fitness challenge—horseback riding

I can't remember the last time I went horseback riding. It was with Girl Scouts, at a dude ranch, and I had the worse allery attack ever.

Thankfully that didn't happen this time. (Thanks generic Claratin!)

My friend Pam suggested this activity after our paddle boarding adventure. She found us a Groupon, so we saved big bucks on this outing. (Groupon could be hazardous to your budget. Must stay away!)

Fitness friend Dawn also came. Riding is on her bucket list. Dawn and I met at the Rt 33 Park and Ride and we headed up to "Bangor". I have no idea where we were but Bangor was 15 minutes south. We left at 10 for our 11 ride. It took 45 minutes. Google suggested 37. Dawn brought the GPS so that save us from getting lost.

We arrived and parked and waited for Pam's family to arrive. They got lost so they were late.  Pam brought her husband and both girls. Hannah came home from college to ride today. She really wanted to come.

Dawn got the first horse. It probably took a good 20 minutes to load us on to horses. I left the others go first, so I got the last one — Rocky. He likes to walk fast so they make us stay at the end. He didn't like it. He kept creeping up on Pam's horse and getting his face in her horses butt. "Rocky, stay out of Pam's tushy!" He didn't listen. He wanted to be in the front. Hannah's horse had pretty white spots.

Rocky like to hug the trees and my knee actually hit a stop sign. His love of trees also may have gotten me in trouble. We were on the way back and Pam said, "watch, poison." Too late. I thought that my shirt got the bulk of it, but perhaps not. After I showered I noticed my hands were red and bumpy. I might have transferred the poison from Rocky to me when I got off. We'll see.

I'm not sure how much exercise this was. I guess a lot would be muscle control. Almost isometric. Maybe. Science is not my strong suite.

During the ride we discussed other fitness challenges. Pam suggested belly dancing. Alas, I thought of that also but no one I found so far offers single classes. Connie, who's 16, wants to try pole dancing. If only we were in Kentucky. Maria would do a class for us.  However, Sweat Like A Girl, which is in Nazareth, you need to be 18. But they do have drop-in classes for a wide variety of classes similar to what Maria offers...

Tomorrow is the Via Marathon. All our nrmal haunts will be cluttered with people. Roads will be closed off. So we're going to walk in Trout Creek Park under the Susquehanna Street bridge.

Storms brewing. Night all.