The Weekend Horse Riding Adventure
By Henry O’Connell
My family and I have being staying in Patagonia for two months. We decided to go on an adventure with our horses. We went to Lago Huechulafquen on a camping trip to bond with our horses. It was a trip of ups and downs but we still had a perfect time!
Day One: Today we started our horse ride in Parque National Lanin. Our horses got there by truck the day before we started. We got there in a van. We met our horses and started the ride. My horse is called Medianoche (“Che”), my brother Callum rode his horse, Pesquita Flora May. My other brother Owen rode Anikena. Casi Muerto Brownie, my sister’s horse, was a pack horse. Georgie did not come because we were on our horses 4 hours a day. My mom and dad rode horses that belonged to Marcos, our veterinarian, friend and head guide for this trip. There was another guide named Milton. Milton was the cook, fire keeper and he had a pack horse too. The first part of our trip we rode to an asado at the third guide’s house, Don Miguel. Don Miguel has a small farm in the Parque with lost of different farm animals, and raspberries. We had beef ribs, torta fritas and salad. I liked everything except the salad. After lunch we rode to the camping area. The place where we put our tents was on the lake and across the lake we could see Volcano Lanin. For dinner we had polenta which I refused to eat. I went to bed full of chocolate. In the middle of the night, my brother, Owen, barfed all over my sleeping bag. Owen got moved into my Mom and Dad’s tent where he barfed 4 more times.
Day Two: We were going to ride to a different place to camp but Owen was sick and we decided to stay where we were. During the day we went on a horseback ride in the morning and a long one in the afternoon. At lunch we captured a gecko and kept it in our tent and played with it. I got bit by the gecko, but it didn’t have any teeth. We fed it an earwig and gave it water. It didn’t want the water. Marcos taught us some things about our horse and he taught me how to lasso. It is really hard to do especially when you are on top of the horse. There was a dead tree that we liked to play on near the campsite. Before dinner, we were playing around and breaking off branches. There was a yellow jacket nest that we had no idea was there and Callum got stung twice, in the face and hand, and I got stung in the leg. It hurt really badly. Callum went to bed without eating because he was in so much pain. I had a good dinner of pasta. I got over my bee sting pretty quickly but even now it itches!
Day Three: The next morning it was POURING RAIN!!!!!! 200 meters higher than us there was SNOW! We decided to go home early because the weather was bad and we didn’t know if it was going to get worse. After a wet, raining breakfast, we set off to go back to Don Miguel’s house were we had the asado on the first day. The van was going to pick us up there. The ride to Don Miguel’s was horrible. Three people fell off their horses. First, Callum’s saddle got loose and he fell off and my mom had a red rain poncho that was waving in the wind and the horse went wild like a bucking bronco and she had to jump off. Milton, the guide, also fell off his horse. It was a mess! When we finally got to Don Miguel’s, it cleared up. We played a game of horseshoes (I got third place, out of 8 people) and ate more tortas fritas. The van came and took us home.
It was terrible at times but it was awesome. Medianoche was good, but at sometimes a little nervous. I feel like I really bonded with him and I could never wish for a better horse. It was also a good family bonding trip because we had to work together at times. I really hope that we can do this next year!
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