LAKESRANCH WEEKEND, SEPTEMBER 09

After my initial Lakesranch stay with Prince, when I had lessons there, it was then that I could see a group coming here.
Now this has become a reality. Now that I have the truck, 4 horses came with us.

After the invitation mail out to join me at Lakesranch, I got 30 riders.
Initially it had been 35 riders, but there were a few last minute cancellations. So it still ended up with a good size group.
Some of us came early and had dinner there on the Friday night.
This whole experience of being the organizer is new to me, so I still had a few " teething" problems, like forgetting to make out a program, and saying thanks to the great Lakesranch staff, in particular to Adam, who is a great host, and really went out of his way to make the DVD player work, thanks heaps Adam. He was kind and patient with all of us.
A huge thanks to Ross, for being our trek master, and his wife Sarah, for coming with us on Sunday.

The trek on Saturday was very beautiful and challenging, but not impossible. We all made it up that hill, even though Sarah jumped off because Lady horse was so slow.
Many thanks to the great cook, and the hospitality staff. Very yummy food, and also many thanks for bringing out that yummy food to lake Rotoiti. I didn't expect that! I would have been expecting a filled roll, not roast pork and buns and salads. But it was great!!! Thanks for that!!!God has been so good to us this whole camp.

he got me there safely. I was quite nervous at first, driving with 4 horses onboard in our new truck.
A few teething problems were soon sorted out as I got used to the gears. Not to panic when I am in the 4th gear instead of the 3rd gear going around the roundabout.
Just try again. Double clutch if you have to. That works.
We got to the camp at 4 pm, good timing. Horses soon settled in their new paddock and surroundings.
Friday night's tea was great and we found our rooms in the lodge.

There was also an other camp at the same time, from a church in Auckland, they had taken the other wing of the lodge.
Brian had arrived 10 minutes after me in his car, as he had to leave the next day after dinner.
At least he could ride all Saturday.
The big ride on Saturday was very exciting, much more exciting than we had expected. Not a boring trail but a challenging one . We rode along the edge of the lake. Through the water. Then up through a just harvested pineforest, so very messy, up a very steep hill. We had to stand up on the stirrups and hold our hands forwards not pulling on the reins, or the horse could flip backwards.

All succesfully done, the decend was more sloping.
We rode along thermal area and boiling mudpools.
We had done riding for 5 hours with a 1 hour for lunch at the lake.

Ready for a soak in the hotpool after dinner.