee, her boyfriend, and Jay all have birthdays within just a few weeks of each other, and our anniversary falls in that same timeframe, so we started taking "birthiversary" (birthday + anniversary) trips in 2022. Our first was Key West (2022), then Costa Rica (2023), Cancun (2024), and Marco Island (2025). Of those birthiversary trips, I've only exercised my "I get to ride" rule once, and what a ride it was!

The trail ride in Costa Rica is my all-time favorite ride. And after nine seasons as a wrangler, I've been on a lot of rides, so that's saying something. I had a vague idea of wanting to ride on the beach, but hadn't done any research into where to ride, so it was serendipitous that our AirBnB happened to be right across the street from the entrance to The Monkey Farm. All along the drive up to our AirBnB, I'd been seeing hand-painted signs for horseback rides, when I saw the sign for the Monkey Farm directly across the street from our driveway, I decided that's where we had to go. We couldn't see what the farm looked like, and we knew nothing about it, but, by God, we were going to ride there!

I promptly made online reservations for the next day, and at our appointed time, Jay and I walked across the street and down a long driveway to the farm. This is a riding blog, so I won't go into the amazingness that is The Monkey Farm, but I do encourage everyone to follow the link and check it out. They're doing some really good things for their community.

We got a little orientation to the farm, and I fell in love before we ever stepped up on the horses. Their equine program is was inspired by the film, "The Mustang", which I've never seen, but know the gist. Our horses came from a similar prisoner program in Canon City, CO. Take a look at the tack - all of their horses are ridden in halters and lead ropes - not a bit to be found.

Yep, wranglers worldwide are the same :)

We opted for the beach ride, about an hour and forty minutes through the jungle and down to the beach. The wranglers have to earn their way up the ladder to taking rides out, and one of the things they have to do is learn to speak English, as well as take classes to become a licensed trail guide (more on that later).

Headed out from the farm.

We stopped at a bluff overlooking the water.

Riding down from the bluff, headed into the jungle.

We had hoped to see/hear some howler monkeys while in the jungle, but just as we entered, the skies opened up and we got caught in a deluge! It was the most amazing thing ever. I've ridden in my fair share of rain and in Colorado, it sucks. 

A lot. 

Colorado rain is cold, and feels like needles hitting your skin. It's a freaking miserable experience that I wouldn't wish on anyone.

Getting caught in the rain in Costa Rica? It was like a warm shower. The water just poured down onto us. We were dry one minute, absolutely soaked through the next.

Jay wiping the rain from his face as it started.

And now, completely soaked. The wrangler had
to dismount to unlock the gate crossing the trail.

I was grinning and laughing like a fool the whole time!

We didn't see or hear any howler monkeys, but the trip through the forest was unforgettable. We laughed like kids stomping in rain puddles the whole way. 

If you look closely in the first clip, you'll see the rain falling as we cross a little clearing. Believe it or not, the rain had lightened up by that point.

The experience of experience of riding from the jungle onto the beach? Freaking amazing! It was like the jungle just opened up and spit us onto this cute little beach. We'd visited the beach before - it's the local beach for the area - but riding it was totally different.

I tried getting some video of my little paint mare walking through the surf, but you can see that it wasn't her favorite thing to do. That should have been a clue.

We rode down to the end of the beach and turned back. I was still having the best time ever. My mare was super light. A little nervous, but still really light and responsive. I was messing around with my phone, trying to take more pictures of Jay riding on the beach, and wasn't really paying attention to my riding. Remember me mentioning that the guides in Italy kept yelling at me (us, the other riders, too) to put my phone away? I should have brought that rule along with me to Costa Rica.

Headed back to the trees.

See those worried ears? I should have paid
attention. That was clue #2.

I felt her get a little jiggy, and dropped my phone (it was in a waterproof pouch on a lanyard) back down to my chest to reach for the rein with my other hand to settle her, but I was too late. She caught sight of a cluster of flat rocks that the surf exposed and up she went. I can sit a rear, and have done it plenty of times. The rear and spin? Yeah, I'm no good at sitting that. I was suspended in the air like Wile E. Coyote for half a second while she spun right out from under me, then I met the beach.

Other than just a couple of scrapes and being mad at myself for not paying better attention to a horse that clearly wasn't in the mood for rain and the beach, I was fine. The wranglers were amazing! One caught my mare, who only retreated up the beach away from the water, and the other checked me over. 

They were so upset that I'd come off, but not at me. I'd been told, when I first started taking out rides, that most of the time, if a rider comes off, it's the wrangler's fault for not seeing the problem develop and fixing it. I get the feeling these guys got the same lesson. I assured them it was completely my fault for not paying attention to my mare and that I was fine. They gave me a really good once over, checking for injuries and concussion, before deciding I was fit enough to get back on a horse. Their licensure obviously covered basic first aid, in addition to all of the other stuff they had to learn. They wanted me to switch with them, and ride one of their horses, but I insisted on getting back on the mare. She was calm enough, and allowed me to mount without a problem. 

As we headed back to the trail, there was a small stream that was running fast from the rain, and she started to get nervous. While I was confident I could work her over the stream without any big issues (or coming off again), the wranglers were still pretty upset about me coming off, and asked me to switch horses again. I relented and switched with them. 

You can learn a lot about a person's horsemanship by watching them when things don't go according to plan. Let me tell you, these guys were amazing with her. When she was caught after I came off, instead of being angry and correcting her, he soothed her and made sure she wasn't injured. When I switched horses at the stream, the lead wrangler worked her calmly until she was willing to cross. Never once did he lose his temper or get impatient with her. It only took her a couple of false starts to cross and we were on our way.

Despite my fall, and maybe because of it, this is still my all-time favorite ride. 

Still all smiles, but with a great story to go home with!

I never ride in shorts, but since that's all we had with us, that's what we rode in. Jeans might have saved the back of my knee from the tiny little scratches it got, but riding in wet jeans is a whole level of hell I don't like to visit.

I knew this was going to develop like a polaroid, so I took
daily pictures.

Baby little scrapes from the saddle. I promptly forgot about them.

Because our experience at The Monkey Farm was so amazing, and I fell in love with their mission, I made the everyone go back for a farm tour at the end of the week. It gave me a chance to check in with the wranglers, and assure them I was still fine, as well as getting to see the rest of the farm's operation.

It was good to get to laugh with them again.

Riding in Italy (9/24/22)

Jay and I love to travel. A desire to travel was one of the things that we bonded over when we first met. We'd always planned on traveling internationally, but just couldn't swing it until a few years ago. We have a couple of rules when planning a trip: 

1) We can only go to places that one or the other of us hasn't been. For example, we've both been to Rome, so that's off the table. He'd been to Fussen, Germany, but I hadn't, so we could go there.

2) I get to plan a horseback riding trip.

Now, whether or not I choose to plan a ride, is up to me, but if I want to ride, we have to go. We went to Cancun last year, and I didn't have any desire to ride there, so he was off the hook for that trip.

When we started planning our trip to Germany/Italy, I started looking into rides we could do in Tuscany, and Trip Advisor helped me find a horseback riding and wine tasting tour. It was an amazing day. 

Tenuta Torciano

The ride was not through the winery that hosted the wine tasting, but through a livery about 15 minutes away. We met at the winery, where we picked up the shuttle to the livery for our ride. I'm rather terrified of Italian drivers, after a scary experience I had in Rome on my first trip to Italy. This shuttle ride further solidified that I don't like riding in vehicles driven by Italian drivers. It wasn't quite as terrifying as in Rome, but that's because the traffic wasn't as bad as in the city. It was still plenty scary.

This particular stable was primarily a lesson stable that also lead trail rides. The horses were skinny by American standards, but still very healthy. I don't know that fly spray is as prevalent there as it is here, so there was a lot of stomping, and I learned the word for fly, "mosca". Yay for learning Italian words "in the wild".

I'm not very often on the side of "guest" with trail rides, so it made me smile to see the wranglers getting everyone ready for their ride. It appears that the process is the same no matter where in the world you are. Tighten the cinch, mount up the rider, check the stirrups, brief steering directions, and you're off!

Jay getting mounted up.

They paired Jay and I with essentially the same horses we have at home. For Jay, a hungry sorrel gelding, and for me, a cranky dark bay mare.

Other than being perpetually hungry and stomping at mosche (flies), Jay's horse was perfect for him. My mare was cranky and didn't tolerate horses invading her space, she kicked at a couple of horses who got too close and gave a baby rear over something that now escapes my memory.

The ride took us through open fields, beautiful trees, and alongside grape vines. I have very few pictures, and Jay took none, because I kept getting yelled at for having my phone out. They were serious about paying attention to the ride and not my phone, so the few pictures I have are ninja pics. Typically, I'm a strict rule follower, but I needed some pictures for our photo album (which we still haven't completed).

There was one spot along the trail that the wranglers stopped and took pictures of everyone in our group, which was nice. I tried to line up my mare next to Jay's horse for a nice picture, but remember the whole "cranky and doesn't like other horses" thing? This is the best photo we managed.

No way, no how was she going to line up nicely.

I thought Skeets was put together kind of funny, but this mare, well, she'll never win any conformation awards.

The ride was just right, at about an hour, then we held on for dear life in the shuttle back to the winery for our wine tasting.

If you are ever in Tuscany, and have the means, I highly recommend taking a tour like this one. Yes, it was a typical nose-to-tail trail ride, but I'm fine with those types of rides on horses I know nothing about, and it was the perfect way to spend the day seeing the area around the winery.