Horse guide assistant

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Horse guide assistantMy first trip as a horse guide assistant was great. But also the way how it comes, is interesting. I’m here now for a bit more than 2 months. I came as an ESL student to improve my English. At the end of my study time here, I could experience the two weeks ‘horse guide school’. After one week we learned a lot of new things around horse shoeing and packing, different knots and knowledge about important things as a horse guide, I could go on my first horse trip to ‘Leckie camp’. I will give you a short impression about it.

We had a really hot day and after a long day ride in the sun, we were sunburn. We had also rain, we saw a big rainbow, we cooked on the campfire, we saw beautiful mountains, an amazing waterfall and meadows full of wild potatoes and tiger lily’s. The trail was sometimes challenging. We were riding over falling trees and I learnt how to sit and react when the horse had to make a jump. The next day we were riding trough deep snow and we saw the spruce lake, it was still frozen. Because of the warm weather, more water was coming down from the creek. And because we had to cross this creek on the way back to the Ranch, we had to go back earlier. And just the next day, I could go to a 4 days bushcraft course. I love to be in the nature and it was really interesting to learn more about surviving and bushcraft. To be one day in the nature is simple. But when you want to stay longer, it’s good to know more about outdoor life and survival skills.

Now, only two weeks later, I could go on my first trip as a horse guide assistant with two guests. It was impressive to see how changed the nature was, only two weeks later. The wild-potatoes had faded, but we could see new flowers. We saw balsam root, Indian paintbrush, arnica, arctic lupine and forget me not. Also bear berry with flowers and all the trees had beautiful bright green shots. Our highlight was eating dessert on our campfire. One of our guests discovered a big grizzly just approx.100 m away from our camp. A short time he was walking in our direction, before he went away. He saw us. We used a bear banger, to make sure, he doesn’t come closer to us. It was interesting to see, how this bear changed our atmosphere. Before we were talking about ‘god and the world’ and than we were staying all together, focused to think and talk about this bear. To go to the outhouse in the darkness by my own, after that was a bit challenging. It is a bit more bellow than the camp. Singing was helpful. And later alone in the tent, I needed a bit more time to fall in sleep then normally. After a prayer to god to protect all of us, it worked.

The last part of our home ride, I could be in the front. Grey, my riding horse, wanted to go home. She had a fast speed. But I had also a packhorse to lead, Nadila. She was not so fast. So I had a long part of this way to restrain one horse and try to make the other one faster. I was between them and I had to make a compensation. That was not easy. I tried to stay calm. Back at the ranch I felt my tiredness, but I was happy about a lot of new amazing experiences.

 

Annina, Switzerland