Advertisement
Published: February 6th 2017
Edit Blog Post
We spent Saturday morning with friends from LaConner and the afternoon horseback riding with new friends at their ranch outside of San Miguel. Our LaConner friends are getting ready to sell their lovely home here, but took time to go to breakfast with us.
Holly and Erik, the owners of our present home, have a small ranch outside of San Miguel where they have five horses, dogs, chickens and burros. They invited us out for an afternoon of riding and we accepted. I used to ride when I was young, but had a few bad experiences as an adult and wasn't very confident going into this experience. Their horses are all beautiful and well-bred and trained, but not passive. I chose to ride the grandson of Seattle Slew, the famous racehorse! They have him because a mare they bought was pregnant, unbeknownst to the seller... (
Seattle Slew (February 15, 1974 – May 7, 2002) was an
American Thoroughbred race horse who won the
Triple Crown in 1977—the tenth of twelve horses to accomplish the feat. He is the only horse to have won the Triple Crown while having been undefeated in any race previous. In the
Blood-Horse magazine List of the Top 100 U.S. Racehorses of the 20th Century Seattle Slew was ranked ninth.
Joe Hirsch of the Daily Racing Form wrote: "Every time he ran he was an odds-on favorite, and the response to his presence on the racetrack, either for a morning workout or a major race, was electric. 'Slewmania' was a virulent and widespread condition.")
In the first few minutes of the ride, my hat got knocked off by a branch, and in the ensuing confusion, my horse decided to suddenly run ahead...I panicked, leaned forward, and he went faster...I managed to stay on and stop him, but was ready to quit! I calmed down and continued..and was very glad I did! We rode for two hours along the river, crossing it a few times, passing fields of alfalfa, women washing clothes in the river, men digging gravel, kids herding sheep and cattle. A delightful afternoon! Other than very sore knees (which stopped hurting within minutes of getting off the horse) and a big bruise on my leg, I was fine.
We stayed at Holly and Eric's for a beer and good conversation, and then got a ride back into town with them. Among other things they are the Mexican kayak racing champs! Eric also picks up the "sawdust"
from a large butcher shop to feed the stray dogs in his neighborhood. We took a city bus back the center, had dinner at the fish taco rooftop restaurant, and walked back up the hill...
On Sunday, we returned to the Santa Monica for brunch. I had seen a stairway on our route to town, and persuaded Bill to take it. From the bottom, it appeared to be intact, but as we went a few steps up, we could see that big sections of the stairs were gone. A family was coming down, and I asked if it was passable. They said yes, with hesitation...Bill wanted to go back, but I wanted to go on...we did! It was a canyon of rock and garbage, but nothing dead... Once we were at the top, the climb was well worth it (according to me...) and we wandered back down to the restaurant for another great brunch.
Coming home, Bill wanted to go see the local croquet court, but it is walled and we couldn't see inside. We took a siesta, and then went to see the Superbowl at a benefit event put on by Rotary, a fund raising event to
eliminate polio. Holly had given us tickets. We watched the first half and then walked home (2.5 miles...)
Today, I went on the walking tour in the morning. Then we packed, and got ready mentally to deal with snow upon our return to Seattle tomorrow!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.112s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 11; qc: 28; dbt: 0.06s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Carol McClain
non-member comment
Your Travels
What wonderful experiences you've had in San Miguel.....made us want to spend more time there. We've enjoyed your blogs. Safe travels home! Carol and Martin