Ilya's Horse Riding Adventure

Ever since Ilya and I obtained and fell in love with our cat, Jackie, Ilya claims to feel a special connection with all animals. This is to the point where I hear frequent whining about his desires to live on a farm and tend goats and cows. Every time we pass farm animals while driving, he gets a wistful look in his eye complete with a single tear. I am not joking, even a little bit. In 2008 we spent a weekend in Lancaster for my birthday, and this further solidified Ilya’s love for farms and livestock, and an especially strong desire to ride a horse. Off to the side of a large shopping complex in Lancaster, there was a sign for pony rides. Next to it, a sign showing how tall you had to be to ride the ponies. It was something like 4 feet. Ilya attempted to get in the line for a pony ride until I insisted that the two minute pony rides are not intended for grown men. I personally have always felt completely satisfied with keeping my distance from horses, but after 4 years of hearing, “I need to ride a horse!” I decided to make Ilya’s dream a reality. I originally was going to arrange for Ilya to live out his horse-riding dreams while I hung back and took a few pictures, but after doing some research and talking to some friends and family who’ve gone on trail rides before, I was convinced to join in on the action. I decided that I would arrange for this excursion as a surprise for Ilya. I called up Echo Lake Stables in Newfoundland, NJ. They seemed very friendly, and their prices were reasonable, so I decided this is where I wanted us to go. 



I watched the forecast and decided that Saturday, April 14 would be a good day for us to go. I told Ilya I had a picnic planned for us at a surprise location and packed us a lunch. I entered the address into the GPS and we set off on our way with Ilya driving, and not a clue where we were going. Here’s Ilya’s unsure face:


After about an hour of driving, the GPS told him to turn into a long driveway that had a sign about stables and trail rides, and he caught on to what the surprise was. Here is Ilya’s catching on face, followed by his tears of joy. His horse-riding dream was finally becoming a reality!




Note the tear of joy!

Once we walked up to the main area of the farm, we were quickly greeted and added to the queue for the day. We had a brief wait while they eyed us up and decided which horses would be best for our size. During that time, we were greeted by a friendly farm cat:


I enjoyed being blurry while scratching my new friend behind the ears:


Within 3 minutes of stepping out of the car, I was getting on a horse! My horse’s name was Barney. It took me probably a good minute to work up the nerve to throw my leg over him. I was afraid I was either going to kick him, or not have the arm strength to hold myself up, or pull the saddle off. Of course, once I threw my leg over him everything was fine. The people guiding me were very patient and encouraging.

Here is me, Barney, and our hunky trail guide, Chris:


Ilya got a small, very pretty white horse named Corona. Here is my gallant, even hunkier husband with Corona:


The next few pictures are of the trail ride from Ilya’s point of view. Our ride was just us, the guide, and one other couple, and we rode for an hour.

I was surprised that the trees were still as naked as they were. Near our house and for most of the drive there were lots of leaves on all the trees. But, the weather was so perfect, and it was still a really nice scenic ride. I think this would be a great thing to do sometimes to celebrate our anniversary in October, when the leaves have changed.


After our ride, we had our picnic lunch. Then we walked over to say hi to the horses hanging out in an enclosure. A horse with very similar colors and markings to Jackie caught our eye, and he came over to say hi to us.


Someone who worked at the farm told us his name was Cabalo. He and Ilya had quite the cute little photo shoot. I had a hard time narrowing down those pictures, so enjoy this extended montage: 




Ilya is clearly in heaven.


Here Cabalo is snotting up Ilya’s sleeve.


All in all we both really enjoyed our first trail riding experience. It was really fun to surprise Ilya, too! We plan to keep riding from time to time.