Horses and Road Trip to Limerick

The view at the turning point of our horseback ride!

The roads to the horse farm were so narrow that they were barely wide enough for one car, and when you saw someone approaching , you needed to find a place to pull off, while trying to avoid putting your car into the mud on the shoulder of the roads. The maps stopped having any markings at this point, we were too far off the main highways of Ireland, and therefore had to rely on the faded red signs that said "stables" on trees on one side of the turn or the other to get to our final destination.

I'm not sure how to ride english, but I'll try it!

When we got there, I knew we had chosen the right place, instead of the far more commercialized riding stables in the large tourist cities. Joyce owned the small stable yard and Sonya was going to be the one to take us out. Joyce was running around like a mad women because one of her horses that we were planning to ride didn't return from the mountain where they graze. They saddled up the horses with english style gear and we mounted our horses. I was on "Mig" while Paul took out her son "Kiko". Mig was an old professional and was close to 37 years old, while her son needed to be on a lead line so Paul wasn't run off into the sunset never to be found again.

I'm seriously in paradise.

Since we were the only couple on the ride, Sonya let me lead with Mig and we took off trotting forward as long as she would let me.  It was a beautiful ride and I was sad to see it come to an end.  I would have stayed there all day.  It sure gave me the fever to own a horse, and brought me right back to my youth of when I used to have my imaginary horse "Brownie".

I wish this horse could come home with me...

From the stables, we hit the road in order to arrive at our next destination, Limerick.  We weren't exactly sure what to do when we got there, but we were pretty tired so we stayed in and tried to recuperate and make plans for the following day.  We had one full day on the west side of the country, so we needed to spend it wisely.  Luckily for me, I convinced Paul to drive us to the Cliffs of Moher.   It was a long drive, it was freezing outside, but it was surely worth the trip! 

(You'll see why in my next entry)

New puppies on the farm!