Yesterday I went on a trip to a place called Forsand right out Stavanger with some colleagues of mine. We had been to a seminar and we wanted to do something different so we decided to go horseback riding. Most of the people in the group had never really been on a horse before so we had to start easy. But the icelandic horses were very calm and nice so we didn't have any problems. The goal for this ride was to get to the top of the 416 meter high Uburen (see the picture on the top of this page http://www.fossanmoen.no/engelskub.htm ). 1364 feet does not sound that high but is quite spooky when you are on a horse back and the horse is climing a rocky path that looks impossible to climb. Going up was one thing and it was even more "worse" coming down. But we made it to the top and got a great view of the fjords around Stavanger. I'm so impressed by the poor horses that were able to do this climb...there were places I thought "this will never work". So if you come to Stavanger but don't have the legs to climb to a mountain top I can recommend getting on a horse back to get to the top :-)
Reminds me of one of my horseback riding experiences. If you want to talk about scary horseback rides up and down hills there is a ride from the rim to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. To make it even more interesting you start out going DOWN which as you say is even scarier than going up. There are places on the trail where your leg can scrape against the wall.
I got the horse that wanted to live dangerously. I swear that darn horse walked as close to the edge as he could just to see if he could give me a heart attack.
I swore off horseback riding after my senior high school trip to Colorado. We used to go riding once a year on a farm near our house in Tennessee just to prove that we were indeed superior to the horses. After the horseback-ride-from-hell in the mountains around Colorado Springs I decided that the horses won. So there.
I was living in west Texas at the time, and all the boys thought they had the right stuff to be the old west cowboy. I had gotten off my horse during our break and one of the guys trying to impress me with his cowboy skills rode up really fast to our group, spooked my horse, he reared up and came down hitting me on my abdomen with a front hoof. Try to explain a bruise like that to your mother when you get home from an out-of-town trip!
Yes, the downhill in the mountains is one of those things that I don't want to relive. Speedcar racing wasn't nearly as scary.
I agree that horseback riding is a great alternative to walking or hiking when mountain climbing. I'll bet it was a wonderful ride up the mountaintop at Stavanger!
After hiking 40-50 miles of easy and strenuous trails in Glacier National Park one year (in one week) we were sore and tired, but did not want to give up seeing the glaciers, turquoise lakes and wildlife. Thus, we decided to ride horses one morning from Many Glacier to Grinnell Lake. The horse trail was not steep and strenuous, but a lot of fun, and we covered quite a few miles of backwoods with gorgeous views.
My stubborn horse kept stopping to eat plants along the way, and we had been warned to not let our horses eat, due to poisonous plants that might kill them. I could not control my horse, so I changed horses and it went better. Despite that, it was really fun.
Swiftcurrent Trail in Glacier NP was originally made by blasting dynamite on a cliffside. The trail has become so badly eroded and narrow that the park does not allow horses on it anymore. I had a panic attack on this trail, hiking downhill. You come around "Devil's Elbow" (a boulder protruding in the trail) to see the sheer-faced precipice trail which will take you to the bottom of the valley below Swiftcurrent Glacier. At times I froze in fear on that trail, but slowly maneuvered to the bottom.
Hiking up to Wheeler Peak, New Mexico, (over 13,000 ft. altitude and 16 miles round trip) groups of horses and riders pass you every once in a while, taking tourists quite a ways up the mountain, and on very strenuous steep trails. But I think the most precarious trails I've seen for horses are in the Grand Canyon.
I'm glad you had a safe and enjoyable ride. Maybe "spooky" and "scary" horseback riding on steep trails is part of the fun of it?
Gard, great story. I'm a timid horseback rider. Mainly because I just haven't done much of it. But two years ago, we did a ride through the Santa Elana Cloud Forest near Monteverde, Costa Rica. It was beautiful, and wheted my appetite for more. (It also helped that I didn't suffer from any saddle burn after )
Deborah Horn In a previous life I was an Umbrian sunflower farmer. I want to do a past life regression and stay there. ----------------------------------- www.petsburg.com My blog: Old Shoes - New Trip
Posts: 5000 | Location: St. Louis, MO | Registered: 04 September 2001
It's not horses going down into the Grand Canyon, it's mules, which are more sure-footed. And I asked a ranger a couple of years ago who said they'd never lost a mule and rider over the side -- ever. That said, I'd much rather trust my own two feet on the Bright Angel Trail!
Posts: 947 | Location: Southern California | Registered: 17 July 2006
I remember going horseback riding with my mother as a teenager. We were out in some sand dunes and on the beach, and as luck would have it... her horse suddenly decided it needed a back scratch, and rolled over on her! Fortunately my mom, who grew up riding horses on her father's farm, was expert enough to handle it. I remember my complete astonishment as she simply stepped right off that horse as it rolled over, as if it were nothing at all! I also remember being utterly relieved that it hadn't been MY horse... I probably would have ended up with a broken leg or worse!
That wasn't really on vacation though-- the only place I've been horseback riding outside of California was Hawaii, and that was a mistake. The ground was so uneven and rocky that the horses could never really get a good footing and it was just uncomfortable and boring.
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