Horse Riding Holidays | Faces of Ride Andes

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.