A Moonlight Ride on Horseback
The moon will be full tonight, and it’s our last evening together, so we’re going on an adventure. My friend Michelle is taking us horse riding by the light of the moon in the spectacular Ibizenco countryside.
Michelle’s riding stables are located in a quiet, unspoiled area of the island, between the villages of San Matteo and Santa Gertrudis. Open all year round as a riding school and livery stables, during the summer months, Michelle also holds weekly riding camps for children. When my daughter was younger, she spent many an idyllic week at Michelle’s camps with her friends. The children slept in teepees, which was an adventure in itself! They learnt how to look after horses, had riding lessons, and went for long, picnic rides in the hills. If it was too hot to ride, Michelle took them to the beach, or to the swimming pool. They loved it!
Over the years, I’ve often gone riding with Michelle, either early in the morning, or late in the afternoon to avoid the searing heat. But my most memorable rides have taken place after sunset, under the full moon.
Tonight, mounted on sure-footed, comfortable, well-trained Spanish horses, we’ll set out with Michelle at dusk. Under an aquamarine sky, we’ll amble quietly along country lanes edged with olive and almond orchards. We’ll pluck juicy, ripe figs from trees, gobbling them greedily along the way. We’ll head into the pine forest along meandering trails, ducking low branches, letting our horses pick their way across the stony terrain. We’ll skirt stunning old farmhouses and isolated, luxurious properties, standing in our stirrups to take sneak peeks into gardens straight out of glossy magazines. We’ll wander through hills and meadows, ford parched streams. Suddenly, as we reach the top of a hill, a giant amber ball will appear on the horizon, which is now a spectacular shade of amethyst edged with peach, gold and tangerine.
Welcome, moon! We’ll stop for a while, awed by the silence, our reins loose, our shoulders hunched, watching the full moon chase away the remains of daylight, watching the sun-baked countryside relax in the iridescent, silver glow. We’ll sit quietly, awed, content and at peace, before picking up our reins and slowly heading back to the stables in the warm, moonlit darkness, our lungs inhaling the heady scents of nature, as eager as our horses to get home and feast upon our evening meal.
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I hope you have enjoyed visiting Ibiza with me this week. If you’d like to spend more time on this beautiful island, why not pick up a copy of my romantic comedy, “Mucho Caliente! – Wish upon a Latino Superstar”? It is available as an e-book as well as in print. For more details, please see my website:
www.francescaprescott.com.
Lots of love,
Francesca
June 2009
Francesca Prescott
"MUCHO CALIENTE! - Wish upon a Latino Superstar"
An effervescent romantic comedy
LASR: Best Long Book of the Year 2008 : "Laugh out loud hilarious!"
NOR: Reviewer Top Pick : "A seriously fun book with more twists and turns than expected"
CRR: “Hard to put down”
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