Kasztanka, Bielsko-Biala, Poland
So, onwards into the mountains with the Kasztanka stables in Bielsko. I have been on a number of different hacks, each time on their very trusty steed Greici, a 7 year old home-bred native breed who sticks to and scampers up the mountains like a billy goat. Each trek has been in the same area of the mountains but each time it has been a totally different experience.
The rides take advantage of the many criss-crossing hiking trails which means riders can experience a different side of the Beskid mountains on each adventure. The highlights of the trails I have been on include the Dębowiec ski slope (much to the amusement of hikers and cross-country skiers), Kozia Górka (Goat Mountain with its own wild goats) and the disquieting Dolina Śmierci (Death Valley!).
Each of these has been a new lesson in what myself and the other regular riders have termed in our broken Polish/English conversations as Extreme Hacking. This is from our experiences of journeys across/through/round/over/under/up the various obstacles that the trails into the mountains come up with. These have included static jumps from stand, shabbily constructed stairs, tip-toeing across the frozen skin of streams, splashing through rivers from melted snowfall, launching ourselves up and down sheer cliffs, being rolled over and deposited in mud, dismounting and scrambling up rocky trails with horses in hand and on every ride ending up in a shower of mud flung from hooves, including from my own horse, and tasting it too all because I'm grinning so wide.
Each ride is technically challenging but also surprising, exhilarating and of course superbly sprightly.
The rides take advantage of the many criss-crossing hiking trails which means riders can experience a different side of the Beskid mountains on each adventure. The highlights of the trails I have been on include the Dębowiec ski slope (much to the amusement of hikers and cross-country skiers), Kozia Górka (Goat Mountain with its own wild goats) and the disquieting Dolina Śmierci (Death Valley!).
Each of these has been a new lesson in what myself and the other regular riders have termed in our broken Polish/English conversations as Extreme Hacking. This is from our experiences of journeys across/through/round/over/under/up the various obstacles that the trails into the mountains come up with. These have included static jumps from stand, shabbily constructed stairs, tip-toeing across the frozen skin of streams, splashing through rivers from melted snowfall, launching ourselves up and down sheer cliffs, being rolled over and deposited in mud, dismounting and scrambling up rocky trails with horses in hand and on every ride ending up in a shower of mud flung from hooves, including from my own horse, and tasting it too all because I'm grinning so wide.
Each ride is technically challenging but also surprising, exhilarating and of course superbly sprightly.
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