We were up very early this morning to head up to the north end of the island for tour of the Waipio Valley on horseback. Some of the not-horsey members of our group opted for an ATV tour of the valley instead but luckily both tours started at the same pick up point so we all travelled together.
Once all of the appropriate waivers were signed we said goodbye to the ATV group and boarded our van for the stables. We had a very exciting ride down into the valley in a 4WD van on a tiny little one lane road that wound down the mountain 1200 feet in 1 mile...so that gives you an idea of how steep it was. Our guide told us she learned to drive the road before they put up the guardrails so were were pretty confident in her skills...although the van looked like it had seen better days LOL.
Soon we were at the bottom of the hill and winding our way down a skinny muddy road to the stable. Once there we selected our helmets, (for those of us smart enough to wear them) rain slickers (yes it was lightly raining) and picked out saddle bags for the little stuff we wanted to bring with us. Next our guide gave us the Riding A Horse 101 lesson. There were a couple people in our group that had never been on a horse before...and didn't speak much english...yikes!
The horses were all ready so the next task was pairing them up with the right riders. Micheline got to mount up first on a pretty palomino named Sunny. Next they lead out a big roan mare...not at all my preference for a horse...but you guessed it...she was mine! Her name was Strawberry and we got along just fine :-). They got a couple others mounted up and I was interested to see who Wade would get. When we had first entered the yard all of the horses were tied up together with their saddles on ready to go...except for one horse who was all by himself across the parking lot tied up to a corral. A bit odd that he was over by himself but I thought maybe he was the guide's horse...nope...he was Wade's horse! How appropriate...does not play well with others! LOL He was a beautiful boy...amazing bone in his legs and a nice thick mane...a FRIESIAN cross...of course Wade get's the Friesian! Well...at least I got to look at him right?
The ride was very pretty...we went through the valley and saw huge waterfalls (so tall we couldn't see the tops because of the low hanging clouds). We crossed lots of rivers and at one point the horses were in up to their bellies and we had to pick up our feed to keep them from getting wet. The tour was about 1.5 hours and I was ready to dismount by the time we got back to the stable. That had to be THE hardest saddle I've ever sat in! I am a bit spoiled with the gel seat and sheepskin cover on my saddle though :-).
After the morning activites were over we all celebrated with some home made ice cream and then headed back to Kona for some shopping and then din
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