Birthday Holiday 2006 - Day 1
We left on Saturday morning and made our way south to our lunch spot, the Other Side of The Moon Restaurant in Quay West Bunker Bay. We’ve been to that restaurant before and loved it so much we came back again. They have a beautiful view and great food and service. We shared a gourmet pizza, which was mouth-wateringly delicious, before continuing south towards Losari Retreat. We checked in the afternoon and after a quick introduction by one of our hosts, Jacky, we made our way to the horse riding place, Naturally Horsey.
Naturally Horsey is unique. It uses the natural horsemanship, also known as horse whispering, method of riding horses. It’s aim is to be able to ride a horse without a saddle or bridle or any other restraint. Obviously, this can be dangerous, so as beginners, we had a saddle and a natural bridle made of rope.
We spent the first hour with our horses before going for a trial ride. The hour was spent getting to know our horses. We started off brushing the horse and letting them smell us. My horse wasn’t very interested in me at first, but then decided to take a good whiff of me and left a lovely stain on my new white shirt!
We then moved onto playing some games with the horses, this was also a bit of training for us to learn how to control the horses in case something bad happened. It was also a great introduction into natural horsemanship as we played energy games with the horses. One of the games I distinctly remember was standing in front of the horse, looking directly at him, lifting the reins (made of natural rope) up in front of me, then tapping the reins with my fore finger and the horse would automatically start walking backwards! Neat party trick. When the horse did as he was “told”, I would then beckon him back to me and give him a good stroke on the neck.
My horse didn’t respect me very much at first, he was pushing and nudging me a lot and I had to learn to push him back and show him who’s boss. He eventually stopped trying his luck with me and we got along fine, for the most part.
At the end of the games, we had to mount our horse. The only other time I mounted a horse was with the aid of a platform, making the distance from the ground to the horse’s back less. This time, we had to mount our very big horses from the ground. I’m glad I do yoga, because it requires quite some flexibility and strength to get your leg in the right place and push up.
The trail ride itself was beautiful. It was so peaceful and quiet in the natural bush, and we even got pretty up close and personal with a kangaroo. My horse, like the last horse riding trip we took in Brookleigh, was slow. No matter how hard I was squeezing him, he just wouldn’t go any faster! The poor guide and my partner had to constantly stop and wait for me to catch up.
After the trail ride we had a shower to wash the horses off us, then jumped in the jacuzzi for a couple of hours. We didn’t really want to get out, but we had dinner reservations at Ze Arc of Iris, my favourite restaurant in Margaret River. The food at Ze Arc was fantastic as usual, thanks to Pascal et al. After dinner, it was back to our jacuzzi for a couple more hours, then bed. The next morning was going to be another adventure!
