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A Husky Ride in the French Countryside
On my first trip to Niort, I heard about husky rides from a friendly taxi driver. A husky ride in the French countryside sounded so exotic that I immediately booked it to my first group. What an experience!
Our taxi driver, Frédérick Laigné took us past small rural villages to the husky place, and we were left waiting for our husky hosts. The dogs were barking like crazy behind the fence in a huge yard, and from somewhere tens of meters away the husky host yelled for us to come in! I certainly wasn't going to open the gate! In my mind, I could see dozens of dogs rushing out of the gate into their own ways, or that I would be surrounded by dogs, or worse, my clients would get bitten. We therefore waited , supposedly without understanding French, until our husky master came to open the gate and walked with us a little amused to the departure point.
The dogs were barking and moving around like it was their last day, jumping excitedly on either side of the leashes, and they had not yet ran a meter yet. There were 6 of us, 3 each in an open cart remodeled from a tractor seat for three. But when we took off, the barking stopped as to a wall and the efficient running began. The dogs were 12 ahead of each of the two carts. Out from the gate to the country road we flew! We rumbled past the cows and sheep in the fields at a brisk pace. Suddenly, the lead dog of the first cart saw a rabbit, and began to pull the whole herd into the left field in pursue of the poor bunny, "A droite, à droite" (to the right), shouted our driver. What fun it would have been bumping in the field - maybe.
The dogs were given water on the break, and we took a breath. The trip was joyous, really action-packed and wildly fun. We were going to visit a ruined castle, and I thought it would be cool to come to the castle courtyard drawn by huskies. We couldn't do this because the castle stands on a steep hill, which would have been too much for the dogs. But we got, in style, to the castle's back yard, - close enough!
