November 8, 2022 • 40 mins
I have been horseback riding in three different countries. I’ve put in my time and I’m now retired! LOL Listen to this episode to hear all of my horseback riding shenanigans.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
That time, I'm at India Irene. That time, I went
on a really bad date at that time. I was
directed by Robert Townton. That time, I got Mono on Thanksgiving.
That time, I went on a really bad Christmas tour.
(00:33):
That time. I'm I, hey, y'all, welcome back to this
week's episode of Her with Amina Brown. I feel like,
every like seven to ten episodes, I say, and I'm
Amina Brown. I just do that in case there are
people here who this might be your first episode, This
might be your first time here, and you're like, I
(00:53):
don't know, Amina Brown. That's me. I'm the host here.
So I'm very excited because I was talking with a
friend of mine and it reminded me of a story
I wanted to tell y'all. So if you are not seated,
then you might have a seat for story time. You
might be seated in your vehicle, you might be in
(01:14):
your remote work from home scenarios. You might be out,
you know, running other as sundry errands. So I welcome
you to the story time that is today's episode. One
of my friends was talking about how she had recently
done an outing with her husband and really wanted to
(01:35):
go horseback riding. And it was like, as soon as
she said it, it brought back like all these memories
as to why I will no longer participate in horseback riding,
as to why I'm I'm finished with it. No shade
to those of you that do this as an activity.
This is a thing you like to do, like to
be a part of. Some of y'all have been horseback
(01:57):
riding since you were children. I wish you well. I
don't want to be near a horse anymore. I feel
like I have put in my time. I feel like
I've had some amazing experiences, and I've had some experiences
that are the reason why this is not a thing
that I'm doing anymore. But I'm gonna tell you my
(02:19):
horseback riding journey. I'm gonna share it with you. So
I went horseback riding for the first time when I
was about eleven years old. And if you have been
following the podcast, you know that one of my sisters,
my sister that I grew up in the house with,
my sister, Mikita, who has been a guest here on
the podcast and is like my best friend. So we
(02:42):
are actually almost eleven years apart. Because I was ten
when she was born in March, and then I turned
eleven that May, well, my mom had a friend who
she worked with. My mom is a nurse, and at
that time, my sister was born in a DC hospital,
(03:02):
so we were living in like the d m V area.
Shout out to my d m V people. I still
have a lot of love and nostalgia about living in
the d m V because my mom worked in DC,
worked at a hospital there, and I went to school
in Maryland like that that area of the country is
still one of my favorite places. So my mom had
(03:23):
a nurse friend who was a very good friend of hers.
And those of you who are older siblings in any regard,
even if you're not the oldest, but you have siblings
who are younger than you, and if you were old
enough to remember when your sibling was born, you may
know the vibes of what I'm about to describe. So
because I was ten, my sister and I talked about
(03:44):
this too. We were almost like two only children who
had a small amount of time that we were in
the house together. So I had ten years where it
was just my mom and I and then my sister
was born, so we had eight years where we were
in the house together. And then by the time my
(04:04):
sister was eight or about to be nine, I was
leaving to go to college. So then my sister had
the rest of her ten years of high school without
me being in the house. Right And when you're an
older sibling, I don't know. Maybe I'm petty or was
a petty child, but I feel like this is probably
a general experience that a lot of older siblings had.
(04:25):
You know, I was not used to sharing with a
child that lived in the house with me, and it
wasn't just like sharing toys and things like that. Because
my sister was so little, we couldn't play, which was
really a part of what was sort of dissatisfactory to
me in the experience of realizing what is really going
(04:47):
to be like to be a big sister. I had
always wanted a sister, but I thought I was going
to have a sister that I was gonna be kind
of equal parties with. By this time, at ten, you know,
I'm still I feel like maybe I wasn't quite playing
with barbies as much, but I did still have a
very nice barbie house, so I feel like I did
(05:08):
do that a little bit still, and I love to
play Monopoly and was learning how to play different card
games and stuff like that. Was learning how to play
tag and freeze tag. Shout out to those of you
that played this outside. So I was thinking about all
the things I love to do as a kid, and
the whole purpose of having a sister was to have
(05:28):
someone that could do those kid things with you. And
when she got here, she was gorgeous, beautiful baby, and
kind of useless, kind of useless for my childhood desires,
really didn't do much. Really took her a while to
get to where she was kind of like fun to
(05:49):
be around, you know. And when you're an older sibling
and your parent has a child after you, there's this
period of time that you probably hate, which is the
time where everyone's coming over to the house to what
see the baby? What are you chopped liver? It's like
you're not interesting anymore. Everyone's interested in someone who can't
(06:12):
talk to them, who can really entertain them, who can't
do anything but cry and go to the bathroom in
a diaper that someone else has to clean up. The
people really visited the house for this, and as a
ten year old previous only child, that was really upsetting
(06:35):
and disorienting. But I got to give a special shout
out to my mom's friend Ara because she came over
and I am so I'm just remembering my shady little self.
I remember I opened the door and I said, she's
over there, and Dara said, I'm I'm coming to see you,
(07:01):
and I was like what She was like, Yeah, I'm
coming to see you. I'm coming to pick you up
and we're going to spend the day together. And to
this day, y'all, I have to confirm with my mom
because I don't remember if like my mom and Dara
talked about this and like Dara was like, hey, I
want to come over and do this, or what the
(07:22):
vibes were like, I really don't remember that part. I
don't know that part, but I know that I must
have got like the biggest smile on my face, like
that was the first time. And however, many weeks old
or months sold, my sister was by then that anyone
had really talked to me about anything, and so she
was like hurr yeuh go get dressed. I was like whoo.
So I go and get dressed and I spend the
(07:45):
day like hanging out with miss Dara. And her friends
and we went to go horseback riding. I really at
that point probably didn't care what we were doing. I
was just like excited that somebody was paying attention to me.
And I want to make a little note here if
you're a person who was in community with people who
have children, this is a gift that you can potentially
(08:07):
give to your friends who have kids, or if you
are a person who has children, especially if you're having
a second or third or further child, you know, and
you have children already and you're having a baby, like,
having people in your community that are able to think
these thoughts is so good because it meant the world
(08:29):
to me that someone was coming over to sort of
give me a bit of attention that my childhood self
was craving at that moment. And maybe it helped my
mom to have a little bit of time where she
could just be there and focus on my sister, you know,
she didn't have to focus on the both of us.
So just a little note if you're in community with
(08:50):
people who have kids, or community with anyone that maybe
having a baby and has an older child, and you're
the type of person that loves this type of thing
where you could like pick up a kid. Even if
you pick up a kid and take them while you
run errands, Like, it doesn't even have to be something
super grandiose thing, just the fact that you're like, hey,
(09:11):
I see you. You are also important in this family.
I feel like that's what Dara did for my jealous
ten year old self. But the funny thing about it
when I think back on that is I was so
jealous of the attention my sister was getting, but then
it was sort of like by the time she got
to be like six months old, that whole thing like
(09:33):
flipped from me where I really got to the point
where it went from like why she here too? If
someone hurts her, I will hurt them type of feelings,
And that feeling is the feeling I still have about
my sister. Like there are very few reasons I hope
to ever go to jail, but if I went to jail,
(09:53):
it might be because someone harmed my sister, and I
then in turn feeling need to harm them. So interesting
how you can go from sort of being jealous oldest
kid too, Oh no, I'm about to really have to
hurt somebody from my sister. A little note for y'all
I'm out with da We go to this horseback riding
(10:15):
situation and one of Dora's friends like had the whole
riding outfit. She had like the boot, the riding pants,
like everything. Baby was ready for this day we were
about to have. My horse name was Chestnut, and I'm
I'm not really like scared of the horse. I'm a
little nervous because I've never done this, but because we
(10:37):
were kind of all in a group of people and
sort of a mixed group as far as some people
who had been horseback riding before and some people who hadn't,
so I wasn't the only one who it was the
first time. Well, I get on Chestnut and we're supposed
to go down this trail, and the trail that we
were going down had poison ivy on either side of it,
(10:59):
and Chestnut have eating the poison ivy. And I really
didn't know a whole lot about poison ivy, but I
was like concerned, like is my horse trying to harm himself?
Is poison ivy? I mean it has poison in the name,
you know, Like, is my horse eating poison ivy going
to literally poison him? And I could not get him
(11:21):
to stop eating the poison ivy. So the people that
worked at the stable had to take a large bag
of checks mix, cut the top of it off, and
literally put what is that called on a horse a
snout or is that a pig? Anyway, they had to
put the nose part of the horse. They had to
(11:43):
put that in this checks mixed bag and literally had
to lead Chestnut back to the stable. That was my
first experience horseback riding, y'all. Maybe that should have told
me I should let that be my first and last experience,
but I was kind of like, you know, it's my
first time. Who knows. I didn't go horseback riding again
(12:04):
for over twenty years people, Okay, over twenty years past.
I want to cut in on Matt and I going
to Botswana several years ago. Okay, actually I remember distinctly
that it must have been twenty fifteen because we were
(12:27):
actually in Botswana on my thirty fifth birthday. Okay, So
the place where we were staying was a lodge. And
shout out to dr Una Mulally, who has also previously
been a guest on this show. Before we actually relaunched,
(12:48):
she was one of my first guests on her with
Amina Brown back in the day. Dr Una Mulally is
from Botswana and I met her at a conference and
she she is still doing a raising work as a
doctor in her home country of Botswana. She came to
the States and I went to medical school, just got
as much like education and learning as she could because
(13:11):
her goal was to return back to Botswana to really
specifically help the field of pediatric I see you, which
was almost non existent in Botswana at the time. So
she basically asked Matt and I would y'all be willing
to come back with me to my home country. And
there was an event she was going to do for
medical professionals and she was like, you know, we don't
(13:34):
have like a lot of budget, but I can fly
you there, I can get you someplace to stay. And
Matt and I were like, an opportunity to go to
Botswana with you, back to your home country, Yes, sign
us up for that. Because a lot of the international
travels that Matt and I did, as has been discussed
on the podcast. You know, we were traveling in a
lot of very like christian Um evangelical types of spaces,
(13:57):
so that meant a lot of our international travel was
is on something that was very much like a mission's trip,
you know, so to have the opportunity to go back
to her home country with her as our guide felt
like amazing and really was an amazing experience. So we
were staying on this lodge like a safari lodge. So
(14:18):
some of you are like, what what that means? Okay,
what that means is the lodge was on an animal reserve.
So the rooms quote unquote where we were staying really
weren't rooms. They were almost like their own individual kind
of really good size cabins. And then you weren't like
(14:39):
you weren't staying where like you're gonna walk out of
your cabin and like a lion was going to pass by.
You know, there wasn't that way. But you were definitely
staying in a spot on the on the ground where
you could hear a lot of the animals and birds
at night and stuff like that. And one of the
activities that they offered at the lodge was a horseback safari,
(15:02):
and we were staying on a reserve that did not
have lions at all. So none of the animals were
animals where you needed to be like worried about your life,
you know, they were zebra and antelope and um different
kind of birds that were native to Botswana. Right, So
we were like, horseback safari sounds cool and that sounds
(15:24):
like something that you can't do everywhere. Sure, sign us
up for that. Because we had kind of gotten in
a day or two I think before the event actually started,
so we had a little bit of time on our
hands here, Matt and I. I'm not even sure if
this was Matt's first time horseback riding. Was that your
first time, babe? Okay, Matt's in the room here because
(15:45):
he's also the producer of this podcast. Yes, this was
Matt's first time horseback riding, and only my second time,
but my second time since Chestnut at ten eleven years old. Okay,
so Matt and I get on top of these horses.
These horses were great. The guides at the lodge were
super great. But here's what's really cool. This was probably
(16:06):
one of my best horseback riding experiences. Here's what's really
cool about this. It's really cool that you're getting to
do a safari on horseback because the animals let us
get a little closer to them then I think they
would have if we had been on our two legs. Now,
(16:29):
I'm gonna tell you, the antelopes don't care. Almost anything
that comes close to an antelope that's not an antelope
is on the run. As soon as the antelopes see
anybody they like, that's all. I'm out of here. But
the zebra and the giraffe, they actually let us get
closer to them, Like Matt and I still still to
(16:52):
this day are mesmerized by how close we got to
those animals, and being people who grew up here in
the States. I'm mean, when did I see a zebra
or giraffe maybe a couple of times as a child
at a zoo and they were very far away then.
So to get a chance to be up close to
these animals that maybe you saw pictures of in a
(17:12):
picture book, maybe you saw at the zoo once or
twice in your life, amazing. That was probably one of
the best horseback writing experiences I had. Okay, fast forward
(17:47):
a couple of years. Matt and I get an invitation
to go to Costa Rica. Okay, let's talk about this.
And I was actually recently talking to a friend of
mine about couple's trips. This might be its own episode,
but a friend of I was asking me do Matt
and I take couple's trips? And so far we have
not been people that take couple's trips. I think not
(18:08):
because we prefer not to. But I think our different
like friend groups that are also couples like, I think
we've all been experiencing like different stages of life that
maybe make it difficult to travel, right, Like most of
our couple of friends don't live in Atlanta, would say
a good bit because we have a few couple of
(18:28):
friends here too, But most of our couple of friends
I think lived like out of town, or we've had
some couple of friends that lived out of the country,
and so all of the timing of like here and
we're going to plan a couple's trips didn't really do.
But we had some friends who we also worked with
at events, and they took couple's trips. I mean we
would see their pictures all over the place. They were
(18:50):
going to Italy and Greece and all sorts of places together. Right. Well,
one year came and they had all planned a trip
to Costa Rica and one of the couples at the
last minute couldn't go on the trip, and they had
already paid in everything on the trip, right, all of
the lodging and everything that everybody had agreed on, and
(19:13):
that couple knew us, and so you know they I
don't know how that conversation went behind the scenes there,
but I imagine how I would be is if we
had a couple's trip and you're like, oh, man, one
of our normal couples that goes can't go? Who do
we think we all gonna get along with? Who is
somebody we all already know that we don't have to
(19:34):
deal with any like wild surprises? So we knew three
out of the four couples that were on the trip,
and the couple that couldn't go said, we will gift
Amina and matt our slot. All Amena and Matt need
to do is pay for flights to Costa Rica. Y'all
have never seen two people hit Delta dot com as
(19:56):
fast as Matthew Owen and I when we received this
message a trip to Costa Rica where we only have
to pay for a flight, Yes, please sign us up
for that. So it turned out that we had just
enough miles for one of us to have a free ticket,
and then we just had to pay for the other ticket.
So we really got our flights to Costa Rica on
(20:18):
a two for one, So this was around time that
we took this trip to Costa Rica. And I still
look back on this like, oh my gosh, this was
just a wild it's a wild thing. I'm actually not
sure if it happened today, if I would have gone
(20:40):
so quickly. You know, I had just had fibroid surgery
um that March. I think the trip was in June,
I want to say, so I was still out of
my recovery time, but it was a pretty major surgery
and was life changing for me on a lot of accounts.
So I was feeling back to myself. But I don't
(21:04):
know if I realized that I really wasn't a hundred
percent until we got to Costa Rica. Bless our hearts.
I know a little bit more about my body's recovery now,
So I'm not sure if I would have had the
gall to do it, but we did, and I don't
regret the choice because it was fabulous. Like if you
get a chance to go to Costa Rica two for
one on the flights and you didn't have to pay
(21:25):
for anything else, you should definitely do it. So we
get to Costa Rica and the place where we were
staying it was really dope. It was like a house
that used to be like a like a bed and
breakfast vibe. And the part that would normally be like
the dining room, the living room, the kitchen was actually
all outdoors y'all um, Like it was part of it
(21:50):
was covered, but it was still like outdoors. Basically, it
had a pool in the in the living room, so
you could like wake up and just go like swimming
in the pool. And then it had I think it
had four bedrooms in it that were like separate, like
separated away kind of like on the outskirts of the
(22:13):
way the house was made, and so each couple kind
of had their own, you know, kind of private area.
And then that was the only area of the house
that was fully indoors once you stepped out of your room.
The rest of it was outdoors, which for the most
part was great. According to how mosquitoes work, maybe not
so much, but everything else about it was gorgeous. Okay,
So we had an opportunity to go horseback riding, and
(22:40):
part of the horseback riding experience that I wanted was
the place where we stayed had concierge experiences that they
had curated that they, you know, knew the different families
or companies that we're heading up these experiences. So we
had read all those and there were a couple of
things that we went and did as a group. We
(23:01):
went and rode a TV as a group, and it's
got a chance to like experience some of those different things,
you know. But I wanted to do this thing that
they offered in the concierge where you got to horseback ride,
you got to taste Costa Rican coffee, and you got
to learn how to make these Costa Rican like corn tortillas. Right,
(23:22):
And we were obviously eating a lot of food there,
and whenever we ate breakfast there, I noticed that they
had this quarant tortilla that really, to me was like
thicker than what I know quarant tortillas to be because
I was really raised in San Antonio, Texas, so I'm
having that sort of text mex or Mexican cuisine idea
(23:44):
of a tortilla. But the Costa Rican tortillas were a
little bit thicker, and instead of them being used to
wrap things in like a taco or a burrito, they
were put on the bottom of the dish and then
like for breakfast, you might have black beans on top,
some cheese, some eggs on top, and that was like
your breakfast and it was as delicious as it sounds. Yes,
(24:05):
So for one of these horseback riding trips, you could
go horseback riding and also learn how they make those tortillas.
And I was like, this is the thing that I
need to do before I leave here. Man. I talked
about it and we were like great. So when we
went into town to do the A t V. When
we went to the A t V, they had a
whole list of experiences there too. So I was like, oh,
(24:30):
I assumed I'm gonna tell y'all something. Don't ever assume
like I did right here. But I assumed that this
was like the same company because it wasn't a large
area where we were. We weren't in like a major
major city in Costa Rica. So I was like, surely
you know this is all the same. It wasn't. So
Matt and I paid in that day to go the
(24:52):
next day to do this. What we're thinking is the
horseback riding, it's going to be a tour and blah
blah blah. Want to tell you right now, narrator. Narrator,
it was not the same tour. So we meet back
at the place where we had met to go do
the a TV. And somebody's son, somebody's I don't know,
(25:14):
you look like you could have been a teenager. Somebody's
son picks us up and a little hatchback, a little
a little a little little toe down, you know, seeing
this better days hatchback and drives us to what I'm
thinking is maybe his mama house. So I know a
little bit Spanish, and so does mad I know enough
to conversationally get by. But if you start getting like
(25:37):
in depth conversation with me, then like I'm gonna lose it.
I'll be able to be able to understand some things,
but I might I might not be able to like
speak back as quickly. Okay. So we're standing there waiting
for the waiting for them to get the horses together,
and I'm trying to ask our guide, um, are we
gonna learn how to make the tortillas? And they were
(26:01):
looking at me like, but the mama like went in
the kitchen and started making breakfast. So we had the
tortillas and breakfast, we had um coffee, those delicious. And
then after the mama made it, she was like standing
in the doorway to her kitchen. So I was asking
the guide. I thought we were gonna learn how to
make them? Would she teach me? And when I tell y'all,
(26:25):
she shook her head. She stared back at me like
she was blocking that kitchen, like American, I don't care
you not getting in my kitchen. I gave you something
to eat, I gave you some coffee. Get on the
horse and keep it moving, okay. So I was like, oh, man,
I was disappointed because I really was signing up for
(26:46):
the horseback riding so that I could have her show
me how they make these particular tortillas. Right, So I'm
kind of disappointed. Okay. So her little son leads us
out on horseback. Matt and I get on the horse, says,
and you know, we're for a while. You know, we're
just riding through, you know, taking a slow, a little ride.
(27:06):
But it's not really a view because I remember the
other one said that you you would also end up
on your horseback riding, you know trip, you would also
end up seeing the beach and stuff. So like we
keep going, we keep going and I'm looking at how
do I how do I ask this young man how
far we are from the beach in Spanish? Right? And
(27:27):
before I could get that together, y'all, it poured down
tor rential rain on us while we were on horseback,
and the type of like road we were on, there
was really hardly any place to go. We we had
to ride for a while to finally find someplace that
this little child could pull off so that we could
(27:50):
stand under a little awning or something until this like
wild rain storm passed. So while we're standing there, we're
trying to get from him, like how far are we?
You know? We ride for a little bit longer, and
I'm like, are we are we close to the beach,
and we finally realize he doesn't really have uh an
(28:12):
idea of how far we are from anything. So at
that point Matt is like, hey, can you just take
us back to where you dropped us off? So he
turns us around, We ride the horses back to what
I'm assuming is his mama house, and another little child
picked us, picked us up in that little hatchback and
(28:33):
drove us back. And not only was I disappointed, but
obviously I am drenched. I am drenched, and for the
black women listening that are asking hair questions, I had
my hair in twists and the twists were in a bun.
This is the main thing that saved me from having
a hair emergency in this situation. And I had read
(28:55):
about Costa Rica that obviously it's a very humid place
and we were there during the rainy season, so I
just left my hair twisted the entire time. I know
some people were concerned. I want to speak to that.
Thank you. So we get back and I'm just kind
of disappointed because I'm kind of like that was my
one highlight, you know, And I think, really, what happened
(29:17):
is this family that owned this here business. I don't
really think they offer breakfast and coffee with their horseback rides.
I don't even know if they offered full horseback rides.
I think they just heard us talking about it and
we're like, I bet we could do that. I feel
like one of the aunties was like, yeah, tell those people, yes,
(29:38):
whatever they're asking will fix it for them. So boy,
I was disappointed. And we get back to the room
and I think that was the last day that all
of the couples were going to be there together. So
we all win and had like our a big dinner
at one of the Costa Rican restaurants in the area
(29:59):
and just hung out and drink some Costa Rican wine,
which was wonderful. And Matt and I get back and
really we realized everyone else is leaving like in the morning,
but our flight wasn't until very late that night, like
nine o'clock or something was when we were leaving. And
so Matt looks at me and he's like, we're going
(30:20):
to the original horseback ride that you wanted. He was like,
let's reach out to the concierge people and let's go
do it. He was like, we don't know where we're
gonna come back to Costa Rica, and that's what you wanted.
I don't want you to miss out on it. And
I was like I really did, Mary, Well, okay, so
we do that sign up for the actual concierge ride,
(30:41):
and everyone leaves ahead of us. We check out, and
because the family that ran this business that the concierge
was connecting us with that did horseback rides, totally different
family than before, and they had all the processes together,
like you know, we hold them, we you know, we're
checking out, but our flight wasn't until later, and they
(31:04):
were like, we're gonna come pick you up. It was
it was a more reliable car. It was a good
enough size car that our luggage, you know, fitting it.
And they drove us to like their office and they
were like, we're gonna store your luggage here, you know,
because our team and everything, you know, stays here all day,
so your luggage will be safe. And then he drove
(31:26):
us out to his family's farm and he's like telling
us all this information about Costa Rica on our way
out there. We get out there to the farm and
he's showing us the different you know, coffee plants and
things like this. And my husband is very much into coffee.
This was probably really between between Botswana and this trip,
the beginnings of my husband really getting into like coffee. Coffee.
(31:50):
So some of you know what I mean when I
say that, Um not people like me who were like, yes,
I love a little bit of coffee with a lot
of syrup and some whip cream. Not you. If that's you,
I must how about you? Sometimes people who just drink
their coffee black because you love the actual taste and
feel of coffee. And by this point, you know, and
being married, Matt and I had not only been to Botswana,
(32:12):
we've been to the Dominican Republic and now here we
were at Costa Rica. So we've been in some areas
where the coffee was very, very good. I had traveled
to Rwanda as well, which is another place of great coffee.
So my husband is getting to have this poor over
experience in Costa Rica, which was amazing. And the women
(32:34):
who were in this man's family also showed me how
they made those tortillas. I still have the video to
this day. I was able to get like a minute
or so of footage watching them make it. And they
had this really amazing kind of clay oven almost that
was like over fire and was kind of shaped almost
like a very large walk would be shaped with shaped
(32:56):
like that, and they were showing me how that's, you know,
the way that they kind of grill these tortillas. It
was amazing, y'all. It was amazing. And we get on
our horses and the goal of the the trip that
we're going on our horseback ride is to get to
a beach in Costa Rica. You take some pictures, you
(33:19):
do those vibes, then you ride the horses back to
that original place. They're gonna pick us up from there,
take us back to our luggage. And we had actually
ended up having just enough points to get a hotel
so that we could just have someplace to chill for
the few hours that we were going to be waiting
until our flight. Okay, So I want to also let
(33:40):
y'all know that the beach where we were going to
end up on this horseback ride was the same beach
where Beyonce and Jay Z film Drunken Love. Okay, so
this beach is like, instead of the beach being sand, y'all,
the beach is ground sea show, which is not amazing
(34:01):
for the feet. But if I'm in a place where
Beyonce was, do I feel as if that probably makes
us friends. Yes, so that part was great. Okay. We
ride our horses out there, and then my horse is
having a struggle once again, if horse ancestors work, possibly
like people ancestors work. I'm like, Chestnut, isn't you buddy?
(34:25):
Because what are the vibes? Okay, We're riding and they're
like telling us, you know, different sounds to make or
um commands to give. You want the horse to slow down?
How to use the reins to slow down or speed up,
as it were. And I'm trying, like all the things,
and it's like the horses are are trained. These particular
(34:47):
especially group of horses that that we were on, their
trained to sort of stay together. So if one horse
starts like going faster, the other horses are trained to
kind of stay in a pack. So I couldn't get
my little horse to slow down. My little horse kept
like speeding up and just taking me on. And there's
(35:09):
a lot about trauma and the body that I did
not understand at the time, which is why I tell
you that this many months post surgery. Maybe I wouldn't
have done this, But there was something about the horse
speeding up and me not being able to control the
horse and feeling like afraid that like I'm riding on
this very large animal who keeps going so fast, and
(35:30):
I can't stop this horse. I involuntarily start crying, sobbing
on this horse, and our guides are freaked out, and
I can hear them asking Matt as to Esposa, and
so matt is telling them, see, you know, Mia Sposa,
(35:51):
and so they pull all of us over because y'all
we're not alone on this journey. There were other people.
I didn't tell you that part. There were other people.
It's like three or four other people that we don't
know them, okay, that are on this thing with us.
So the guides are like, wow, this lady is sobbing.
(36:12):
Let's pull over. And so they're talking to me. We're
trying to kind of tell them in Spanish and explain
to them what's happening, and the guides were very sweet
and very kind, y'all. He was like, I'm He was like,
you're gonna ride with me, in the sense that he
was on his horse and I stayed on my horse,
(36:32):
but he took the reins of my horse. If I
was into sermons as a message here, but anyways, he
took the reins of my horse and we just rode
like that until we got to like the next stopping place.
And once we got to the stopping place, when we
actually got to the beach, it was beautiful. I am
(36:53):
hoping to share on social media with y'all the actual
picture of Matt and I holding hands while being on
these horses on a beach in Costa Rica, happening to
be the beach where Beyonce and jay Z film Drunk
in Love Wow Wow Wow, which basically meant Matt and
I were almost like our own version of what Beyonce
(37:15):
and jay Z I. I don't make the rules, that's
just what it meant, because we happened to be in
a place where they had been. So that horseback ride
ended beautifully. I received all of the things that I
wanted to receive and learn from the trip. But I'm
gonna tell y'all something. We rode them horses back over
to the stable, got our little bags, went to the hotel,
(37:38):
and I basically looked at Matt and said, that's my
last one. That's it. Ida had chestnut eating the poison
ivy Ida and got reined on on horseback. And now
I have sobbed involuntarily on horseback. I'm good. I'm good.
I've rode horseback in America, I rode horseback in Botswana,
(38:01):
I rode horseback in Costa Rica. I told Matt, I
will never ask you to ride horseback again, and I
don't want you to ask me. There has to be
some other way to travel wherever we're going that doesn't
involve me getting on a horse. So I don't mess
with horseback riding anymore. Okay, I feel like I put
in my time. I gave it a try. I hope
(38:22):
the horses live well. Okay. I was just with a
friend of mine downtown in Atlanta, headed to a concert.
And you know, like many cities, we have the horse
drawn carriages for people who feel like that's romantic. I don't.
My husband will never never have to worry about me
asking to feel like Cinderella in a horse drawn carriage.
(38:43):
I don't want that, no, no, I would just like
to be in a car. Let that be my carriage,
horsepower drawn, okay, not horse drong carriage. And I'm gonna
tell y'all the way they had the horses kind of
pulled over to the side. This just happened to me
this weekend. So I'm let y'all know me. Horses don't vibe.
My friend and I are walking by and the horses
(39:03):
have blinders on, but the horse kept turning to look
at us, so we decided to what crossed the other way.
I'm not dealing with this with you. I don't care.
I'm not doing that. And the man who was in
charge of the horses, he said, why y'all scared y'all scared,
I said, he looking at me, Your horse looking at me.
You know you got blinders on so you can what
(39:25):
stay faced forward? But now you turn and looking at me.
I'm telling y'all, right now, horseback riding is over for me.
I've enjoyed it, had a great time. I'm retired. I'm
retired from horseback riding. But I had some wonderful times
horseback riding. But it's over for me. So for those
of you that are still horseback riding, I I wish
you well. I wish you well. I hope your horses
(39:46):
stay on the trail. I hope that they stay at
the speed you know that you would like. I hope
you don't get reined oning. Okay, but that's it for me.
Thanks for listening, y'all, see you all next week. Yes
(40:10):
Her What Amina Brown is produced by Matt Owen for
Sober Fee Productions as a part of the Seneca Women
Podcast Network and partnership with I Heart Radio. Thanks for listening,
and don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review the podcast.
That time, I'm at India Irene. That time, I went
on a really bad date at that time. I was
directed by Robert Townton. That time, I got Mono on Thanksgiving.
That time, I went on a really bad Christmas tour.
(00:33):
That time. I'm I, hey, y'all, welcome back to this
week's episode of Her with Amina Brown. I feel like,
every like seven to ten episodes, I say, and I'm
Amina Brown. I just do that in case there are
people here who this might be your first episode, This
might be your first time here, and you're like, I
(00:53):
don't know, Amina Brown. That's me. I'm the host here.
So I'm very excited because I was talking with a
friend of mine and it reminded me of a story
I wanted to tell y'all. So if you are not seated,
then you might have a seat for story time. You
might be seated in your vehicle, you might be in
(01:14):
your remote work from home scenarios. You might be out,
you know, running other as sundry errands. So I welcome
you to the story time that is today's episode. One
of my friends was talking about how she had recently
done an outing with her husband and really wanted to
(01:35):
go horseback riding. And it was like, as soon as
she said it, it brought back like all these memories
as to why I will no longer participate in horseback riding,
as to why I'm I'm finished with it. No shade
to those of you that do this as an activity.
This is a thing you like to do, like to
be a part of. Some of y'all have been horseback
(01:57):
riding since you were children. I wish you well. I
don't want to be near a horse anymore. I feel
like I have put in my time. I feel like
I've had some amazing experiences, and I've had some experiences
that are the reason why this is not a thing
that I'm doing anymore. But I'm gonna tell you my
(02:19):
horseback riding journey. I'm gonna share it with you. So
I went horseback riding for the first time when I
was about eleven years old. And if you have been
following the podcast, you know that one of my sisters,
my sister that I grew up in the house with,
my sister, Mikita, who has been a guest here on
the podcast and is like my best friend. So we
(02:42):
are actually almost eleven years apart. Because I was ten
when she was born in March, and then I turned
eleven that May, well, my mom had a friend who
she worked with. My mom is a nurse, and at
that time, my sister was born in a DC hospital,
(03:02):
so we were living in like the d m V area.
Shout out to my d m V people. I still
have a lot of love and nostalgia about living in
the d m V because my mom worked in DC,
worked at a hospital there, and I went to school
in Maryland like that that area of the country is
still one of my favorite places. So my mom had
(03:23):
a nurse friend who was a very good friend of hers.
And those of you who are older siblings in any regard,
even if you're not the oldest, but you have siblings
who are younger than you, and if you were old
enough to remember when your sibling was born, you may
know the vibes of what I'm about to describe. So
because I was ten, my sister and I talked about
(03:44):
this too. We were almost like two only children who
had a small amount of time that we were in
the house together. So I had ten years where it
was just my mom and I and then my sister
was born, so we had eight years where we were
in the house together. And then by the time my
(04:04):
sister was eight or about to be nine, I was
leaving to go to college. So then my sister had
the rest of her ten years of high school without
me being in the house. Right And when you're an
older sibling, I don't know. Maybe I'm petty or was
a petty child, but I feel like this is probably
a general experience that a lot of older siblings had.
(04:25):
You know, I was not used to sharing with a
child that lived in the house with me, and it
wasn't just like sharing toys and things like that. Because
my sister was so little, we couldn't play, which was
really a part of what was sort of dissatisfactory to
me in the experience of realizing what is really going
(04:47):
to be like to be a big sister. I had
always wanted a sister, but I thought I was going
to have a sister that I was gonna be kind
of equal parties with. By this time, at ten, you know,
I'm still I feel like maybe I wasn't quite playing
with barbies as much, but I did still have a
very nice barbie house, so I feel like I did
(05:08):
do that a little bit still, and I love to
play Monopoly and was learning how to play different card
games and stuff like that. Was learning how to play
tag and freeze tag. Shout out to those of you
that played this outside. So I was thinking about all
the things I love to do as a kid, and
the whole purpose of having a sister was to have
(05:28):
someone that could do those kid things with you. And
when she got here, she was gorgeous, beautiful baby, and
kind of useless, kind of useless for my childhood desires,
really didn't do much. Really took her a while to
get to where she was kind of like fun to
(05:49):
be around, you know. And when you're an older sibling
and your parent has a child after you, there's this
period of time that you probably hate, which is the
time where everyone's coming over to the house to what
see the baby? What are you chopped liver? It's like
you're not interesting anymore. Everyone's interested in someone who can't
(06:12):
talk to them, who can really entertain them, who can't
do anything but cry and go to the bathroom in
a diaper that someone else has to clean up. The
people really visited the house for this, and as a
ten year old previous only child, that was really upsetting
(06:35):
and disorienting. But I got to give a special shout
out to my mom's friend Ara because she came over
and I am so I'm just remembering my shady little self.
I remember I opened the door and I said, she's
over there, and Dara said, I'm I'm coming to see you,
(07:01):
and I was like what She was like, Yeah, I'm
coming to see you. I'm coming to pick you up
and we're going to spend the day together. And to
this day, y'all, I have to confirm with my mom
because I don't remember if like my mom and Dara
talked about this and like Dara was like, hey, I
want to come over and do this, or what the
(07:22):
vibes were like, I really don't remember that part. I
don't know that part, but I know that I must
have got like the biggest smile on my face, like
that was the first time. And however, many weeks old
or months sold, my sister was by then that anyone
had really talked to me about anything, and so she
was like hurr yeuh go get dressed. I was like whoo.
So I go and get dressed and I spend the
(07:45):
day like hanging out with miss Dara. And her friends
and we went to go horseback riding. I really at
that point probably didn't care what we were doing. I
was just like excited that somebody was paying attention to me.
And I want to make a little note here if
you're a person who was in community with people who
have children, this is a gift that you can potentially
(08:07):
give to your friends who have kids, or if you
are a person who has children, especially if you're having
a second or third or further child, you know, and
you have children already and you're having a baby, like,
having people in your community that are able to think
these thoughts is so good because it meant the world
(08:29):
to me that someone was coming over to sort of
give me a bit of attention that my childhood self
was craving at that moment. And maybe it helped my
mom to have a little bit of time where she
could just be there and focus on my sister, you know,
she didn't have to focus on the both of us.
So just a little note if you're in community with
(08:50):
people who have kids, or community with anyone that maybe
having a baby and has an older child, and you're
the type of person that loves this type of thing
where you could like pick up a kid. Even if
you pick up a kid and take them while you
run errands, Like, it doesn't even have to be something
super grandiose thing, just the fact that you're like, hey,
(09:11):
I see you. You are also important in this family.
I feel like that's what Dara did for my jealous
ten year old self. But the funny thing about it
when I think back on that is I was so
jealous of the attention my sister was getting, but then
it was sort of like by the time she got
to be like six months old, that whole thing like
(09:33):
flipped from me where I really got to the point
where it went from like why she here too? If
someone hurts her, I will hurt them type of feelings,
And that feeling is the feeling I still have about
my sister. Like there are very few reasons I hope
to ever go to jail, but if I went to jail,
(09:53):
it might be because someone harmed my sister, and I
then in turn feeling need to harm them. So interesting
how you can go from sort of being jealous oldest
kid too, Oh no, I'm about to really have to
hurt somebody from my sister. A little note for y'all
I'm out with da We go to this horseback riding
(10:15):
situation and one of Dora's friends like had the whole
riding outfit. She had like the boot, the riding pants,
like everything. Baby was ready for this day we were
about to have. My horse name was Chestnut, and I'm
I'm not really like scared of the horse. I'm a
little nervous because I've never done this, but because we
(10:37):
were kind of all in a group of people and
sort of a mixed group as far as some people
who had been horseback riding before and some people who hadn't,
so I wasn't the only one who it was the
first time. Well, I get on Chestnut and we're supposed
to go down this trail, and the trail that we
were going down had poison ivy on either side of it,
(10:59):
and Chestnut have eating the poison ivy. And I really
didn't know a whole lot about poison ivy, but I
was like concerned, like is my horse trying to harm himself?
Is poison ivy? I mean it has poison in the name,
you know, Like, is my horse eating poison ivy going
to literally poison him? And I could not get him
(11:21):
to stop eating the poison ivy. So the people that
worked at the stable had to take a large bag
of checks mix, cut the top of it off, and
literally put what is that called on a horse a
snout or is that a pig? Anyway, they had to
put the nose part of the horse. They had to
(11:43):
put that in this checks mixed bag and literally had
to lead Chestnut back to the stable. That was my
first experience horseback riding, y'all. Maybe that should have told
me I should let that be my first and last experience,
but I was kind of like, you know, it's my
first time. Who knows. I didn't go horseback riding again
(12:04):
for over twenty years people, Okay, over twenty years past.
I want to cut in on Matt and I going
to Botswana several years ago. Okay, actually I remember distinctly
that it must have been twenty fifteen because we were
(12:27):
actually in Botswana on my thirty fifth birthday. Okay, So
the place where we were staying was a lodge. And
shout out to dr Una Mulally, who has also previously
been a guest on this show. Before we actually relaunched,
(12:48):
she was one of my first guests on her with
Amina Brown back in the day. Dr Una Mulally is
from Botswana and I met her at a conference and
she she is still doing a raising work as a
doctor in her home country of Botswana. She came to
the States and I went to medical school, just got
as much like education and learning as she could because
(13:11):
her goal was to return back to Botswana to really
specifically help the field of pediatric I see you, which
was almost non existent in Botswana at the time. So
she basically asked Matt and I would y'all be willing
to come back with me to my home country. And
there was an event she was going to do for
medical professionals and she was like, you know, we don't
(13:34):
have like a lot of budget, but I can fly
you there, I can get you someplace to stay. And
Matt and I were like, an opportunity to go to
Botswana with you, back to your home country, Yes, sign
us up for that. Because a lot of the international
travels that Matt and I did, as has been discussed
on the podcast. You know, we were traveling in a
lot of very like christian Um evangelical types of spaces,
(13:57):
so that meant a lot of our international travel was
is on something that was very much like a mission's trip,
you know, so to have the opportunity to go back
to her home country with her as our guide felt
like amazing and really was an amazing experience. So we
were staying on this lodge like a safari lodge. So
(14:18):
some of you are like, what what that means? Okay,
what that means is the lodge was on an animal reserve.
So the rooms quote unquote where we were staying really
weren't rooms. They were almost like their own individual kind
of really good size cabins. And then you weren't like
(14:39):
you weren't staying where like you're gonna walk out of
your cabin and like a lion was going to pass by.
You know, there wasn't that way. But you were definitely
staying in a spot on the on the ground where
you could hear a lot of the animals and birds
at night and stuff like that. And one of the
activities that they offered at the lodge was a horseback safari,
(15:02):
and we were staying on a reserve that did not
have lions at all. So none of the animals were
animals where you needed to be like worried about your life,
you know, they were zebra and antelope and um different
kind of birds that were native to Botswana. Right, So
we were like, horseback safari sounds cool and that sounds
(15:24):
like something that you can't do everywhere. Sure, sign us
up for that. Because we had kind of gotten in
a day or two I think before the event actually started,
so we had a little bit of time on our
hands here, Matt and I. I'm not even sure if
this was Matt's first time horseback riding. Was that your
first time, babe? Okay, Matt's in the room here because
(15:45):
he's also the producer of this podcast. Yes, this was
Matt's first time horseback riding, and only my second time,
but my second time since Chestnut at ten eleven years old. Okay,
so Matt and I get on top of these horses.
These horses were great. The guides at the lodge were
super great. But here's what's really cool. This was probably
(16:06):
one of my best horseback riding experiences. Here's what's really
cool about this. It's really cool that you're getting to
do a safari on horseback because the animals let us
get a little closer to them then I think they
would have if we had been on our two legs. Now,
(16:29):
I'm gonna tell you, the antelopes don't care. Almost anything
that comes close to an antelope that's not an antelope
is on the run. As soon as the antelopes see
anybody they like, that's all. I'm out of here. But
the zebra and the giraffe, they actually let us get
closer to them, Like Matt and I still still to
(16:52):
this day are mesmerized by how close we got to
those animals, and being people who grew up here in
the States. I'm mean, when did I see a zebra
or giraffe maybe a couple of times as a child
at a zoo and they were very far away then.
So to get a chance to be up close to
these animals that maybe you saw pictures of in a
(17:12):
picture book, maybe you saw at the zoo once or
twice in your life, amazing. That was probably one of
the best horseback writing experiences I had. Okay, fast forward
(17:47):
a couple of years. Matt and I get an invitation
to go to Costa Rica. Okay, let's talk about this.
And I was actually recently talking to a friend of
mine about couple's trips. This might be its own episode,
but a friend of I was asking me do Matt
and I take couple's trips? And so far we have
not been people that take couple's trips. I think not
(18:08):
because we prefer not to. But I think our different
like friend groups that are also couples like, I think
we've all been experiencing like different stages of life that
maybe make it difficult to travel, right, Like most of
our couple of friends don't live in Atlanta, would say
a good bit because we have a few couple of
(18:28):
friends here too, But most of our couple of friends
I think lived like out of town, or we've had
some couple of friends that lived out of the country,
and so all of the timing of like here and
we're going to plan a couple's trips didn't really do.
But we had some friends who we also worked with
at events, and they took couple's trips. I mean we
would see their pictures all over the place. They were
(18:50):
going to Italy and Greece and all sorts of places together. Right. Well,
one year came and they had all planned a trip
to Costa Rica and one of the couples at the
last minute couldn't go on the trip, and they had
already paid in everything on the trip, right, all of
the lodging and everything that everybody had agreed on, and
(19:13):
that couple knew us, and so you know they I
don't know how that conversation went behind the scenes there,
but I imagine how I would be is if we
had a couple's trip and you're like, oh, man, one
of our normal couples that goes can't go? Who do
we think we all gonna get along with? Who is
somebody we all already know that we don't have to
(19:34):
deal with any like wild surprises? So we knew three
out of the four couples that were on the trip,
and the couple that couldn't go said, we will gift
Amina and matt our slot. All Amena and Matt need
to do is pay for flights to Costa Rica. Y'all
have never seen two people hit Delta dot com as
(19:56):
fast as Matthew Owen and I when we received this
message a trip to Costa Rica where we only have
to pay for a flight, Yes, please sign us up
for that. So it turned out that we had just
enough miles for one of us to have a free ticket,
and then we just had to pay for the other ticket.
So we really got our flights to Costa Rica on
(20:18):
a two for one, So this was around time that
we took this trip to Costa Rica. And I still
look back on this like, oh my gosh, this was
just a wild it's a wild thing. I'm actually not
sure if it happened today, if I would have gone
(20:40):
so quickly. You know, I had just had fibroid surgery
um that March. I think the trip was in June,
I want to say, so I was still out of
my recovery time, but it was a pretty major surgery
and was life changing for me on a lot of accounts.
So I was feeling back to myself. But I don't
(21:04):
know if I realized that I really wasn't a hundred
percent until we got to Costa Rica. Bless our hearts.
I know a little bit more about my body's recovery now,
So I'm not sure if I would have had the
gall to do it, but we did, and I don't
regret the choice because it was fabulous. Like if you
get a chance to go to Costa Rica two for
one on the flights and you didn't have to pay
(21:25):
for anything else, you should definitely do it. So we
get to Costa Rica and the place where we were
staying it was really dope. It was like a house
that used to be like a like a bed and
breakfast vibe. And the part that would normally be like
the dining room, the living room, the kitchen was actually
all outdoors y'all um, Like it was part of it
(21:50):
was covered, but it was still like outdoors. Basically, it
had a pool in the in the living room, so
you could like wake up and just go like swimming
in the pool. And then it had I think it
had four bedrooms in it that were like separate, like
separated away kind of like on the outskirts of the
(22:13):
way the house was made, and so each couple kind
of had their own, you know, kind of private area.
And then that was the only area of the house
that was fully indoors once you stepped out of your room.
The rest of it was outdoors, which for the most
part was great. According to how mosquitoes work, maybe not
so much, but everything else about it was gorgeous. Okay,
So we had an opportunity to go horseback riding, and
(22:40):
part of the horseback riding experience that I wanted was
the place where we stayed had concierge experiences that they
had curated that they, you know, knew the different families
or companies that we're heading up these experiences. So we
had read all those and there were a couple of
things that we went and did as a group. We
(23:01):
went and rode a TV as a group, and it's
got a chance to like experience some of those different things,
you know. But I wanted to do this thing that
they offered in the concierge where you got to horseback ride,
you got to taste Costa Rican coffee, and you got
to learn how to make these Costa Rican like corn tortillas. Right,
(23:22):
And we were obviously eating a lot of food there,
and whenever we ate breakfast there, I noticed that they
had this quarant tortilla that really, to me was like
thicker than what I know quarant tortillas to be because
I was really raised in San Antonio, Texas, so I'm
having that sort of text mex or Mexican cuisine idea
(23:44):
of a tortilla. But the Costa Rican tortillas were a
little bit thicker, and instead of them being used to
wrap things in like a taco or a burrito, they
were put on the bottom of the dish and then
like for breakfast, you might have black beans on top,
some cheese, some eggs on top, and that was like
your breakfast and it was as delicious as it sounds. Yes,
(24:05):
So for one of these horseback riding trips, you could
go horseback riding and also learn how they make those tortillas.
And I was like, this is the thing that I
need to do before I leave here. Man. I talked
about it and we were like great. So when we
went into town to do the A t V. When
we went to the A t V, they had a
whole list of experiences there too. So I was like, oh,
(24:30):
I assumed I'm gonna tell y'all something. Don't ever assume
like I did right here. But I assumed that this
was like the same company because it wasn't a large
area where we were. We weren't in like a major
major city in Costa Rica. So I was like, surely
you know this is all the same. It wasn't. So
Matt and I paid in that day to go the
(24:52):
next day to do this. What we're thinking is the
horseback riding, it's going to be a tour and blah
blah blah. Want to tell you right now, narrator. Narrator,
it was not the same tour. So we meet back
at the place where we had met to go do
the a TV. And somebody's son, somebody's I don't know,
(25:14):
you look like you could have been a teenager. Somebody's
son picks us up and a little hatchback, a little
a little a little little toe down, you know, seeing
this better days hatchback and drives us to what I'm
thinking is maybe his mama house. So I know a
little bit Spanish, and so does mad I know enough
to conversationally get by. But if you start getting like
(25:37):
in depth conversation with me, then like I'm gonna lose it.
I'll be able to be able to understand some things,
but I might I might not be able to like
speak back as quickly. Okay. So we're standing there waiting
for the waiting for them to get the horses together,
and I'm trying to ask our guide, um, are we
gonna learn how to make the tortillas? And they were
(26:01):
looking at me like, but the mama like went in
the kitchen and started making breakfast. So we had the
tortillas and breakfast, we had um coffee, those delicious. And
then after the mama made it, she was like standing
in the doorway to her kitchen. So I was asking
the guide. I thought we were gonna learn how to
make them? Would she teach me? And when I tell y'all,
(26:25):
she shook her head. She stared back at me like
she was blocking that kitchen, like American, I don't care
you not getting in my kitchen. I gave you something
to eat, I gave you some coffee. Get on the
horse and keep it moving, okay. So I was like, oh, man,
I was disappointed because I really was signing up for
(26:46):
the horseback riding so that I could have her show
me how they make these particular tortillas. Right, So I'm
kind of disappointed. Okay. So her little son leads us
out on horseback. Matt and I get on the horse, says,
and you know, we're for a while. You know, we're
just riding through, you know, taking a slow, a little ride.
(27:06):
But it's not really a view because I remember the
other one said that you you would also end up
on your horseback riding, you know trip, you would also
end up seeing the beach and stuff. So like we
keep going, we keep going and I'm looking at how
do I how do I ask this young man how
far we are from the beach in Spanish? Right? And
(27:27):
before I could get that together, y'all, it poured down
tor rential rain on us while we were on horseback,
and the type of like road we were on, there
was really hardly any place to go. We we had
to ride for a while to finally find someplace that
this little child could pull off so that we could
(27:50):
stand under a little awning or something until this like
wild rain storm passed. So while we're standing there, we're
trying to get from him, like how far are we?
You know? We ride for a little bit longer, and
I'm like, are we are we close to the beach,
and we finally realize he doesn't really have uh an
(28:12):
idea of how far we are from anything. So at
that point Matt is like, hey, can you just take
us back to where you dropped us off? So he
turns us around, We ride the horses back to what
I'm assuming is his mama house, and another little child
picked us, picked us up in that little hatchback and
(28:33):
drove us back. And not only was I disappointed, but
obviously I am drenched. I am drenched, and for the
black women listening that are asking hair questions, I had
my hair in twists and the twists were in a bun.
This is the main thing that saved me from having
a hair emergency in this situation. And I had read
(28:55):
about Costa Rica that obviously it's a very humid place
and we were there during the rainy season, so I
just left my hair twisted the entire time. I know
some people were concerned. I want to speak to that.
Thank you. So we get back and I'm just kind
of disappointed because I'm kind of like that was my
one highlight, you know, And I think, really, what happened
(29:17):
is this family that owned this here business. I don't
really think they offer breakfast and coffee with their horseback rides.
I don't even know if they offered full horseback rides.
I think they just heard us talking about it and
we're like, I bet we could do that. I feel
like one of the aunties was like, yeah, tell those people, yes,
(29:38):
whatever they're asking will fix it for them. So boy,
I was disappointed. And we get back to the room
and I think that was the last day that all
of the couples were going to be there together. So
we all win and had like our a big dinner
at one of the Costa Rican restaurants in the area
(29:59):
and just hung out and drink some Costa Rican wine,
which was wonderful. And Matt and I get back and
really we realized everyone else is leaving like in the morning,
but our flight wasn't until very late that night, like
nine o'clock or something was when we were leaving. And
so Matt looks at me and he's like, we're going
(30:20):
to the original horseback ride that you wanted. He was like,
let's reach out to the concierge people and let's go
do it. He was like, we don't know where we're
gonna come back to Costa Rica, and that's what you wanted.
I don't want you to miss out on it. And
I was like I really did, Mary, Well, okay, so
we do that sign up for the actual concierge ride,
(30:41):
and everyone leaves ahead of us. We check out, and
because the family that ran this business that the concierge
was connecting us with that did horseback rides, totally different
family than before, and they had all the processes together,
like you know, we hold them, we you know, we're
checking out, but our flight wasn't until later, and they
(31:04):
were like, we're gonna come pick you up. It was
it was a more reliable car. It was a good
enough size car that our luggage, you know, fitting it.
And they drove us to like their office and they
were like, we're gonna store your luggage here, you know,
because our team and everything, you know, stays here all day,
so your luggage will be safe. And then he drove
(31:26):
us out to his family's farm and he's like telling
us all this information about Costa Rica on our way
out there. We get out there to the farm and
he's showing us the different you know, coffee plants and
things like this. And my husband is very much into coffee.
This was probably really between between Botswana and this trip,
the beginnings of my husband really getting into like coffee. Coffee.
(31:50):
So some of you know what I mean when I
say that, Um not people like me who were like, yes,
I love a little bit of coffee with a lot
of syrup and some whip cream. Not you. If that's you,
I must how about you? Sometimes people who just drink
their coffee black because you love the actual taste and
feel of coffee. And by this point, you know, and
being married, Matt and I had not only been to Botswana,
(32:12):
we've been to the Dominican Republic and now here we
were at Costa Rica. So we've been in some areas
where the coffee was very, very good. I had traveled
to Rwanda as well, which is another place of great coffee.
So my husband is getting to have this poor over
experience in Costa Rica, which was amazing. And the women
(32:34):
who were in this man's family also showed me how
they made those tortillas. I still have the video to
this day. I was able to get like a minute
or so of footage watching them make it. And they
had this really amazing kind of clay oven almost that
was like over fire and was kind of shaped almost
like a very large walk would be shaped with shaped
(32:56):
like that, and they were showing me how that's, you know,
the way that they kind of grill these tortillas. It
was amazing, y'all. It was amazing. And we get on
our horses and the goal of the the trip that
we're going on our horseback ride is to get to
a beach in Costa Rica. You take some pictures, you
(33:19):
do those vibes, then you ride the horses back to
that original place. They're gonna pick us up from there,
take us back to our luggage. And we had actually
ended up having just enough points to get a hotel
so that we could just have someplace to chill for
the few hours that we were going to be waiting
until our flight. Okay, So I want to also let
(33:40):
y'all know that the beach where we were going to
end up on this horseback ride was the same beach
where Beyonce and Jay Z film Drunken Love. Okay, so
this beach is like, instead of the beach being sand, y'all,
the beach is ground sea show, which is not amazing
(34:01):
for the feet. But if I'm in a place where
Beyonce was, do I feel as if that probably makes
us friends. Yes, so that part was great. Okay. We
ride our horses out there, and then my horse is
having a struggle once again, if horse ancestors work, possibly
like people ancestors work. I'm like, Chestnut, isn't you buddy?
(34:25):
Because what are the vibes? Okay, We're riding and they're
like telling us, you know, different sounds to make or
um commands to give. You want the horse to slow down?
How to use the reins to slow down or speed up,
as it were. And I'm trying, like all the things,
and it's like the horses are are trained. These particular
(34:47):
especially group of horses that that we were on, their
trained to sort of stay together. So if one horse
starts like going faster, the other horses are trained to
kind of stay in a pack. So I couldn't get
my little horse to slow down. My little horse kept
like speeding up and just taking me on. And there's
(35:09):
a lot about trauma and the body that I did
not understand at the time, which is why I tell
you that this many months post surgery. Maybe I wouldn't
have done this, But there was something about the horse
speeding up and me not being able to control the
horse and feeling like afraid that like I'm riding on
this very large animal who keeps going so fast, and
(35:30):
I can't stop this horse. I involuntarily start crying, sobbing
on this horse, and our guides are freaked out, and
I can hear them asking Matt as to Esposa, and
so matt is telling them, see, you know, Mia Sposa,
(35:51):
and so they pull all of us over because y'all
we're not alone on this journey. There were other people.
I didn't tell you that part. There were other people.
It's like three or four other people that we don't
know them, okay, that are on this thing with us.
So the guides are like, wow, this lady is sobbing.
(36:12):
Let's pull over. And so they're talking to me. We're
trying to kind of tell them in Spanish and explain
to them what's happening, and the guides were very sweet
and very kind, y'all. He was like, I'm He was like,
you're gonna ride with me, in the sense that he
was on his horse and I stayed on my horse,
(36:32):
but he took the reins of my horse. If I
was into sermons as a message here, but anyways, he
took the reins of my horse and we just rode
like that until we got to like the next stopping place.
And once we got to the stopping place, when we
actually got to the beach, it was beautiful. I am
(36:53):
hoping to share on social media with y'all the actual
picture of Matt and I holding hands while being on
these horses on a beach in Costa Rica, happening to
be the beach where Beyonce and jay Z film Drunk
in Love Wow Wow Wow, which basically meant Matt and
I were almost like our own version of what Beyonce
(37:15):
and jay Z I. I don't make the rules, that's
just what it meant, because we happened to be in
a place where they had been. So that horseback ride
ended beautifully. I received all of the things that I
wanted to receive and learn from the trip. But I'm
gonna tell y'all something. We rode them horses back over
to the stable, got our little bags, went to the hotel,
(37:38):
and I basically looked at Matt and said, that's my
last one. That's it. Ida had chestnut eating the poison
ivy Ida and got reined on on horseback. And now
I have sobbed involuntarily on horseback. I'm good. I'm good.
I've rode horseback in America, I rode horseback in Botswana,
(38:01):
I rode horseback in Costa Rica. I told Matt, I
will never ask you to ride horseback again, and I
don't want you to ask me. There has to be
some other way to travel wherever we're going that doesn't
involve me getting on a horse. So I don't mess
with horseback riding anymore. Okay, I feel like I put
in my time. I gave it a try. I hope
(38:22):
the horses live well. Okay. I was just with a
friend of mine downtown in Atlanta, headed to a concert.
And you know, like many cities, we have the horse
drawn carriages for people who feel like that's romantic. I don't.
My husband will never never have to worry about me
asking to feel like Cinderella in a horse drawn carriage.
(38:43):
I don't want that, no, no, I would just like
to be in a car. Let that be my carriage,
horsepower drawn, okay, not horse drong carriage. And I'm gonna
tell y'all the way they had the horses kind of
pulled over to the side. This just happened to me
this weekend. So I'm let y'all know me. Horses don't vibe.
My friend and I are walking by and the horses
(39:03):
have blinders on, but the horse kept turning to look
at us, so we decided to what crossed the other way.
I'm not dealing with this with you. I don't care.
I'm not doing that. And the man who was in
charge of the horses, he said, why y'all scared y'all scared,
I said, he looking at me, Your horse looking at me.
You know you got blinders on so you can what
(39:25):
stay faced forward? But now you turn and looking at me.
I'm telling y'all, right now, horseback riding is over for me.
I've enjoyed it, had a great time. I'm retired. I'm
retired from horseback riding. But I had some wonderful times
horseback riding. But it's over for me. So for those
of you that are still horseback riding, I I wish
you well. I wish you well. I hope your horses
(39:46):
stay on the trail. I hope that they stay at
the speed you know that you would like. I hope
you don't get reined oning. Okay, but that's it for me.
Thanks for listening, y'all, see you all next week. Yes
(40:10):
Her What Amina Brown is produced by Matt Owen for
Sober Fee Productions as a part of the Seneca Women
Podcast Network and partnership with I Heart Radio. Thanks for listening,
and don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review the podcast.
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