Horses are bigger than buses.

Well they are when it’s the first time in 62 years that you have been on one. On this trip to Australia, and this is my 6th trip I have done 3 things I have not done before. One is ride in a Saab. A Saab 340 to be exact, which carries 34 passengers and a crew of three. Scroll back a couple of posts to see a picture.

The second is to complete my plan to visit all the states in the Commonwealth of Australia, including the Northern Territories which never made it to statehood for some reason that I, and probably most Australians don’t understand. Nice place though, very hot. I should also add that to call my trip to Victoria a visit is stretching it a little. I spent all the time I was there (5 hours) in Melbourne Airport on my way to and from Tasmania. Next time I come I will spend some more time there. Almost everyone I spoke to suggested places to visit, The Great Ocean Road, a helicopter flight over the 12 Apostles and of course a day out at Torquay.




The Horse was the third. We stayed with my niece in Tassie. She had lots of land around her house and keeps a horse called JJ. On the last full day I was sitting in the house and I could hear some thing going on at the front door. Now where we were was out in the wilderness (most of Tassie is wilderness) so anything going on was bound to attract attention. I mean by the second day we had given up counting cars going past. One pickup had gone by, 3 times in two days. Some parts of the world are quieter I am sure. Anyway I went out to look and discovered my niece and her partner saddling JJ to take him for a ride a round the paddock. Without really thinking how far off the ground you are when sitting on a horse I said, “That looks interesting, can I have a go?”

Let me tell you that up until that moment I would have sooner driven the 15:45 number 12 out of Newton Abbot full of school children than get on a horse. Once up there and I realized that he wasn’t going to turn round and bite me or buck like some crazed rodeo performer driven into a frenzy by a desire to hurtle the poor sod (me!) on it’s back to the ground and pound and stamp with those heavy, very dangerous looking things on the end of his legs until I was nothing more than a bloody mess in the field. After I had got over this very rational fear of looking like road kill, it was fun. We never got beyond a fast walk but that was OK by me. And I think OK by JJ as well. I am looking forward to my next trip to Tassie so I can have another go at riding a horse. Might try and get up to a trot next time.