Saddle up...

One of our favorite things we did in Lijiang was to go horse back riding.  I have been a few times and I quite enjoy it.  Michael had never been, so I was excited for him to go.  Riding horses is a popular tourist attraction in Lijiang.  It is a nice way to see the country side.

You can go the leisurely route and go through the country side, checking out Naxi villages and stay on nice flat ground or you can go straight up a mountain side.  I of course, not knowing what I was getting myself into, wanted to do the most adventurous ride we could.  I love being high up on the mountains, so I figured the higher up, the better the view.

Lijiang is already at around 7,000 feet.  On most days we were above 9,000 feet.

Here is Michael getting settled into his horse

It might be hard to tell, but the horses are much smaller than the horses we are used to in the United States.  Michael was worried about them being able to trek our larger American booties ☺ up a mountain side, but they did it.  Our guide said they are bread to be very strong and to be able to handle the steep mountain sides.

Me feeding my horse.  Isn't he/she cute?  Part way up the mountain you could stop and buy some corn for your horse.  I splurged and bought my horse 2 bowls of corn.  ☺ 

Here is a pic of the trail along the mountain side.  You can kind of see how narrow and bumpy the trail is.  You can not really tell but on the right side of the trail, it was seriously a drop straight down. 

Michael being asked to take a picture.  It happens every so often, more so when we are of the city because there are people in the country side who have never seen a white person before and they fascinated and really love to get pics with them.  I also think it is funny how our guide has Michael's big ol' SLR off to the right, trying to take a pic.  Cute!

Michael and I both had moments when we thought we might die.  The drop was straight down at many points in the ride  and our horses hooves were right on the edge.  I was riding behind Michael and saw his horse's hooves slip now and again and almost had a heart attack.  All I could see was him rolling down the mountain on his horse.

It was scary but it was also fun.  Michael and I both agree it was one of our favorite things we did.  It was really amazing how the horses were able to climb the steep mountain side with us on their backs.  And the views were amazing.  We had a guided who walked with us the whole way.  It was a about a 2 hour ride up and down the mountain, so he was a real trooper as well.

here is a pic of our guide...on the right side of the pic