The Waterstraut Waterspout: Olympics Day 15: Equestrian

The Olympics are winding down, so we're getting the most out of them while they are still here. Today we celebrated South Korea, with an equestrian event!

It's Friday, and an office week. But Asa took a vacation day, so we could get one more field trip in, and it was a biggie. You know, saving the best for last and all that. But, before we get to that, we spent our morning at Disney Springs. First of all, it was super easy to get Peyton on board, since it is Pokestop central. I've never seen him so excited to be at Disney Springs. (Which, if you haven't been since it changed from Downtown Disney, it's like a whole new place- go check it our!)

We figured we could pick up a Korean lunch at Morimoto Asia Street Food, not to be confused with the restaurant (it's one dollar sign, compared to three- yikes!) The street food is just a window, but they have a nice patio with tables, and all kinds of crazy food!

We decided to get an array of dishes and share, something we do a lot around here. We got all our food, and a black tea slushie (which was AWESOME!), and the cute fork/chopsticks combos and found a table on the patio.

We went with some safe bets, like the pork eggrolls (they were spicy, but pretty par for the course), and the shrimp tempura roll (pretty good, but I wouldn't rush right out to get it again.)

The stars of the lunch, for all of us were the Morimoto Baby Ribs and the Chilled Sesame Lo-Mien Noodles. I'm not even a noodle fan, but these were up there with the O'hana noodles.

And then there was the Takoyaki. So, what is that you ask? Well, it's an octopus fritter! I was so proud of everyone for trying one. Here's the thing, I can't decide if I loved these, or I hated these. There's pieces of octopus in them, and it kind of grossed me out to know that was what I was eating. The texture is weird. But the surrounding cast was awesome. I am super glad we tried them though.

In non-related Olympic news, we also stopped by Sprinkles, the cupcake place, at Disney Springs.

I had a free birthday cupcake on my account, and it expires tomorrow, so I figured I'd use it while I was there. We also got a smores cupcake and split them.

After lunch, we were headed to Fort Wilderness to the Tri-Circle D Ranch. Calib was told about today's event ahead of time, but we didn't tell Peyton and Hayden until we were at Sprinkles. Half because I wanted to surprise them, half because I was worried Hayden would psych himself out about it.

We checked in, and got our helmets, and then they brought our horses around.

You aren't allowed to bring anything on the horses, not your cell phone, not your camera, nothing. They have lockers to keep your stuff in, right there when you get on and off your horse. Luckily, I was the last one on my horse, so I got to snap a couple pictures of everyone getting on theirs before I put the stuff in our lockers.

Once you get on your horse, they tie you up while everyone else gets on theirs. Hayden was first up. He had Mewshoe, who was very docile. He didn't have any trouble with him, except for the one time Mewshoe stopped to eat. (They told us to keep the horses from eating anything out on the trail, some of us did better than others. Hayden rode just in front of me, and a couple of times he started to freak out a little, but not really because of anything his horse did. He really settled into riding by the end of the trail though.

Calib was last in the line of the five of us, right behind Asa, with his horse, Bart. Apparently Bart and Asa's horse are good buddies, and Bart is a little newer to the trail, so he needs some guidance. Calib didn't seem to have much trouble with him though.

Peyton had Bonanza, and he rode the trail just behind me. While Bonanza was a super nice horse, Peyton just could not get him to stop eating. Every five minutes I'd hear Peyton saying 'Bonanza! No! You can't eat that!' The guide told us as far as grazing on the trail goes, Bonanza is the worst. She said it's like having a whole dessert buffet in front of you, but not being able to eat any of it. Other than that though, he was a great horse, and Peyton loved riding him.

Asa had Nevada Bob, and he was awesome. He listened, stayed the proper distance from the horse in front of him, and only tried to get some grass to chow down on once (Asa corrected him, and that was that). But everyone was envious of Nevada. He just seemed awesome. And, I thought he was the prettiest horse that any of us had.

When we were getting off the horse, Asa got off before me, so I got to get my picture on my horse, Jesse James. He was an interesting character. Remember how I said they tie up every horse before they get you all ready for the trail? Yea, well, they tie up everyone but Jesse, because he kind of freaks out about being tied up. So while everyone sat there listening to instructions, Jesse just wandered. Then, when they told us to keep about three feet between horses, the guide turned me to me and said 'more for Jesse, he likes to nip at the horse in front of him.' And, I made sure to keep him back because Hayden was the horse in front of me! As soon as we got out on the trail, Jesse was trying to eat bushes, and when you pulled the reins to have him go one way, he's shake his head and basically refuse. But all in all, I loved my ride! And I was never frustrated with him or anything, he just seemed to know what he was doing, and let me know as much.

Peyton was the last one off his horse, so he got another picture on Bonanza.

I have wanted to do horseback riding at Disney many, many times, and it just has never worked out. Also, for all five of us to do it, it isn't cheap. But, the Olympics were the perfect excuse to finally get out there and go for a ride. I figured for the boys first time (they've all ridden a pony around in a circle, but that's about it), you can't go more low key, or safer than Disney on a trail through Fort Wilderness. We didn't see any deer, but we did get to see some wild turkey. And, the trail is lovely in itself. If you get the chance, I highly recommend!

After horseback riding, we decided to hang around Fort Wilderness for awhile. I mean, there were Pokestops everywhere!

And we love Fort Wilderness.

We crashed the pool for the afternoon, which was much needed, because we were all super sweaty and hot after the horseback riding (even though the trail is really shaded!)

We swam, we had drinks and snacks,we went down the waterslide. It was lovely.

But the trip home was not awesome. We had to wait half an hour for the bus at Fort Wilderness (don't ever stay there unless you're getting a golf cart!), and then we not only got stuck in traffic, but a huge storm to boot. Asa was not pleased when we hit the I75- I4 exchange in pouring down rain at 5:30. We just sat there. Ugh.

It took about three hours to get home (from the pool to the front door), so we decided to just pick up dinner on the way home. We were planning to have Korean BBQ for dinner, but even Peyton said he was all Asian food-ed out. After we got home, and had dinner, we held our equestrian event. We set up the course outside...

...and the boys were given their horse for riding through the course.

It was a timed event, and Hayden had to run the course one less time than his brothers. Any knocked over obstacles added a second to your time. They had to go around the cone, over the hurdle, through the pool (and under the net at the same time), then over the bar, over another hurdle, around a few more cones, and then back and forth.

Calib narrowly beat out Hayden (who had a two second penalty), and Peyton came in with the bronze.

Calib's got himself quite the collection of Olympic medals.

After our event, Peyton gave his South Korea presentation.

And pulled out his bag, and all his snacks.

He did a nice job on his box. I decided I'm going to keep the boxes for next year's fair (thanks mom!), and put some of their artwork I've been saving for the fair in them too. Anyway, we didn't have too much in the bag to try out, and we'll have to have the Korean BBQ sauce sometime after the Olympics, but the rice rolls were actually pretty good. (They're just weirdly shaped rice cakes).