Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Horse Whisperer


Feb 24th

Completely lost track of what day it was, which, I suppose, is the whole point of vacations. Was it tues, wed, thurs? I had no idea.

All I knew is that I had to get up early and prepare for Stone Island and the horse ride. The weather was fantastic, though a bit windy as usual but nothing out of the ordinary. A perfect day for an excursion.

I woke up at 7, went down and had breakfast, since I wasn’t at all sure when we would be fed, and then returned upstairs to put in contacts, apply suntan lotion and pack everything that I would need (more suntan lotion, a towel, sunglasses, a book, and my camera.)

I was downstairs and ready as if this was Canadian time. 8:30. Ticket said we left at 8:30. Tour guide said be down in the lobby at 8:30. But 8:30, no tour bus.

No worries, this is Mexico. I wanted 5 min. 10 min. 15 min. It was a nice sunny day after all and except for my sore feet, it was no problem standing or pacing around. However, at 20min the tour guide came out and told us it had been cancelled due to weather.

Weather? Really? It was far from the most breezy day and this smelled a lot like bullshit to me but Joe Part 2 is surprisingly calm these days and I rebooked the tour for tomorrow. No big deal. I asked about the aquarium and the guide said it was ok.
Just ok?
Yes, just ok.
Ok... like I should take a taxi down to see it or ok like I should go suntan?
Hard to say.
Would you take a taxi to see it?
No.

Well that made up my mind. I went outside with my towel and my book and extra suntan lotion and camera and sat in the sun for a bit. Then I saw horses stop and their owners set up business. Hmmm. Maybe screw the Stone Island, I will get me a horse here, gawl darnit.

Went up to the owner. Thin, grizzled, he stood a head shorter than me with a lit cigarette in his mouth he seemed to chew more than he smoked. He wore a sweat-stained white cowboy hat (see! See! They all wear white hats!) and he had a tan so deep and dark, I’m not sure it would ever fade. I asked him how much, he said $25 and I thought why the hell not and said, ok amigo, sign me up. However he had a full tour and told me to come back in an hour.

Righto. I did just that.

Now I was a big nervous about this horse thing, to be completely honest. Oh I wasn’t worried about the horse eating me or attacking me - they don’t scare me, even if they are a lot taller looking when you get close to them. No, what worried me was that I would make an idiot out of myself.

I had two major concerns. First, could I get out without tipping the horse over or having someone have to push my bum up into the saddle? Two, would I lose control of the horse at some point and would it charge into a crowd of children, trampling them while I screamed, heel, horsie, heel?

It’s actually two very common things that scare me. Fear of the unknown, hell this would be my very first horse ride, and fear of loss of control, hell this thing had no gas or break peddle or steering wheel.

But I wasn’t going to let those fears stop me. In fact, as far as fears go, this didn’t even really get about mild anxiety. So I paid the hombre his money and readied myself for the ride.

Luckily only one of my two fears came to be.

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