Horse Riding Holidays | Faces of Ride Andes

SAM

This photo of Sam was taken a few years ago. He is having a rest during a lunch break on the last day of our big Cattle Round Up Ride. He was still in training at this point so I was riding him one day, or for half a day, then resting him one day – leading him from another horse. As a youngster with – I think- thoroughbred blood he did not know how to pace himself and used up a lot of energy getting excited and this, his first cattle roundup was birthday and Christmas all rolled into one – so exciting for him. I could not get the padding right for our McClellan saddles as he was very narrow and high withered so I rode him on a dressage saddle much to the amusement of the local cowhands. At least he had stopped pulling his shoes off by then – during the first few months of training he found his legs too long for him and kept putting them down in the wrong place (often hind foot on top of a front foot)! Now – grown into his saddle and matured, he is usually out on the rides and available for advanced riders.

WILD HORSES

I think as we always meet and have such fun watching and running with the
wild horses that roam in Cotopaxi National Park that they deserve a mention
and a photo. Their manes reach amazing tangled lengths, the stony ground
they run over naturally files their hooves for them. Although they are
small, they are really sturdy and healthy - despite the tough conditions.
The horse was introduced into South America by the Spanish and I am told
that these horses are escapees over the centuries from the ranches and that
they have now bred, the total number of wild horses is possibly now up to
400. In the dry season, when water sources are scarcer, bigger herds form
and the horses congregate in certain areas, near springs and rivers then
when the rains comes they spread out in smaller herds and graze a wider
area.
On each ride we always run into a herd or two, they are curious but also
cautious. I took this photo in June, this group watched us for a while then
took off across the grassy plains.

ANNEMIEKE & HANNAH

Annemieke is the only horse that I have actually bred – and that was by accident! Quite a long story that I can share with you over dinner at one of the glorious locations that we ride between. She is almost pure Arab with a small part Anglo (English thoroughbred) – you can possibly see by her head and tail carriage. It is sometimes like riding a llama – when she gets excited the head carriage is ‘quite high’, luckily the training worked and it is possible to ‘play on the reins’ gently and bring the head back down. Annemieke is very alert and bold, a great lead horse for me and also absolutely fantastic at spotting distant wildlife – some deere the other day. Hannah is on board, she worked for meas a volunteer until recently. Thankfully riders come out for three months or so and help me look after the horses, it is such a great help, as well as helping on the rides, they school the horse on for me and exercise them, and of course a bit of tack cleaning.

Annemieke and Hannah are both having a lot of fun here during a photo shoot in Cotoapxi National Park.

BARDELICE

Bardelice was such a character. He was extremely lively and often a bit bad tempered. He was 16hh - a lot bigger than all the chagras horses (chagra: local Andean horseman) and this, along with his fiery temperament spread fear among the chagras helping me. Bardelice had this awful habit of shooting off the moment I got on - I made a really good effort to try to correct this but he was already a mature horse when I bought him and so it was always going to equite a task. It also made me laugh, which did not help corective training. Occasionally advanced riders would ride him and in that case I stood by Bardelcie's head and he did not zoom off but when I was getting on none of my chagras were brave enough, tall or strong enough to prevent him from taking off. Bardelice jumped and jumped high, something that the chagra horses do not do so, combined with his antics this helped me an immeasurable amount in gaining the respect and therefore the help of the local horsemen. I think that I was the first woman - I am sure the first foreign woman- to win one of the local huntertrial competitions and it certainly caused quite a stir. Bardelice helped me get Ride Andes off to a flying start, of course I did not realise it at the time. I had to retire him six years ago and unfortunately had to have him put him to sleep last December, a very very sad moment for me. Impressing the chagras and ranch owners, being taken seriously by them, would have been so much more difficult without Bardelice and I will never forget this very special horse.

FERNANDO & CESAR

Fernando & Cesar have bee working for Ride Andes for several years now.
Fernando has ridden 'on and off' all his life, mainly at a farm owned by his
family. He is a very experienced guide and always impresses the guests with
his knowledge. Cesar has a small holding close to where the Ride Andes
horses live. As well as bringing along his horses when we have big groups,
he comes along to guide and help out. Always happy and smiling -even at 5am
feeding the horses before dawn- he is a lovely efficient and friendly person
to have on the rides. His experience in the sometimes tough high Andean
conditions is a great help.

JALISCO

Jalisco was bought a year ago as a very young horse (rising four but fully-trained and already working hard). We had to rest him for months, feed him up and give him lots of supplements because we felt he’d been ridden far too much, far too young, and lived on very poor grassland. We saw the potential in him but realised he needed a lot of help getting him healthy and fit for the rides. Now his muscles have developed, his body shape has totally changed – he has filled out and he has become a fully-fledged member of the team. His lovely nature and sleek black coat often makes him a favourite amongst our guests.

He lived on his own high up in the hills, secluded with no other horse contact and little human contact. Now he loves the human contact and adores being around people. At the farm, if Fraser (Sally´s Boxer) would let him, he would come in to the house. He always seems to have bite marks as he will not leave the other horses alone, constantly craving attention and with the less tolerant of the herd, he often gets put back in his place!

ALICE & CAPULÍ

Alice making friends with Capuli on her first ride with us. Alice is over here as a volunteer assistant, and she is pictured on her first ride. Capuli is still a youngster, but already a great, reliable and fun member of the Ride Andes herd.

CHITO
This is ‘Chito’, a lovely ‘zippy’ advanced ride roan horse that we own in URUGUAY. He is great at working cattle, is very responsive and loves going into the sea so I never get to ride him out on tours as the rider we offer him to always bonds immediately! Carol came back just 5 months after her first ride in Uruguay on condition that she could ride Chito again!  There are several photos on the website of Chito and Carol galloping along the firm sandy beaches.

I was so pleased that I managed to get Nicolas, a professional farrier, to come to the remote farm to shoe the Ride Andes riding tour horses and to explain to Cesar (RHS) what he should be aiming to try to do when he shoes the horses. It was a really successful day with several gauchos (skilled local ‘cowhands’) turning up to learn some shoeing techniques.

Chito is one of Cesar’s favourite horses so he rides him a lot while working on the farm between tours. Cesar has been working for Ride Andes a year now and taught himself to shoe (with help form local gauchos) when he joined us, he was doing an amazing job but -luckily for me- readily accepted the offer of watching a professional farrier at work. Sally.

ALEXIS
‘Gaucho’ Alexis has been grouping all the horses together for the rides for us now for a couple of years. The horse, cattle farming and ‘gauchos’ (Uruguayan cowhands) in Uruguay are still an incredibly important part of Uruguayan culture and, as well as being very skilled horsemen, the gauchos still proudly wear the traditional costume.
Alexis owns most of the horses but also rents some from friends if we need a few more or do not have the right ones for guests. He shoes his own horses, makes some of his own tack and, as well as assembling the horses for the rides, he has to keep all these horses fit, arrange the horse food for the rides and organise his team of helpers -plus sort all the tack out (including endlessly curing thick soft, sheepskins for the saddles for our delicate behinds!!!)

Alexis is a well respected horse breaker and, when not riding with us, spends his time breaking horses for Estancias and working on his parent’s small ranch.

CANTINERA & JUDE
Cantinera is a mature bay mare, one of the first horses that I bought! ‘We’ have discussed retirement a few times and I have tracked down a few dashing stallions for her with a view to a genteel motherhood status instead of working on the tours but she will have none of it – I have not even dared put a stallion in with her as each time she bares her teeth and flattens her ears… she only has eyes fro ‘Lamp Chop’, another one of my horses, and that is another story!

Jude is on board, a very, very talented painter who lives in Ireland. The photo was taken in June 2009.

CRISTIAN & TOSTADO
Cristian has been working for Ride Andes in Ecuador for three years now and he lives on the farm where the horses are kept with his wife and lovely baby daughter. Arriving from northern Ecuador, he was really timid, completely overwhelmed and had huge problems with my Spanish (and possibly also working for a woman!). He has a lovely mild manner with the horses and, having worked all his life with horses has a huge amount of knowledge – recently helping train a number of youngsters. He is with Tostado, this photo was taken on a ride during the final stages of Tostado’s training (early in 2008) before the horse was handed over for guests to ride

TOSTADO & SALLY
Tostado is a relative youngster, with a lot of spirit – but as he is really kind and enthusiastic it is easy to convert that into an incredible ride – a very, very experienced rider who rode with us in February emailed me to say he is possibly the best horse she has ever ridden in her life. Often up to tricks he liked to take water bottles out of our saddlebags as we were leading him along as part of his training. Sally is riding, on the wide open plains of Cotopaxi National Park.