Horseback Riding in China

There were two animals I remember being obsessed with as a little girl: cats and horses. While my cat obsession was a little more... pronounced (freaked my mom out when I started wearing a cat costume and then liked milk from a bowl on the floor), I always had a passionate love for horses. Every long car ride while I starred out the window and imagine myself on horseback, riding through the passing countryside. Before my recent trip to Shanghai, I had only been on a horse 3 times that I can remember.

1) Someone had been riding their horse past my house when I was about 8 or so, and they were nice enough to let me sit on the horse for a little bit.

2) Reta, who is now kinda an aunt (living w/ but not married to my uncle Tom), let me ride one of her horses not too long after the first time. But I would hesitate to call it "riding" since I mostly remember sitting on the horse while someone else held the reins and walked the horse around for a bit. It still made my day then and is one of my first memories about Reta. By the end of that day, she was the coolest adult I knew.

3) I went on a Grey Fund horse riding trip, which didn't feel that different that the time I spent riding horses at Reta's. We rode through this mountain trail, single file so all I had to do was stay on and try to keep my horse from eating every 10 sec. While it was fun, it wasn't the type of horseback riding I longed for. The wild, fast pace riding that I had been dreaming about as long as I can remember.

Now I didn't get to that type of riding in China, but I came closer than I have ever before. We had a small "lesson" before we were went on our own. The track was a circle, so it wasn't the tromping through the countryside like I've always imagined. Still, I didn't get the horse to a nice gallup and felt an amazing adrenaline rush for all that afternoon.




That morning had started out horrible, so the change in my mood after we finished riding the horses was dramatic. We had gotten up ridiculously early after staying out late the night before to go to this mall. I was bored while we were there because everything was clothing and fake designer bags. Even if I liked that type of shopping, due to my size I couldn't have gotten anything if I wanted due to my size. Getting clothing that fits me right is hard enough here, its nearly impossible in China. To make things worse, Evelyn & I got stuck watching everyone bags when they suddenly ran off leaving us with their stuff. I thought they were only going to be gone for a little while, but by the time they returned (guessing a little over an hour later), I was pissed. Evelyn & I had a little emotional talk with Joyce after this so when we left to go horse back riding, I was in this frustrated/pissy mood. However I was starting to feel better because we did talk to Joyce and were on our way to ride horses. By the time we left I had a huge grin on my face, the kind I usually only get when I get all stupidly happy due to some minor romantic encounter. This grin only got worse after we went to dinner and ran into the Chinesepod folks (see my post about that here).

Now you've probably been asking yourself, why did we end up riding horses and unfortunately I don't really know. I was shocked when Joyce told us that we were going to do that for that afternoon. We rented a bus that took us about 1.5 hrs outside the inner city of Shanghai and into the outskirts. Patrick told me that we were still technically in Shanghai, but it was definately the countryside. The bus ride there made me think about the first time I arrive and the long ride from the airport to my school in Fuzhou. This picture here is almost iconic for what I saw in the countryside. A mix of agriculture and buildings in a state of disrepair.

I wish I had taken more photos, but at the time I thought I would have a chance on the way back, but it was far too dark. Though I did get this picture of a very brightly lit building.