The Horse Farm

Last November, I met Louisa, my Bavarian friend traveling around SE Asia during her gap year. For those that don't know (because I know I didn't), "gap year" is the time when high school graduates from many Western countries travel abroad before entering college.

Man, I wish I would've traveled like this before college - although I would've been an absolute mess traveling here at that age, and probably would've found myself in trouble!  So, maybe I'll call it a blessing in disguise I didn't!

Louisa happened to still be in Thailand when I moved, and actually came up from the south islands to visit me in Chiang Mai.  She was planning to continue on north to a horse farm owned by a fellow German, that asked her to help out for a month.  

Since I'd never ridden a horse through the jungle, or anywhere for that matter, I made it a point to come visit!

The ride up to the Phrao District is amazing!

Phrao is tucked away in a valley surrounded by a horseshoe shaped mountain range just north of Chiang Mai - so no tourists up here at all. You know you've exited the tourist track when you start turning heads of unsuspecting Thai onlookers by simply driving down the local streets.

It's very dry this time or year, and of course, freakin' hot!

After two and a half ass-numbing hours on the motorbike, I made it to the base of the mountain where the horse farm was.

I was greeted by Lousia and the Thai family she was living with. Boris was the owner, a German who married a Thai woman, started a nice big family here in the country, and ran this horse farm taking tourists on week-long excursions through northern Thailand and Laos. He offered tours of no more than four per group, and options to either trek through the mountains locally, or venture into the southern mountains of Laos for a longer tour.  I didn't have time to do anything that extensive, so I settled on a modest day ride through the jungle the following morning.

The farmhouse was crowded to say the least.  Typical of Thai households:  the whole family lives together, usually about three generations all under ONE roof!  So, there wasn't much room in the house for another head. The only option for me was to pull a mattress outside to an outdoor covered lounge area, next to the horse stable, and sleep outside in a mosquito net!

Ok, so, no complaints sleeping outside...at all!

It was amazing at night to hear all the sounds in the country coming alive, along with the horses practically sleeping at my feet.  It was again, something I'd never experienced before.  

The only downside is life starts ridiculously early on a farm!  Of course, horses are hungry at the first sliver of daylight, so the work started very early - of course, not for me though, the noise just simply woke me up and I couldn't go back to sleep, so it felt like I was up working that early, but I really wasn't. You literally could hear roosters from miles away, like 5 farms over, crowing all morning long. They were relentless, and successfully prevented any sleep past 5am.

We went for our ride that Saturday. We rode into the jungle and began climbing the mountain by horseback. Riding is pretty easy when you're only going 5 mph. The ride was slow, but the scenery was worth the ass-dragging.  These horses weren't really trained, so it was a challenge getting them to do anything but slothfully trudge along the mountainside trail.  

We arrived at a waterfall deep in the jungle, near a small wadding pool where we could take a dip and cool off. The horses voluntarily got in the water as well, practically diving in splashing everywhere, and really enjoying the bath.

It was seriously such a hot day!

We continued back down after a few hours, and quickly realized we may not make it back before sundown at our current pace. This became more concerning when the obedience issues continued.  I made the mistake of letting my horse stop a few times to snack on the low-hanging meals along the trail.  Underestimating his intelligence, I quickly found, like the children I teach, if you give him an inch and he'll take a mile.  He quickly realized his newly enlisted power over me, and stopped at every other green plant he saw, giving little regard to my stern commands to move forward.

We eventually made it back as the sun was setting.  It was quite nice to have such a beautiful scene as we walked the horses back, and after a somewhat stressful fight against time. Getting stuck in the jungle at night is just not ok, anywhere.

That evening, the Thai children were preparing to grill (Thai style), and we ate and drank until the wee hours of the morning.

It was a great experience, and another "first" to add to my ongoing list here in Thailand.