Feb 14 - Lord of the Rings Horses.

This morning we woke up to heavy rain falling in Haast. We had tried the night before to dry our soaking wet clothes from hiking in the rain on a glacier in the Hotel's guest laundry, but it didn't do the job. so I set up a clothes line in our room hoping that they would get dry. When we woke up, the clothes were still pretty damp. So we began drying them with the room heater and hair dryer as we got reoriganized and repacked. We had about a 4 hour drive to Queenstown, and another half hour to Glenorchy where I had booked a 2 hour guided horseback ride around the rivers starting at 2:15. We got on the road at about 8:10am, which meant we didnt' have alot of time to spare. Katie's toes had swollen up from the poorly fitting boots and she was having a good bit of pain in her toes. She didn't have blisters, but alot of soreness from the socks rubbing. So she started on Ibuprofen. It was a big concern, since we're staring the Routeburn Track tomorrow.


We drove down the Haast Pass in very heavy rain, which was feeding some raging rivers and waterfalls all along the road which followed the Haast River. I was beginning to doubt my sanity for booking the horseback riding trip, looking around at the driving rain, and thinking about what I should wear that I didn't need on the Routeburn. There were some pretty sights along this road, but we didn't stop, because we needed to run some errands in Queenstown before we went riding. Everything closes at 6pm, and we needed to pick up our Routeburn hut tickets, a quick dry shirt for Kaite (she left hers at the Abel Tasman sea kayaking center), eat lunch, and get some medicine for her feet.
After an hour or so, the rain stopped and began to clear up, someone was smiling on us. At least we wouldn't be riding horses in the rain.


We got to Queenstown, and ran all of the afforementioned errands, and even had time to eat a cone of ice cream. We made it to Glenorchy with 5 minutes to spare... Piece of cake.



The Dart stables in Glenorchy advertised several rides, one being for riders of all abilities. I chose them because they looked like they would let Katie have some fun and let the horse run. They drove a group of about 12 to the horse paddock where they asked our experience level. I have ridden a Mule in Bryce Canyon, and a swayback mare in Tsali, but I told them I would try just about anything. They sized us all up and picked out horses for us based on all of those factors. I wound up with Jackie.






He was very disobedient in the paddock after I got on him, he wouldn't obey any commands and was walking around nipping other horses. A little Japaneese girl wound up behind him, and he kicked at her, missing her head by about 8 inches. I knew right then I was in for an interesting day. The stirrups felt a little too long, but I didn't realize how short they were, nor the problems that would cause later.
Katie and I were put in a group with 3 other riders and the guide. With two of them having worked on a cattle farm, and the other guy having done some riding, and Katie with all of her experience on a horse, I was by far the big rookie.



We walked down the fence line and Jacky began to behave better, and listen to me. Then the guide said, "Want to try to trot ?" She told me to grab the front of the saddle and a handful of mane and grip with my legs. I did and the whole group sped up. The too-long stirrups meant that I couldn't isolate myself from the bouncing of the horse and pretty soon I was getting jackhammered up and down over and trying to stay on got pretty sketchy, but I stayed on the beast. Pretty soon the group stopped, and Katie yelled up to the guide that my stirrups were too long. The guide came back and shortened the stirrups by 2 notches, and asked if I wanted to give it another go. I said sure. She sent the rest of the group up ahead and stayed in front of my horse, leading him into a trot. This time it was much better. We slowed down to a walk, and she asked if I wanted to try to canter. I said sure, and this time we went into at trot, and then took off absolutely flying down this riverbank. It was much smoother than the trot, and immensely faster. It was very cool. Katie was so excited that I had gotten up to a canter.




We did a couple of river crossings in some pretty deep water, then we did a nice long canter on the way back.


We finished up the ride, and drove back to Queenstown, and checked into our hotel. We organized all of our gear for the hike starting the next day, which took a couple of hours. Then drove back into Queenstown for a late dinner at Fishbone, where I finally got to have a big bowl of green shell mussels. very tasty and worth the wait.

We start the Routeburn tomorrow, so it will be a while with no electricity. We'll be back in Queenstown on the night of the 18th. I'll check in when we get out of the woods...