A guest recalls the quiet peacefulness of riding
at Rancho Las Cascadas.

I’m not really a city person.

After a few hours in Mexico City your brain learns to tune out the constant buzz. The beehive hum of humans packed into a small space all hurrying and racing to live their lives. Your brain tunes it out…..that is  until the buzzing stops. That is when you begin to know the term ‘the sound of silence’.

It is a real thing.

1. My trusty steed and I were both quite content on this ride.

It allows you once more to hear the smaller sounds of the world going on. Sparrows arguing and shouting as they decide on their new home, how it will be built and where, whether feathers or grass should decorate the floor and then making the eggs! Wow.

To be able to hear the sigh of the wind sweeping across a wide expanse of grass and prickly pear is a rare privelage. Then, like a sound recorder building a music track, add the beat in four time of a horse stepping out, the rythmic creak of saddle and bridle. Every now and then he snorts and sighs. He is content and saying so.

Under a scrubby thorn tree at the far side of the field, the silhouette of the trunk is disrupted by a shepherd. He has taken shelter from the sun, his back propping up the tree, his hat low over his face. His ankles are crossed and his hands keep each other company in his lap. He could be sleeping or just watching his sheep from under the brim of his hat. A dog lies under the shade beside him, his tongue lolling from the side of his mouth whilst he pants to keep cool. A half hearted ‘yap’ comes our way but we pose no threat to their wards and he drops his head onto his crossed forelegs once more.

Before us the land rises, our mounts feeling the slope.  I shift  my weight forward to give the horse an easier time as he thrusts upwards with his hindquarters. The prickly pear numbers increase along with other cacti and pungent turpentine smelling bushes I can’t identify. They are so close together now that we brush against them on both sides, releasing the herbal aromas and catching spines in my chaps I am glad I put on earlier.

The incline is now steep enough that we have to zig zag our way up. I let my horse find his own path. He is sure footed and fit and knows which way to go. I can look about me and just enjoy the ride whilst he does all the hard work. His breathing becomes sonorous and deep like a slow pair of bellows in the forge.

Just below the peak of this hill, the slope moderates. My steed quickens his pace with the easier going and suddenly we have no more ground above us, we are at the top! We take a few minutes to enjoy the view and explore a little. My proud guide poses for a photo.

1. The beer is cold and refreshing and the shopkeeper doesn’t care that I speak no Spanish and he no English. Beer seems to be a universal language!

Our descent is on the other side of the hill. The landscape is totally different this time, a boulder strewn slope, pumice and other volcanic rock amidst rough grassland. A small quarry has bitten into the hill but it is abandoned now and the plants are reclaiming it already.

My guide suggests a canter as we clear the boulders. I justify my ‘Yes’ by thinking that the horse needs to stretch out a bit, really I just want to feel the wind in my face and the exhileration that comes with allowing a happy powerful animal to carry me fast!

We find a small settlement and I suggest some refreshment. The beer is cold and refreshing and the shopkeeper doesn’t care that I speak no Spanish and he no English. Beer seems to be a universal language!

Back at the ranch I am the only guest, it’s good sometimes to have some of my own company. Even so, I am invited into the kitchen to eat. The staff bustle about contentedly and I am forced to refuse second or third helpings lest I break my horse tomorrow! I rise to go and mix a margarita but am hustled back into my seat. It is brought to me in no time and i’m glad that I didn’t make it as this one is superb! Rich, sweet, sour and yummily citrus. I raise my glass and salute the hero who invented it!