Thoroughbred Rehabilitation Video Clip

In light of the recent public concern over the health and safety of thoroughbred race horses, we thought that this month would be a good one to highlight some positive stories surrounding former thoroughbred race horses. On a recent trip to Kentucky to film a new Equitrekking episode, we visited the Secretariat Center, a Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation Facility, and met a very special horse, King D. In this online video clip, Suzanna Thomas teaches us about her work at the center and how horses like King D are getting a second chance at a career away from the horse-track and a second chance at life. Watch "Secretariat Center" Video On Our Homepage...

Costa Rica Cabalgata

Today we rode in a Cabalgata with Monica, Esteban, Sebastian and a few other riders from Centaura. These fundraising horse days happen every weekend during the summer all over Costa Rica. People gather in a fair like setting and pay a fee to have food, refreshments, entertainment and horseback ride with hundreds and thousands of local people through local farms and land. Our Cabalgata was in the small town of Los Lirios and consisted of a couple hundred people on horseback. There was music, great food and it was quite the wild ride.

The nice thing about a Cabalgata as Monica explained to me is that everyone rides together, regardless of social status or class. Whole families, young and old, ride their horses with each other.

The start of the Cabalgata reminded me of a state fair or amusement park. There were rides for kids, cotton candy, grilled meats, churros and more. People were singing karaoke and prizes were raffled off.

We got on our horses and began the ride down the road. Local farmers open their lands so that riders can cross during the Cabalgata. I was on Perla, a beautiful bay horse that is very smooth. People act crazy in the Cabalgata and they also drink heavily while riding. Motorcycles and mixed with cars and horses, something that I wouldn’t normally think would be good for the horses, but they are totally used to it and nothing seemed to phase them at all. Motorcycles raced by me on Perla and she didn’t even flinch. These are like super horses. They are really well trained and tough, but also very responsive and ready to ride. I was riding Perla, as I had ridden all of the horses here, without a bit, which is really nice and helps to keep the horses responsive.

My favorite lady was this older woman, who was dressed up in black pants and sandals and carrying her purse with her as she rode. You see all kinds at the Cabalgata, including the drunken man who fell off his horse and the children, dressed to the nines in their western wear. I saw dancing horses, who were trained to trot when music was played and since music was a major part of the day as well, these horses were trotting around.

Monica has been to lots of Cabalgatas, so many that she has lost count. She brings her whole family and they ride together, which is nice. The Cabalgata is like no trail ride in the U.S. Yes, it doesn’t exactly follow the safety rules of riding, but it’s a great event that brings communities together for a good, fun cause.

Arenal Volcano, Costa Rica

Today Monica and Sebastian of Centaura and I rode at the base of the very active Arenal volcano. We rode through rolling farmland dotted with cattle, who would feel the heat if Arenal were to have a major eruption. The area is pretty developed as a tourist attraction with hot springs, which we would visit, hotels, shops and even a Burger King. We stuck to the natural side of visiting the volcano, but riding around its base and then hitting the hot springs.

To ride here, is to ride among lava rocks, listen to the rumblings of the Volcano, see the smoke billowing from the top of the cone and see the lava billowing down its side, especially at night. Arenal can throw rocks the size of cars and its flow has been known to change direction.

We also visited nearby hot springs, but non-touristy ones. The heat of the springs is determined by how active the volcano is that day. On our day, the volcano apparently wasn’t really, really active, though it was a sight to see, and the hot springs were still nice and toasty. As I sipped on a pina colada, I headed to the hottest spring for a dip. I was ready to relax after a long trip of riding great horses in beautiful Costa Rica.

Tree Climbing Costa Rica

Today, Catalina, Esteban’s sister, and a guide for Serendipity Adventures, took me out tree climbing. We hiked into the rainforest to this giant Fichus tree named Abraham, so named because he watches over the entire forest. I would be climbing up 120 feet (think a 10-12 story building) to a large platform that would take me into the forest canopy.

Climbing up was like climbing the rope in gym class, but harder, as I weigh a lot more than I did then and don’t seem to have a lot of upper body strength. There is a rigging system so that you use your legs and upper body to climb, which once you get the coordination of it all, is hard, but not impossible.

The hard part for me was that we were filming it, so I had to keep stopping and hanging in the air, while we got different angles, meaning that my legs got a little cramped. It also gave me time to look around and see this primary rainforest from a different angle. A howler monkey was right across from me climbing around in the leaves of a tree. It was so cool to be so close to this cute monkey, who Catalina said may have gotten ousted from a group.

Catalina and I hung out for a bit at the top, before we did the most fun part of the tree climb, rappelling down. You have to keep your feet on the platform and lower yourself down so that your head is below your feet before you let your feet go and begin the free fall. It was a lot of fun, though I didn’t go as fast as I could have. I was holding on a bit to take in the forest and for fear of falling too fast.
Tree climbing in Costa Rica is on a whole other level from the small singular trees of my childhood, and boy is it fun.

Costa Rica Frog Sanctuary

Today, we went to a frog farm that is not open to the public with Esteban of Centaura. The owner, raises rare frogs, but the neat thing is that the frogs are left to hop along in the rainforest, so if you walk quietly through, you can spot many of these neon colored frogs . We stealthily walked through the rainforest in search of these small frogs. Beside the trails, there were a lot of them. You have to look closely, but you can find these bright green and black frogs, whose skin and delicate arms look tie-dyed. We also saw bright blue frogs. The neatest of all was on the back of a leaf, where a red-eyed tree frog was resting. These frogs are nocturnal and look like blobs during the day, but once awoken, burst into neon colors with red eyes, red-orange feet.
The horses were trailed over, so that we could ride the rest of the farm, passing by beautiful flowers and plants, on the lookout for monkeys. We hit a patch of howler monkeys in the trees above us. These monkeys make a distinct hollering like sound. Each pack of monkeys is protected by a dominant male. I felt like one monkey was starring me down as we sat on our horses below and starred up at the monkeys.

We next rode by a cacao plant. Ah chocolate! If you cut open one of these pods, you can smell inside. The one that we cracked open was not ripe and smelled just like a melon to me. We passed through a thick forest and then down to the San Carlos River, which was partially dried up, as we are here in the dry season. In the rainy season, the banks where we were riding are overflowing with water.

We went to Monica’s family’s nearby lake house after the farm for a much needed lunch of paella and mango juice and then started our drive to the beach. Driving in Costa Rica is totally nuts. The roads wind around these mountains with tight turns, single lane bridges and big trucks that creep along and that you must pass, but at your own risk.

We pulled into Jaco, a beach area, at night. This area is starting to boom and to me, looked like any Florida beach area with souvenir shops, restaurants, condo high rises and even a bagel shop, which I have to admit, we tried the next morning. American travelers and investors are buying condos here and hitting the beach. Our ride tomorrow would be in a more secluded area.

Watch Equitrekking in Washington, DC area

13 episodes of Equitrekking are starting on Sunday, May 11th in the Washington, DC area (reaching parts of Northern VIrginia and from DC to Baltimore, Maryland) on WHUT, Channel 32, on Sundays at 2:30pm! The series kicks off with Coastal Ireland this Sunday. Please tune in.

You may read a quick interview from the DC Examiner about the upcoming series and check your local listings for other dates and times.

Pacific Coast Beach Ride, Costa Rica

Today, we took a sunset beach ride on the Central Pacific Coast, which was beautiful. Monica and Sebastian of Centaura and I headed off through flat marshland and pastures on the way to the beach. I was on Pinata and Monica rode Perla. The Pacific beaches are a bit more calm and less rocky than the Caribbean side beaches. Cantering and galloping along the beach is a freeing experience, once you get your horses used to the crashing waves. It’s something new if they have never been there before.

It look all of us a little while to get our horses to go into the water. My horse Pinata was very afraid of the waves at first, but we were able to get in after a few tries and after some of the other horses got in as well. We were able to stay on the beach through sunset, a beautiful end to our beach ride.

Centaura Farm Ride, Costa Rica

Today was my first riding day in Costa Rica. We started at the farm and Esteban of Centaura helped me pick out the horse that I would be riding. The horses here are different breed mixes. Some have more Paso Fino in them then others, meaning that they are gaited and very smooth. After trying a few horses, I settled on riding Pinata, an Appaloosa mixed with Peruvian Paso. Pinata is a wonderfully well behaved and smooth ride. We would get along very well.

Esteban rode Chocolate and Monica and her brother Sebastian rode along with us. The area just around the farm is really diverse, with rolling grasslands where cattle graze to fields of pineapple and sugarcane to rainforests, rivers and the grand Arenal Volcano.

The thing about riding in Costa Rica, is that you can really let loose and ride fast. The saddles that we used were McClellon saddles with a nice cushiony seat, ideal for long days in the saddle. Esteban told me about how many people in the area are self-sufficient. They farm and live off of the land. They also have a lot of small dogs. Everywhere, I am seeing these mini dogs, which are very popular in the U.S. They are just par for the course here.

I pointed to a large orange leafed tree in the distance and asked Esteban what it was. This is one of the many trees that Costa Ricans use to make natural fences. We rode into a secondary rainforest on the farm, which Esteban has been working to regrow by planting native plants. Some area forests were cut down for farming, but now many Costa Ricans, like Esteban, have an eye towards conservation for the future.

We rode to a high spot, where we galloped up some pastureland, sprinkled with some skinny cows. At the top, we could see Arenal Volcano, the first in a sequence of major volcanoes. The hill that we were standing on, in fact many of the hills in the area, were once volcanoes. This soil is rich in minerals, making this area so great for farming.
Our ride was not finished. We rode down to the a river, where we galloped through meadows and the water and got in to a place where the water came up to our horses chest. The river was beautiful and the water felt good. Monica warned us not to go down any further in the river, as there were crocodiles downstream. Crocodiles!

The really neat thing about the area where we are riding with Centaura and with the locals is that there are few tourists here, making getting into the local culture, easier and more authentic.

Centaura in Costa Rica

We’re riding from the Pacific Coast to the interior with Centaura, a horseback riding adventure travel company run by Monica and Esteban, a Costa Rican husband and wife team, and Serendipity Adventures, an adventure travel company that offers a plethora of outdoor adventures around Costa Rica.
Centaura’s horses are amazing. They are well trained, responsive and riders can have their pick based on what they want to experience on their adventures. Centaura specializes in custom riding vacations and offers other adventure activities through Serendipity Adventures. This means, I’ll not only be riding on the beaches, at the base of Arenal volcano and in the countryside of San Carlos, but I’ll also be climbing a twelve story tree, going hot air ballooning and visiting a frog farm and seeing abundant wildlife.

Today, we arrived in San Jose, after flying through San Salvador on Taca Airlines. Though the lines at the airport were long, the flight itself was not bad. Tucker and Reuban from Serendipity Adventures picked us up at the airport in their Land Cruiser and we were off, headed Northwest to San Carlos to the farm. San Carlos is an area of Costa Rica with rainforest, farmland and not a lot of tourists, meaning that I would be riding and hanging out with the locals.

We stopped for lunch along the winding and somewhat scary road from San Jose to San Carlos. I tried the traditional chicken and rice, and was introduced to the great fruit that they have in Costa Rica. Pineapples are grown in abundance here, as is sugarcane. Mangoes, watermelon, blackberries, etc. are all very good and fresh here. Smoothies, or what I would call a smoothie are offered at lots of the local restaurants. Costa Ricans order fruit blended with water or milk, which is great.

We arrived to the stables in the early afternoon, which are immaculate, as are the horses. After a long commute to get to Costa Rica, I was ready to sleep and ride the next morning.