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Published: March 27th 2016
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I wasn't sure if the horse riding was going ahead as I'd booked via a third party before coming away and hadn't received any confirmation about where to meet my pick up. So come the time I made sure I was ready at my hostel just in case and magically at the allotted time a Moonlight Stables van came to collect me. It was actually the owner Julie picking me up and we had a lovely chat on the way over to the farm where her stables are, situated with the Remarkables mountain range as a back drop. The farm has deer, not farmed for their meat, just for their antlers which are shipped off to China where they are used as an aphrodisiac. The Chinese seem to use an awful lot of things with supposed aphrodisiac qualities. Are they obsessed with sex in China, or maybe just very bad at it? I find out from Julie that, as in the UK, housing prices in New Zealand have become ridiculously high making it much harder for young people to get on the property ladder. This means parents have their children staying with them a lot longer than used to be the
case. When they do move out it's usually into shared accommodation which is also really expensive, particularly in areas like Queenstown, as the stable girl was telling me after my trek when she drove me back to my hostel.
We are a party of six going out riding today, an American family (with a whining lad) and a French lady from Brittany, who turns out to be the most experienced rider of us all. We are kitted out with helmets and gaiters and then I'm taken to meet my ride for the morning, Ollie. He's a big, sleek, dark brown beauty. He doesn't have a bit in his mouth so I'm advised to exaggerate any instructions. Just on a quick practise around the yard I find he's really responsive compared to other horses I've ridden in the past.
As we head out into the hills we spot loads of deer, all male, all without antlers and all really noisy as it's rutting season. We see their females on our return penned up together, hiding from the poor love lorn males!
The scenery is wonderful and it's great to see it from a different perspective. We have quite
a few chances to get going a bit faster, but I'm still not very good at it. I'm sure my two younger daughter's would find it hilarious to watch my attempts as they are both good horse riders, having lessons every other weekend when they go to see their grand parents. As it turns out I must have been worse than I'd thought as I have really bad back ache and am bruised for days afterwards.
The girls leading the trek help us all to get good photos, trying to make the horses 'smile' by throwing grass up in the air to make their ears prick up. Ollie it seems prefers to horsey sulk than horsey smile. I don't mind if he doesn't want to 'smile' and have fun all throughout the trek saying 'good boy' to him in an American accent (family joke - Heartland!).
We are given some fresh lemonade on our return, say our goodbyes to our lovely horses and then I'm given a lift back to my hostel. Thanks Moonlight Stables and of course to Ollie, I had a great morning's ride with you.
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