The most important habits when riding a horse are to be respectful towards the animal and not to get scared. Before getting on the horse’s back, I said hello to him and scratched his nose gently so he would not get startled when I climbed onto the saddle. Next, I placed my left foot in the stirrup, grabbed the top of the saddle, and swung the rest of my body over the horse’s back. Riding a horse is not as comfortable as it looks. If the horse walks quickly or gallops, you bounce up and down on the saddle very hard! Thankfully, the horse walked very slowly on most of the winding mountain paths.
Some paths in the mountains are too steep to drive on in a car. The only options are to go on foot or on horseback. I wanted to go into the mountains to see how tea was being grown and experience the history of the Southern Silk Road, so I joined some Chinese tourists on a horseback riding tour of a nearby mountain. These experiences made me realize that the rich tradition of horseback riding, which started hundreds of years ago when traders traversed these mountains, still continues to this day.
