Trotting along in Jervis Bay

Horse riding in the hinterland behind Jervis Bay was the order of the day. The place we went was a bit ramshackle, but nice enough. It was a nice ride through the bush, but thanks to my damaged knee the group got separated. I was with the small group who were not going to go faster that walking, led by a guy riding in board shorts and thongs with a fine line in very short answers. The bush ride was nice enough, but it was shame not to be with the rest of the group, who by all accounts had a much more interesting time. The boys got some proper guidance in trotting and did well with it, Anna showed off her experienced Spanish riding style and Jennifer and Bob enjoyed themselves.

Anyway, to fill in some gaps, we have a guest post from Declan:

Today we went horse riding. The start of our experience was turning up at a stable with no one there at all and no clue of what to do. After a while three people came along and told us to put on some boots and a helmet. Then, after a long tedious wait in the Sun we were finally on our horses and ready to go. We were split in to two groups, the ‘walkers’ and the ‘trotters’. The walkers, which Evan was with, went on a short and less exciting route which can’t have been very interesting because Evan didn’t say much about it. The trotters went on a longer and more exciting route involving bush bashing and trotting.

The trotters started off by learning how to rise in the saddle. Basically, you go up and down in the saddle so that you don’t bump around while trotting and you don’t look weird while trotting. Then we actually got to start trotting. In the beginning,  it is almost impossible to rise in the saddle, but with some help from our guide, we quickly got the hang of it.

After a long while, we met up with another group, but the path was too small for us to pass through side by side. Our guide came up with a solution and we went for a real bush bash. We rode past the other riders and into the bush and back on to the path behind them. During our short meander in to the bush, I got stuck between two trees. Eventually I managed to kick my feet free of the stirrups and get the horse moving. We had a good time.