Ranč na Striebornom jazere (Silver Lake Ranch) is a Western style riding complex close to the town of Galanta. It has several large arenas both indoor and outdoor, and also has a large stabling facility – Nicci has her horse Finn stabled here. It’s certainly not like any stables we would have seen in the UK, the place is more like a set from a cowboy film complete with Sherriff’s office, Grill Bar and lots of hay waggons dotted about. But with its lake, and excellent facilities it is a pleasant place to spend time, I can have a beer in the Grill Bar whilst Nicci is working in one of the arenas.
We went along to one of the Western shows to see how it was done and had a good time. The pictures are from the Team Penning section, where three riders try and separate as many bullocks from the herd as possible in the allotted time, and get them into a pen on the other side of the arena. Some teams were better than others, but one more than one occasion horse and rider were outwitted by the bullocks, who despite my reservations seemed to enjoy the sport immensely!