Horse riding adventure!

Finally the day had come, Jody’s dream day to ride along the lakeside of Hovsgul National Park and true to form it was amazing. We both set off heading northwards with our young guide (17 years old) and headed out on to a peninsula which was breathtaking. The views, the colours, the reflections in the water, all just amazing. We stopped by an Ovoo for a little rest and took some time to take in the stunning views. Our guide sat on the floor and looked after the horses. We then rode off for a further three hours finally reaching another peninsula, more amazing scenery, a lake and soft soil. The soft soil was just what Jody’s horse had been after and suddenly decided to drop his back legs and have a roll in the soft soil. But the horse had forgotten Jody was on his back, so just as Jody removed her right leg from the stirrup before it got crushed, the horse decided to stand up and bolt. Luckily for Jody the fall was very close to the ground and she was on the floor before the horse shot away. So Jody was all covered in dirt and had landed hard on her back. Bryan was close at hand to stop her from moving and wait until things had calmed down. Fingers all working, toes all wiggling, just a sore back from the fall. It was so luckily the the fall was on soft soil. But all the same it did hurt her very much and she was struggling to get back on the horse. Our guide was white, he did not know what to do and how to help, once Jody had explained in best sign language, broken English and acting what had happened and had assured him she was okay, ish, his colour came back. As we were almost halfway we decided to head back, taking a slow walk as Jody found it too painful to go any faster. We stopped for about an hour for a bite to eat, a drink and a snooze under the trees, our guide too fell asleep. We continued on our way when we came by the lake side. Bryan’s horse really wanted a drink so we asked our guide if we could let them drink. He said yes but came racing over to Jody and took her lead reign again. Jody let him as she was in too much pain to argue but we thought it a bit over protective. Then in his best broken English he explained that her horse also liked to swim! He clearly didn’t want to take any more chances! Back on our horses we headed back and with about 1km left to go our guide walked his horse off to round up some of his goats and herd them back to the camp. Jody and I continued to walk off in the direction of our camp but after a little while Bryan could not resist and guided his horse to help with the round up of the goats, not that he was helping much, but it did make him feel like more like a Mongolian horseman! Jody had been riding alone for some time when she passed another horse trip going the other way. She said hello and the Mongolian guide who was with them said “Nice Horse”. Jody answered “Nice Horse, Silly Horse” to which he replied “Nice Horse, Naadam fast horse!” Ahh so that was it, her horse was a Naadam racing horse. She was well pleased about that. Then, not far from the camp we could both see a storm approaching over the hills. So Bryan headed towards Jody to catch her up and we trotted for a while (the pain subsiding a little bit now) walked and trotted again to try and beat the rain. With only 200 metres to go, Jody was in front and then Bryan’s horse got spooked, maybe by a dog, may be the thunder or lightening - he’s not sure, but his horse decided to turn full circle so quickly and before Bryan could do anything he was on the floor being dragged along behind the horse with his right foot still in stirrup. Then he got kicked in the shin before finally getting free all he could do was just sit on the floor, winded and wondering what just happened and was that the angels he could hear calling him. No - just Jody on her horse from where she was watching in horror and could do nothing (as she couldn’t get off because of the pain in her back). Luckily for Bryan he had been wearing his rucksack on his back and this had protected him from too much damage. Some ladies from a ger nearby had seen the action and came running out to help but then as we were so close to our ger, We let the ladies take our horses for us and we hobbled back to our ger together. Eric and Marie were waiting for us completely unaware of our exploits then Bryan showed them his scrapes and grazes. Marie had been a nurse back in France and had come travelling well equipped with bandages and dressings, pills and potions and she had Bryan patched up in no time. Eric got the hot chocolate on and we both hit our beds exhausted. So Jody’s dream had turned into a bit of a nightmare but it had been a beautiful day and an amazing experience we will both remember for a very long time - perhaps not for all the right reasons though!