Skip to main content

Hawaii Paso Fino

Another one of the fabulous activities we got to try on the Big Island was that we each got to take a riding lesson at Rancho Vitorino on Paso Fino horses.

Kerry particuarly enjoyed this. He's definitely our horse man.


Paso Fino horses are known for their evenly spaced four beat lateral ambling gait. This means they have a very smooth gait which doesn't bounce you up and down while you are riding.


While riding the Paso Fino you have to hold the reigns in both hands with your thumbs up. You have to keep your hands even with each other as if you were shifting gears with both hands in order to direct your horse.


First we would ride in a small ring to get the hang of how to hold the reigns and practice for a bit. We were right on the ocean and had this gorgeous backdrop behind us.

Kerry began to covet.


Katie was not happy that she didn't get to ride all by herself without someone leading her. But these horses are big, and she is small, and we just had to assure her that she would one day get to ride a horse on her own.

I have no idea why my sentences are being underlined now and I can't make it stop.

Please deal.


After we had trained in the small ring, we got to move into the larger ring and ride the horses around and through orange cones and in different directions. I was worried the whole time about holding the reigns correctly.


I handed the camera to Emily while I was riding and came back with a hundred photos of this Jack Russell puppy. The kids were enthralled with him.

This was a really fun thing to do and it made me wish I had started riding horses when I was young!

Labels

Labels:

Comments

  1. noneyaJuly 31, 2010 at 8:52 PM

    thanks for sharing your life and adventures with us. It is always nice to see the things I may never see but also to partake in your whit.....I mean your entire famlies whit. haha
    Trina

    ReplyDelete
  2. JamesAugust 30, 2012 at 1:44 PM

    Hi – Will you please post a link to your Blog at The Paso Fino Community? Our members will love it.
    Members include: Paso Fino Owners, Breeders, Trainers and Lovers
    It's easy to do, just cut and paste the link and it automatically links back to your website… it’s a win win. You can also add Photos, Videos and Foal Classifieds if you like. It’s free and easy.
    Email me if you need any help or would like me to do it for you.
    The Paso Fino Community: http://www.vorts.com/paso_fino_horses/
    Thanks,
    James Kaufman, Editor

    ReplyDelete
  3. Aloha Ya'll!August 30, 2012 at 5:40 PM

    Thanks James! I posted it!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ben's Feet

Ben went camping with his youth group this weekend. He said it was the best weekend he's had since we've been in Hawaii, and possibly in his entire life. The one negative part was that he stepped on some coral out in the water and cut his feet up pretty good. He swears it was all dead coral - you shouldn't touch live coral, much less walk on it because it damages the coral. No one ever mentions that it also damages your feet. They just tell you not to damage the coral. Also, coral is a living organism . If you step on live coral and a tiny piece breaks off in the cut, it will continue to grow. Did you see the movie Alien ? If some creature incubates in Ben's feet, then breaks out and eats us all one night, I'm going to be quite miffed. (Make sure you read the inscription on his tee shirt in this picture. It's quite appropriate.)
Post a Comment
Read more

Mammogram

I'm having my annual mammogram today. I always hear about how painful they are, but honestly, I've never thought they are that bad. Not the most comfortable, but not painful either. Every time I have a mammogram, I'm reminded of this story. It won the Erma Bombeck Writing Competition and I still get a kick out of it every time I read it. So I'm posting it here today for your reading pleasure: Erma Bombeck Writing Competition 1st place in Humor Category Winner Leigh Anne Jasheway of Eugene, Oregon "The First Time's Always the Worst" The first mammogram is the worst. Especially when the machine catches on fire. That's what happened to me. The technician, Gail, positioned me exactly as she wanted me (think a really complicated game of Twister - right hand on the blue, left shoulder on the yellow, right breast as far away as humanly possible from the rest of your body). Then she clamped the machine down so tight, I think my breast actually turned inside o...
1 comment
Read more

Japanese Fishing Shrine

Here's an interesting little spot we stopped to see. I'd passed this many times before and had never stopped to see what it was. Since GG and Sherry were here, we decided to check it out. There is a shrine of some sort with a statue and a carved rock. There was no information on sight as to what it is that I could find. There were flowers, food and incense left around the base of the shrine. There was a ceramic statue and a rock with a figure carved into it. None of the food was old or rotting (although plenty of it had clearly been pecked by birds) and the flowers were all fresh which made me think it must be cleaned and cared for on a regular basis. After we got home, I did some research and found this article about it from the Hawaii Star Bulletin, our local newspaper (I have edited out some bits, but otherwise the article is unchanged): "Maintenance" of the monument has been assumed by a group of Vietnamese Buddhists - Shingon Shu Hawaii, the Buddhist temple th...
2 comments
Read more