The girls have been asking to go horseback riding for quite a while now. Well before we came to Mexico. But in San Miguel horses come and go on a daily basis, which brought things to a sort of fever pitch. 

While finding a horse in San Miguel is easy, finding one to ride is more challenging. There's plenty of tourist outfits in town that do horseback rides just like [the ATV ride I did](/jrnl/2018/11/lets-go-ride), but none of them have much in the way of kid-friendly riding options. After a few months of stalling, a lot of hemming and hawing on my part, Corrinne's parents' friend, who owns a ranch outside of town, heard about our kids and invited them out to go riding.

That's how we ended up in the campo with the girls riding horses for the first time. Elliott was not interested.

<img src="images/2019/2019-04-26_100414_horse-ranch.jpg" id="image-1996" class="picwide" />

<img src="images/2019/2019-04-26_101054_horse-ranch.jpg" id="image-2000" class="picwide" />
<img src="images/2019/2019-04-26_101352_horse-ranch.jpg" id="image-2001" class="picwide" />

The ranch hands brought out some wonderfully gentle horses that seemed content to walk in circles in exchange for the occasional carrot.  

While Olivia's horse was completely sedate with a rider on her back, she had a whole smiley routine she pulled out in the stable to get attention and more carrots. It worked very well on us. Who knew horses could smile?

<img src="images/2019/2019-04-26_101003_horse-ranch.jpg" id="image-1999" class="picwide" />
<img src="images/2019/2019-04-26_100726_horse-ranch.jpg" id="image-1998" class="picwide" />
<img src="images/2019/2019-04-26_100433_horse-ranch.jpg" id="image-1997" class="picwide" />

I didn't do any riding, but I did make a friend.

<img src="images/2019/2019-04-26_104352_horse-ranch.jpg" id="image-2007" class="picwide" />

The campo is a world apart from the life we know in San Miguel. It's been hot lately in the city, but when you get out of the concrete canyons of the city streets there's a nice steady breeze that blows through and keeps things cool, if a little dusty. Life out here has a different rhythm, a different pace. Sitting on the bus back into town I couldn't help thinking that I really need to get out and see more of Mexico, less of the city.