We're going to ride horses and pretend we're cowpeople. It's ten minutes away from our hotel. We're kitted out with a helmet and a big handkerchief that we are supposed to tie around our nose and mouth. We look like a set of amateurish bank robbers. We are hoisted on our horses and get instructions on how to make them go forwards, left, right and how to stop. Freya rides on Lacey, Nicole on Giggles and Joes on Hester (which turns out to be a boy). We're in a group of 10 would-be bandits and two guides. We do a couple of test rounds to check that we don't fall of our horses and that we don't manhandle them. Then we are told there is nothing we need to do as the horses know the route we're taking and we would probably confuse and annoy them if we would try to steer.
The trail we take lasts for about an hour and we go through two creeks. Joes seems most comfortable on his horse, maybe reading all those Lucky Luke comics in his youth have prepared him.
Horse riding is dusty business and so we return to the hotel to shower and relax. We're still not feeling great and some of us get back to bed. Nicole drives south to Oakhurst and shops for some food, drinks and fruit which we eat for dinner.
