Saturday was Travis‘ 25th birthday and I surprised him with a trip horseback riding (along with a Flip Mino HD, but I’ll let him tell you about that.) We both had never been on a horse before other than the pony rides at the CNE where you just walk around in a circle, so this was going to be an adventure.

When we arrived to our destination, Horse Play Niagara, we were greeted with country life and country smells. There were horses everywhere; big ones, small ones, fat ones, tall ones. We signed in, read the rules of the company, signed out lives way, and waited to mount our steeds.

I went first, and I have to say, my little legs didn’t fail me. Up I went onto the biggest horse available for our groups’ tour, Zorro (who turned out to be incredible gassy, which reminded me of this.) Travis was next on Teddy, the second biggest horse. The rest of our group consisted of three little girls no older than eight, their parental chaperon, and our guide, Ashley.

Once everyone was on their horse, away we went into the sunset – so to speak. We started off slow, and Ashley repeated how to stop and guide the horses. After about 15 minutes, Ashley says, “OK, why don’t we try a little bit of trotting.” Trotting, this was going to be fun! Everyone I have ever seen in movies and on TV trotting on a horse looked like they were having a great time, so this would be no different, right? Wrong. I tapped my heels on Zorro and he, and his but ol’ butt took off and my butt and thighs were taking the brunt of his trotting. Needless to say that it took a while to get used to trotting, we did it about four or five times, and each time, my thighs and butt would experience new pain (it quickly went away until the next trot.)

The one hour guided tour took us on the Trans Canada Trail, beside a quarry and on little paths. The weather also couldn’t have been better. It was a perfect day, and I know that Travis really enjoyed himself (he’ll tell you so, don’t worry.) I would definitely go horseback riding again, just not in the near future – my legs and butt are still aching from my happily trotting horse.