So. Next time we’ll just reach out to our extended friends of friends and ride one of their horses. Even if we have to make new friends to accomplish this. Sunny Farms North? Generally disappointing. Sure we were probably a bit naive to think it would be anything more than the trail rides offered by… stables of this sort… but damn, their website does specifically say:
“We have fast horses for people who like to ride fast. We have slow horses for people who like to ride slow. We have big horses for big folks & we have little horses for little folks. For those who have never ridden before, we have horses that have never been ridden”.
So I like to think that we had at least some reason for thinking that Leah could at least take off for a short run and not do the usual horse follow horse follow horse routine. Generally disappointing all around. Mind you, I’m probably just bitter about the whole thing – compounded by the fact that we were grouped with other people (and while the people were fine and awesome and no problem at all – it’s a F*cken annoyance when you don’t think that you’re signing up for a group activity. If we wanted a group adventure, we probably would have gone looking for something else instead.)
Basically, if you’ve never ever ever ever ridden a horse, or have kids and want them to ride the type of sad stable horses you feel sorry for – take them here. I could say more, but I have to stop because it’d just all come out really, really mean and completely biased – biased by nothing more than my actual experience with Sunny Farms North in Dahlonega, Ga., just past the end of 400. Oh yes. In order for you to truly get the picture – as Leah was getting onto her horse Max, the owner was holding the reigns – and then Max tried to bite him. Okay, I’m not so naive that I’m surprised by any ‘animal’ trying to bite a human – but this guy, grabs the horses head and loud enough for Leah to hear clearly, in effect says, “If she wasn’t already sitting on you I’d beat your f*cken brains out of your skull” – and you kind of get the feeling that he’s not one to kid about such things. Now, I’m probably out of line and this is how everyone in the um, horse-world treats their animals, but I don’t know.
After our awesome trail ride we decided to drive into downtown Dahlonega and on our way there we saw this guy selling boiled peanuts on the side of the road! These were exactly how boiled peanuts should be. Their greatness was compounded by the fact (or due to?) that they were prepared on the side of the road, in a huge pot, and with a propane heat source. We’ve been fortunate enough to find one of these both times we’ve gone to Dahlonega – it makes the drive back to Atlanta so much better.
The other ‘event’ we went to last Saturday was the Festival of India – held by the… Indian group of Atlanta… well, that’s not their official name but whatever. Seriously. Like me, you probably understand the depth and general cultural richness of India – so you would expect that a ‘Festival of India’ run by the Indian American Cultural Association – to be better than a sad collection of booths selling cell phone cards, insurance, & vacations. If anything – you would probably think that they’d have some interesting food – and not just 3 sub-par indian restaurants and 1 decent indian restaurant selling up the common goods that the Indian branch of Panda Express will undoubtedly sell at the mall food court in the near future.
Granted – there were a lot of Indians that attended the Festival of India… I’m hoping that they were as disappointed in it as I was. I don’t see how they could find any real value in the whole thing since Anime conventions are more representative of Japan than this was of India. Of course, I could be wrong.
With high hopes for this event, Leah did wear her salwar kameez that she got in Nepal. See? We were totally hoping this would at least be better than the dealer’s room at a SciFi con. Next.
What did make the day better was that our friends Anna & Chris called us and invited us out to dinner with them. First we tried the Vortex down the street in L5P – that was a no go with the 45 minute wait (we don’t wait 45 minutes – not with SO MANY other places in Atlanta to go to). So then we drove over to Los Loros and had some good mexican food. That was our Saturday and Sunday was quite easy and sleepy and like I say every weekend – here comes Monday.
The story about the man and the horse makes me want to punch that man. In the eye.
What is this Los Loros you speak of?? And! Have you tried Mi Barrio? It’s a Mexican place on Memorial, and it’s fantastic!
I know! I spent the whole trail ride telling my horse that he’s a good boy and I’m so very sorry he has to live there and be spoken to like that. Grrrrr.
And yes, we love Mi Barrio. But you must definitely try Los Loros, too! It’s in the little shopping center with the Emory Kaplan Center at the intersection of Clairmont and North Decatur. Go! And let us know when you’re going. So we can come, too. Yummmmmy.
Ok this leah girl u need to shut up if u didn’t enjoy the ride then stay in atlanta I think the horse farm is a very good place and yea they disapline their horses just like people disapline their kids just to let u know those horses are very well took care of. u just don’t have anything better to do then to complain its very childish and btw I have rode their a lot and I know they give everyone a choice if u want to ride in a group or not and if he didn’t u just need to ask and he would let u.just for everyone reading this I recommened u to def go its a fun experience and leah doesn’t know what she is talkin about.:-)
obviously that idiot has punched the horse before, hence why the horse wanted to bite him in the first place. I’m sorry it was a bad experience..but like Leah, i’m more sorry for the horses that have to live there. I grew up riding and I too would hate doing the head-to-tail-ride-in-the-dust-single-file thing. I agree…make friends with folks that have horses 🙂
It’s very sad to hear you guys had to see this! Leah, you can actually introduce a complaint at the local sheriff’s department. I don’t know who things are in Georgia regarding animal cruelty, but here in Washington they’re pretty serious about these complaints. No animal EVER should be talk to like that: there are many ways to control animals without having to use offensive words OR physical violence. It just makes me so mad to hear this and we’re in the 21st century!