Giddy-Whoa

On Saturday we had two events planned for our last day in Tampa. First up was a relaxing trail ride on some horses and second was an exciting kayaking trip on a river with some alligators. It's funny how things worked out.

We showed up at the stables and were brought to our horses. The group was our family of four, a couple, and our guide. The boys were assigned two ponies and would ride up front next to the guide with the rest of us following on our horses. My horse, Breezy, did not like any horse getting close to her and on our way out a barn worker told the person behind me to "stay back because Breezy will kick." What will happen when she is kicking I asked, "you'll fall off" came the reply. Great.

Ellie and Blaze

I should back up and say that the last time I was on on a horse I was probably around the age of 17. And I fell off. We weren't doing anything besides walking. I was at my friend's house with some other friends and all four of us were on horses and the next thing I knew I was hanging off the side of the horse with my sneaker caught in the stirrup thinking I had seen the end of my days. It was a funny sight to those who were used to horses and I did get back on, but only if my friend was going to lead me right back to the barn! That feeling of knowing full well that I will never be the dominant one in a human-horse relationship has stuck with me and though I find horses to be majestic animals, I would much rather be on the ground feeding them treats than bonding on a nice long trot.

Our Horseman

Back on the ranch we were just starting off on our hour long walk around the private 300 acres and the day was beautiful. Our horses were doing what they should and are slowly walking along a path in a nice straight line. Breezy seems to stop when I would like her to and turn a little to the left to avoid some branches and I was settling into the event with some deep breaths when the next thing I knew we were are all stopped at a creek. This was about 1/4 mile into the ride and our guide is letting us know we will just have to kick our horses a little to get them to actually cross that creek. This creek is about 15-20 feet wide and maybe 2.5 feet deep (this is important for later). The water is also moving. I am going to move into a bullet list story telling mode now because the next series of events spread themselves out over the next hour and a half when the entire tour was supposed to be an hour and I am not intending on writing my first novel on our failed horseback ride.

Photo By Austin

-Austin's pony, Cowgirl, would not go across the creek. The guide kept telling Austin he was holding his reins wrong and Austin's face turned beet red.
-Austin tapped his feet against Cowgirl's sides and she turned around to face backwards on the single lane trail.
-The guide rode back across the creek to get Austin's reins. The guide's horse did not want to approach Austin's pony and the guide started getting mad. I guess his story is that he was bucked two days ago, his back hurts, and he is "not feeling" this ride today. He doesn't feel ready to be out on the trail and thinks his horse is going to roll on him. His displeasure did not do anything for this mama's nerves as I am watching my two babies on huge animals that do not want to listen.
-The guide has us all go in a circle around a tree to re-approach the creek. During this maneuver Oliver's pony, Blaze, ended up behind my temperamental Breezy who starts to get mad that Oliver is so close to us. I ask Oliver to stop his pony and hope he has more control over his than Austin does.
-The guide succeeds at getting Austin across the creek, but now Breezy won't budge. The guide comes back across the creek and Austin's pony follows so now we are all back on bank #1.
-The guide gets impatient, hops down from his horse, gets us all back into formation and tries to get on his horse with more grumbling. His horse wants nothing to do with him and keeps jumping away. The guide stomps us all back to the barn in formation and walks his own horse back the 1/4 mile to trade in for a different horse.
-Austin and I call it a day and wave to the group as they set off for try #2.
-30 minutes later I see Chris and his horse coming back to the barn by themselves. Chris hands off his horse and starts to trot back to where he came from. I'm wondering where Oliver is.
-The guide comes back to the barn and is asking if Chris is getting a different horse and Chris says no, he's just getting Oliver and we are done. Now I am really wondering where Oliver is as he is not with me, Chris, nor our guide, and I can see from us to almost the creek and still cannot see Oliver.
-A person who works in the barn comes out and asks what is going on and the three of them go back towards the creek. It turns out Oliver was on the opposite side of the creek when Chris' horse had decided she had had enough and turned around and headed back to the barn not caring what Chris wanted to do. Chris decided it would be quicker to let her go back and run back to Oliver and walk Oliver back, but then the guide left Oliver (who is 5) on the other side of the creek to come see what was going on with Chris. So far, this is my main problem. A 5 year old was left across a creek with nobody in charge. If his pony had wanted to cross and Oliver had fallen in, we could have had problems. We didn't, so we all kind of look at each other and shrug and write it off as a failed event. We walk around and feed treats to the other horses when we are all safely back on the ground and our feisty friends are back in their corrals.
-Out in the parking lot we are walking around other corrals and heading back to the truck. A girl (14?) who either works or volunteers for the ranch comes galloping across the parking lot screaming (having fun) that she can't control this stubborn horse. She is ducking branches with a helmet-less head and laughing/screaming as she goes back and forth and I pull the boys out of the way because nobody knows where this horse is going to go. We make it to the truck without being mowed down by galloping hoofs and are all talking about the strangeness in the truck when...
-I hear blood curdling screaming from behind our truck and look in the mirror. A two year old who was having a pony ride that was lead by a guide had just tumbled off the back of the pony when it decided to run and pulled it's reins right out of the guides hands. After the guide has led the pony back to the barn I talk to the mom to find out if they are OK. She is shaken, but her daughter seems to be doing alright after her face plant into the dirt (also, no helmet), and they are going to go visit their doctor.

Our Explorer

The entire event seemed like some 1980's movie where things were going comically wrong but everybody walked away just fine in the end. I am not one that is usually around horses and maybe this is just another day on the ranch, but to me it felt like barely controlled chaos. Oliver walked away from the day wanting a full ride on that "crazy pony" and was laughing about how she kept turning her head to bite his foot when he would try to use the reins.

Sunning Gator

We moved on to our alligator kayaking trip and found out that there were no double kayaks so we went for a family canoe ride. We floated for almost two hours up and down the Hillsborough River among a couple of alligators, turtles and birds and had an incredible time basking in the fun of our man-power, leaving the horse-power behind.

Hillsborough River