Horseriding

Looks like Joe beat me to the announcement. He's probably more thrilled (and/or relieved) than I because having a permanant visa means that he can continue working on his current project (some marketing strategy role on some wireless video cam invention? *shrugs*). Anyway, it's all good now and he might even get to travel to Sydney next week for some work-related seminar. I'm asking to tag along because I've been wanting to visit my brother but budget's on the front burner at the moment especially with the NZ trip coming up on the 11th this month. Nevertheless, you'd never know if there's a cheap ticket promotion lying around waiting to be discovered. ;)


PR aside, it's been a whirlwind of activities the last few days mainly because the exams are over (not mine, of course, but my MU friends') and it's only natural to want to "maximise" the holidays while it last. And one of the first things we did was to take an equestrian trip.

Only 4 of us this time. The rest are either not free or have flown back home to enjoy their holidays. We went to our "usual" Uncle Nev trail rides because he charged reasonable fees and (probably also because) I was too lazy to explore "new territories". :P

Mounting time. That's Jean, the expert rider, having her stirrups adjusted and checked for alignment. I never gave much thought to this part of the preparation until my horse started to run, and I realised my stirrups were "unbalanced", and my left foot kept popping out and hitting against the damn piece of metal. So the first reaction was to try and get the foot back on the ring but after a while, I just gave up and let it hang loose while the horse galloped away. It didn't seem like a bad idea, but when I reached home and looked at my ankle, it was all bruised and swollen. How clever.

Jean again. And her gorgeous stallion - Midnight. All set and ready to go.



Sokling, the other expert rider. ;)

This photo is not blurred. It was really foggy (and cold) in the forest. In fact, it was so cold Jean's hands started turning blue. She rubbed them real hard to get the blood back but for all I know, those pair of gloveless hands could've dropped off her wrists (the horror!). Ok, maybe I'm exaggerating a little bit but they really did turn blue.

Rest time. Giving the horses a breather ...



... and a drink.



A bunch of very thirty horses. Mine drank for like a full minute nonstop.



Finally, a lovely view of Mt. Disappointment State Forest. Still can't tell what's so disappointing about it though.