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.