Week 10

Occasionally I get to go on the ride instead of staying behind. When I do go, I ride different horses. So far I have ridden Makena and Sparky on the ride. Makena is a half Arabian, really pretty mare. She does have attitude though; she thinks she's the princess of the stables. And really she is. Sparky is Pat's roping horse. He's a gorgeous paint gelding with excellent training. He's actually the movie star horse, he was once in an Expedia commercial. When I ride different horses I get the chance to learn more about them, such as how they react to other horses on the trail and to pressure (that's important in horsemanship.)

When we ride, Christine teaches us about the area. First we ride into an old Hawaiian village filled with goats. We learn that cows used to terrorize the Hawaiians and the Hawaiians couldn't do anything about it since killing the cows was a serious kapu and was punishable by death. Eventually a wall was built to keep the cows out and that stopped them from eating the people's homes. As we ride up to the ocean, dolphins or whales are usually playing in the water and it's always interesting to see and share them with the tourists. We ride back the way we came and start going up into ranch land. We learn about the people that help build the walls on the ranch land with only the lava rock. The farther we ride the more we learn about the islands, including the bombing that happened at Kaho'olawe. We trot the horses a little, and finally arrive to our break spot. We take our break on the top of the last lava vent to erupt and can see everything from where we are. The big island of Hawaii is to our left (which is visible if it's a clear day) and Big Beach is the right. Below us are Hawaiian burial caves. It's a gorgeous spot.

We go back the same way we came up and before we know it, we're back at the ranch. I help the tourists get off the horses and check their feet, take off their bridles, and loosen girths. Soon Christine comes by and starts taking off saddles as well, then the horses get their showers. After drying, they go back in their paddocks after a hard day of work.