Arrival and Horseback Riding

Purna and Sanjeev arrived at Washington National Airport today a little after noon and upon their arrival we immediately set out to my friend Reuben's stables in rural Maryland. Reuben is an intern at the House Judiciary Committee and works pretty closely with me. His family trains horses and competes in show jumping. Although Reuben and his family are heading to Canada tomorrow, he suggested that the boys come by to ride horses before they leave town.

Poolesville is well outside the city limits, but it was worth the drive. Reuben's family has about 15 or so horses on over 100 acres of land. After we met his mom, Reuben picked out some horses for us and put their saddles on. It was Sanjeev's first time on a horse and I had forgotten some of the basics so Reuben gave us a lesson and we were off.

After crossing a road and going down a trail, we came across an open stretch of land and took them cantering back and forth. Sanjeev adjusted really well and seemed pretty confident for his first ride. I have to admit that, like riding a bike, after a few minutes riding seemed natural as if I had just gone last week. What I had forgotten was how sore your butt can get after a lot of trotting or cantering.

Upon returning to the stables we watched Reuben ride one of the show horses in some jumping exercises and then the Goetzl's put us right to work washing off the horses and taking them out to the corral. It might have been more work than we were expecting, but seeing as how we seldom get to ride horses, it seemed like a pretty fair deal.

We stopped for some dinner on the way back at a Peruvian place in Maryland. Arriving in DC, Purna and Sanjeev met Nora, got settled in, and then headed off to the gym in our building. Everyone was feeling a bit tired from all the day's activity, and although it's a late hour now, we are planning to get up tomorrow morning around 8:30 am to play soccer in the park.

Tomorrow is Nora's birthday so we'll help her celebrate and take plenty more pictures. I will also swing by my office to pick up the contraption which allows me to copy pictures from my camera to my computer so I can add pictures to this post later tomorrow.

We'll post again on Saturday. Hope everyone is doing well. Catch up with you all soon.

All Pictures at Flickr.com