Old Spot

We have left Chile and will stay in Argentina for 5 nights. Our first two nights were spent at an Estancia called Puesto Viejo. It's basically a ranch that is also a polo club. I never realized this before, but Argentina is known as a world class polo playing country, or so the Argentines tell me (thats one thing the Argentines are known for in south America - their "humility"; if you want to know how good they are at something, ask them, they will tell you). They offer polo lessons (which I didn't take) and horseback riding. We went on four different rides during the two nights that we were there.

Now, I don't know very much about horses, so the following are just my first impressions of what I thought about the horses.
- The animals are quite powerful and I can't imagine facing a charging cavalry with long wooden poles attempting to win a battle, like William Wallace did in the movie Braveheart.
- They seem to carry humans with ease and are quite gentle. I wondered if they get tired carrying us, but I think they are mostly just lazy.
- They don't look like the most intelligent beasts in the world. They plod along, head hanging, following the horse in front of them, mostly interested in nipping at some grass as they walked through a field. They spook easily, getting startled by small little snakes, and trip over the smallest divots in the ground.
- I wondered how an animal can control four legs, that looks so flimsy compared to their massive bodies, and have the perception and memory to avoid obstacles with their hind hooves. How can they walk on four legs?! I then wondered if the horses thought we were crazy for walking on two legs.
- I talked to the horses I rode and imagined they responded with the voice of Eyeore, the donkey from Winnie the Pooh. Not very intelligent sounding or particularly excited about anything.
- They need blinders, to avoid them from getting too excited about neighboring horses. That's like playing hide'n'go'seek with a child who covers their eyes and thinks they've disappeared.
- They seem to stand around all day, much like teenagers hanging out at a seven-eleven.
- They need to wear shoes, otherwise, they'd wreck their "feet".
- As we got farther and farther from their stables, the walk got slower and slower.
- why is it necessary to say "horseBACK" riding? Where else does one ride the horse? If horsehead riding existed then I could see the necessity to specify how one is riding.

I really liked the horses. I could get into horseback riding as a thing but I don't know what it would replace, as my time is limited.

I talked to one gaucho during one of the rides. I'm sure he laughed at my inability to control the horse and make it do what I wanted to do and how my body flailed around atop the horse when trotting (much like Woody, the toy story cowboy, a marionette, on strings). It came up that I played hockey in Canada, and he was astounded how people could maintain there balance on ice and commented how violent the sport was.
In the end, I rationalized to myself that under different circumstance I could be a gaucho. I would think that ice hockey was a strange sport and that horse manure was a natural smell.