Horseback riding in Hawaii

Horseback riding in Hawaii was nothing short of BEAUTIFUL!!!!!! That place is already amazing, and then to add my favorite past time, well lets just say you can't get much better than that!

Anyway, we went on two riding trips while we were there. The first one was a 5 hour ride through the mountains and valleys in the middle of Kauai. I was riding a paint American Show Horse (basically like an Arabian) and S was riding Quarter Horse cross. Anyway, on our ride we saw some amazing scenery and even got to try some wild plants that are edible! There was a couple that looked like weeds. One of those had little tiny purple flowers on it, and when you ate those flowers, they tasted like mushrooms. The other one, if you pulled it out of the ground and scratched the root, it smelled like sarsaparilla (root beer). That was pretty cool. Anyway, the best part of this ride was that our guide was a young women (slightly older than me) that was a lot like me in so many ways and she was a Christian. S and I had the best talk with her on the way back. She was soo excited to hear about where we felt God was leading us and what He wanted us to do as a ministry. At the same time, though, she had great things to talk about in her walk and where she felt God was leading her and what she wanted to do. It was great!

Our second ride was supposed to be a 3 hour ride, but it turned into more of a 4 hour ride. Which, of course, was alright with both S and I! ;) All the horses at this place were all crossed with draft horses, so they were all VERY big and VERY wide! I like the big part, but the wide was definitely something to get used to! ;) This ride, was on an entire ranch property. We rode around inside the property itself and got to see all the is around it and what was in it. One of the things in it, is a personal waterfall, which we did eventually get to! That was so incredibly beautiful as well. You see a lot of waterfalls from a distance in Hawaii, but at least as we could tell, you couldn't really get close enough to swim in any of them. This one you could. We actually tied our horses up and had to walk down to the waterfall. S and I went swimming, of course, while our guide set up lunch for us. Once we got out, we ate lunch and then headed back up to the horses to get back to the stables. On the way down to the waterfall, we just walked down a really tall and steep hill/mountain with man-made steps and a rope to help you so you didn't slip. Well, apparently that is the second way to get there. See, the original way was getting to be too hard for people to take, so they made this way, the problem was, nobody (including the guides) didn't like to go back up that way. So, the come down to the waterfall the new way and go back up to the horses the old way. Well, as we are getting ready to go, our guide gives us these rock climbing packs to put around our waste (which also has one of those heavy duty clips on them). Well, we start to climb the path we took to get there, but then we turn and start to head back towards the waterfall. Come to find out, we have to cross the top of the waterfall that we were just at. Of course, it's rushing water and the rocks underneath are slippery, so they have a heavy duty cable that runs across the water and we attach the heavy duty clips to that cable. As we are crossing, one of my feet slip, so now my right foot is soaking wet. Oh well, it could be worse, right? Well, after that, we walk a up a little higher and we come to a smaller waterfall that actually feeds into the bigger one that we just crossed. Once we are done looking at that waterfall, we look to where we are to go next and realize that we are going to be climbing a rock wall. It's not too big or anything, but they use that pack we are wearing and attach the clip to a cable and then we grab onto the chain that is there and climb up that rock. That was actually pretty cool. After that, we have to cross the other waterfall now, so off we go. Of course, things would not be complete if I didn't stumble again, but this time it was my other foot, so now both feet (and my legs up to the middle of my calf) are soaking wet. After crossing that waterfall we were pretty much to the horses, so nothing else to exciting.

So, as you can see, the horseback riding was definitely the highlight of the trip for me. I can tell you that S would say it was the beach for him. Don't get me wrong, the beaches were wonderful too, but as you all know, animals would almost always top things! Hawaii is such a magical place. It is expensive, yes, but I encourage you all to go when and if you ever get the chance! I don't know if we would have gone if this opportunity had not arised, but I'm sooo glad it did. I'm missed the girls terribly and am happy to be home again with them, but I will say I can't wait to go back again and that next time, take the girls and some family and friends with us! :)