Costa Rica Template Freebie: A Horse Story

In 2001 my son and I took a trip to Costa Rica. We were there for a week and we did all kinds of things he had never done before. We even saw the Pacific Ocean for the first time. One of the new things for him was horseback riding.

He didn't have a problem at all with the horse or even the fact that it was raining most of the time (because we were in a rain forest.) His problem was this ravine we had to go down and then up the other side. Even I was having a problem with it. We called it the "V ravine" because it was straight down one side and straight up the other. Ok, not so bad...yet. Except that the mud was so deep it was up to the horses' butt. The horse had to yank its leg up out of the mud to move forward.

So there we were, one horse behind the other, and we were at an angle like your head was lower than the horses' butt headed down hill. You either pictured yourself rolling down the hill still attached to the horse, or you thought that you would slide off and the horse would stay put, watching you.

Going up the other side of the ravine you had the horse in front of you with his butt right in your face. Then the horse would slip a little trying to get its footing and all you could think about was that horse in front of you sitting back on you. It was so slick that the horses were slipping both going down this ravine and then also going up the other side.

But the horses were so well trained and surely must have been oblivious to the fear emanating from us. I was laughing so hard I could hardly hold on. I think I was having hysterics! LOL

My son had never been on a horse. I had taken equitation as a PE in college but I can promise you that we didn't cover the part about a horse's butt higher than your own head! Needless to say my son hasn't been on a horse since then. But we do get a huge laugh out of it still, all these years later!

Here is the Costa Rica Template. Too bad we didn't get pictures of the "v ravine," but I assure you no one was letting go of the horse long enough to use a camera!