When I had originally spoken to the organizer of the Hawaii region certifications about staying on and teaching, I was envisioning several days of traditional “mounted meeting” type clinics where I would be teaching back-to-back lessons at a facility from morning until late afternoon. However, what actually transpired was very different, and I was not at all sad about it because it meant I had lots of time to play and explore on the island! Had we come to Oahu at a time when kids were off of school this might have been different but the timing of our visit meant that I was somewhat limited to teaching the adults that had flexible work schedules and the kids after school. Today was one of my busier teaching days and I was scheduled to go back and forth between two barns on the North Shore for several lessons.

That morning Scott and I changed up our beach walk habit slightly and went for a run to Kailua Beach instead. I had brought running gear because we were signed up for the Beaufort Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving and knew that I had to run while we were in Oahu, otherwise I’d get to gobble until I wobbled… right into a face plant on the 5k route, and not get to eat turkey and all that. It was an enjoyable route to run and we were treated to views of Kailua Bay and its beach along the way.

We took our time travelling up to the North Shore and stopped for a few photo ops along the way. I taught my first lesson at Kawailoa Ranch and while I was teaching Scott hung out at the beach across the street. When it was finished, he picked me up and we headed to Dillingham Ranch.

The organizer of the certifications and clinics had generously invited Scott and I to go on a trail ride while we were at Dillingham and we were excited about the opportunity. Her daughter Minnie was our trail guide and we all rode their family’s horses. We didn’t get to go on the beach but we got a nice tour of the sprawling Dillingham Ranch and it was fun to see Scott get to ride. He was on a big Belgian warmblood mare named Sadie that had come over at some point from Virginia. She was quiet and steady and they made a nice pair. Scott looked right at home and remembered everything I had taught him from his previous rides. When we were walking along some of the more wooded paths his steed decided she was in need of a snack and started grabbing leaves from the trees along the way. Scott asked if this was ok and Minnie said yes. Sadie then took this as an opportunity to turn the ride into a full blown buffet and we had to explain to Scott how to keep her walking as she grabbed bites instead of letting her just stop and munch to her heart’s content.

When our trail ride finished, I hopped off and hustled over to the arena to teach a few lessons. Scott helped take care of the horses and then headed out for a quick 2.5 mile hike at nearby Ka’ena Point State Park until it was time to pick me up and take me back to Kawailoa. (While it was a lot of travel back and forth, the facilities were only about 10 minutes away from each other so it wasn’t terrible.) The hike paralleled the rugged North Shore coast line and he got to see huge surf along the way, as well as remnants of the old railroad that used to run the perimeter of Oahu.

I wrapped up the work day teaching a group lesson at Kawailoa and was thrilled with the quality of riding that I saw. These riders had the classically correct “basic balanced positions” that USPC tries to instill in all its riders and it was exciting to see. Often in geographically remote areas, riders lack access to quality instruction and you see this come through in unbalanced, weak, and incorrect positions. This was absolutely not the case here and it made my job a breeze because I could just give them tools and exercises to layer on skills and further develop their effectiveness, rather than having to fix bad habits. I had a “Pony Club proud” moment during this lesson, pleased that the USPC system and standards were correctly reaching and influencing riders in Polynesia.

Scott, my faithful Uber driver, picked me up when I was done for the day and we headed in search of dinner. We stopped for takeout at a place called Seven Brothers across from Shark’s Cove. We walked across the street and had our dinner sitting on a brick wall overlooking the beach at the snorkeling spot (which was closed that day due to dangerous surf) and while we were eating we noticed some people on the beach playing with fire. Literally. A local fire dancing troupe were taking turns twirling fire sticks and “poi” (poi means “ball on a string”) which was mesmerizing to watch and was right up Scott’s alley. When we had watched our fill of fire dancing we headed back to Kailua, and as had become the norm, fell right into bed.