Let’s take a step back in time…
When I was 16 I stayed at a friends house for the weekend. He and his family lived about 30 mins from the city and the properties were a bit bigger out there. On Saturday morning we woke up to see 2 of his friends riding up his driveway on a couple of horses.
The 2 girls had their helmets on and horse riding pants etc. My friend & I had just woken up, so we were still in our boxer shorts, but we went out to greet them.

I was so intrigued by the horses, so I asked if I could sit on one (remembering, all I was wearing was boxer shorts, not even shoes or a t-shirt), they said yes, so I jumped up onto the saddle. It was pretty cool, except as I was adjusting myself somehow my heel accidentally kicked the horse in the ribs and it took off with me on it, down the driveway and into the street we went … I was like what’s happening here (kinda freaking out)…

I looked back and saw the other girl begin to ride and chase me on her horse. This horse was running so fast, I was holding onto the reins trying to pull it to stop (I really had no idea what I was doing).
The horse began jumping things, like a gutter but it jumped it like it was a 5-foot fence, It was crazy! But to be honest I was secretly having fun… The girl finally caught up to us and gained control of the horse. I got off and was a bit rattled, but my adrenaline was pumping and I thought it was a lot of fun. Fortunately, I didn’t fall off or get hurt.
That was the last time I had a chance to ride a horse again, until 2 days ago here in Colombia!

It was a planned trip and there were about 40 people on this trip, I honestly didn’t know what to expect as we were about 40mins from Medellin in a small town, but I was excited to ride a horse again.

I chose the horse I wanted and the young Colombian boy helped get on and adjusted my foot straps, gave me the reins and I was good to go.

When everyone was ready we began riding through the streets first which was cool, 40 people on horses cruising through the streets to a bar where these ladies came out and took our drink orders and packed a bag with beers, rum or Aguardiente before we left the town on our 3-hour journey.

We began our journey along a rocky path for about an hour, stopping as our horses wanted to refuel on grass, while we refuelled on a beer/rum/Aguardiente. As we were riding through the mountains I took a few photos and videos of the very green countryside, veggie farms and the others riding along with me.

After about 3 hours we reached our destination, it was a little village in the middle of nowhere,  no phone reception or anything, just 40 people loud music, drinks and some snacks to amuse ourselves, it was a great time.

At the end of the night, me my friend Raul (I call him Spaniard as he is from Spain) decided to leave the ranch as it was like 12 am and we still had a bit of a trek to get back.

Going back was a different route and only took 1.5hrs, but it was pouring with rain and in the middle of a storm. A lot of people had already left and there were some that stayed for longer.
So Raul went to his horse and I said goodbye to the others and we’d see them later on at the ranch where we first started.

As I was walking out to my horse I find Raul rolling around in a puddle of mud with one foot still in the foot strap of the saddle of his horse… I was laughing and was like “Hey Raul Que Pasa” (means, what’s happening), he said the horse knocked him off.. haha, I had a good laugh. My horse was good and waited for me to get back on without any issues (maybe because I was nice to it and spoke to it along the way).

So we took off with our ponchos on and cowboy hats too, it was absolutely pouring with rain & lighting in the sky, we were guided by only the night sky and white stones we could see on the ground. We rode through gushing rivers and flooded pathways and over these very thin wooden bridges if we fell into the river who knows where we would’ve ended up, maybe Bogota. But that’s what made it exciting. We made our horses gallop faster while laughing our heads off along the way (my hat fell off so many times).
It was a very fun experience riding back, I wish could have filmed it, but it was too dark and wet.

We finally made it back to the range where we all started and were able to meet up with the rest of the group, we filled our bellies with food and recovered from the big day/night.

I had an awesome time and so did everyone else.

Here’s to living the Lifestyle we deserve,

Jamie