Well, I had intended to write up the final day while we were in the pub, but I decided to do a few sketches of the horses while I had the chance. So, as we ride the train from Sligo to Dublin, I’ll record Day 6, 30 May.

We had options on the trail for the last day, since we could choose to do the road for sections and avoid certain mountain or beach sections. We decided to do the early morning sections and make decisions on the beach sections depending on how we felt, although we knew we would not likely do the long section out to an island, both because it would be a long day, but also since we would be unable to make the tide, which was low at 2pm.

After the usual egg for breakfast, we set off up the road. We were soon up on another mountain, including a bit of walking the horse across a bit of muck and bridges. Nothing too bad, compared to the Bog. We had fantastic views from these hills, with long views of lakes and countryside. The morning—and indeed the whole day-was showery, with short intense rain every few hours.

We rode along the road and tracks after coming off the mountain, and had to ride along a semi-busy road. We then turned into a very lovely forest section. This area was well preserved and the trail was the best we’d had—dry, soft footing (no stones, mostly), no steep hills. We had a lovely canter through this section, although Glen had trouble getting Sunny to get and keep a canter. Sunny had been causing some problems earlier when he refused to cross a road after I’d crossed. But he was still steady.

And he stayed steady even in the worst section of traffic for us. After the forest and a section of highly trafficked road, we had to cross under the main freeway, the N4. We had some verge—both grass and cement—to walk on, but cars and large trucks were going past us at a pretty high rate of speed. We got off and led them through this, mostly since it was hard to find the yellow arrows pointing the way and because Kileen was starting to get a little jumpy. We then had to ride on a very busy two-lane road with no verge. Sunny was steady as a rock, taking up his section of the road and not yielding or flinching no matter the speed, size, noise, or proximity of traffic passing him. Kileen however got progressively jumpier, at least with the large vehicles and with random objects on the left hand side, making him dance or skitter into the road. The strong wind didn’t help. I finally got off and walked him the rest of the busy road, which was actually faster since I walked quickly and he stepped out in order to keep up. Finally, we got to our turn and I was able to mount again.

We rode along small roads again and after a while came to the shore. At this time, we met three other riders who confirmed our location. We had hoped to be at this point by 2:00 pm, which was about low tide, but it was closer to 3:30pm. We let the other riders go ahead of us, since they would want to go faster than us with our saddlebags.

However, steady Sunny had had enough. Between the wind, the beach, knowing we were near the end, six days of riding, and the other horses ahead of us, he decided he wanted to run. Glen was unable to hold him back. We trotted a bit, Glen ahead and me behind. I kept Kileen at a slow pace to try and encourage Sunny to go slower, yet I did not want to get too far behind them. Eventually Glen got Sunny stopped, and I rode right in front for a while to keep Sunny back. After we got to the end of the little beachside road we were on, we stopped. Sunny continued to dance. I hopped off to hold Sunny while Glen dismounted and we let them eat grass and take a break to settle down (and to let the other horses get out of sight). After a while we mounted up again, knowing we were in for a run. Glen managed to keep Sunny to a trot over the seaweed covered rocks, while I tried to keep to a slow trot behind. As expected, when we hit the sand, they both went into a lovely gallop and we had a good run over the sand. After that, Sunny was better. It was as if all that energy had been cooped up slogging over the bogs and muck and he’d been looking forward to the beach.

We came off the beach onto a little track again, since we did not want to get caught behind a channel. Eventually we reached a point where we could choose to go down to shore again or up onto the road to our final B&B. Glen was feeling unsure if he could control his horse so, with some reluctance on my part since I wanted a bit more riding, we chose the road. After about a kilometer, we came to the Dunes Tavern.

It was about 4pm, so we were earlier than anticipated, so our hostess was not available and the storage bin was locked. We dithered around a bit, trying to figure out if we could/should ride more, or wait, or what. We even walked the horses down the street a bit. Eventually, we gave up and came back to the Tavern and our hostess was now there. I was a bit disappointed that we ended off so suddenly and in such a confused manner, but we got our hostess to take a picture of us together on our horses, something I felt we’d missed, so I felt better after that.

We untacked and cleaned up everything and both the horses. I think Kileen, Sunny, and Glen were all very glad to be at the end of the trail. I was happy we’d had such a wonderful trip, full of adventure, but nothing dangerous, with very good horses. We saw all the elements of the Irish countryside—beach, pasture, forest, bog. And met the full range of interesting Irish people—fishermen, dysfunctional family, older inscrutables, boomer country-crafts couple, talkative sweet septuagenarians, and tavern owner. Kileen and Sunny were steady and willing horses, surefooted, and not afraid of a bit of muck and a sprint on the beach. Really could not ask for a better ride or a better way to see Ireland.

The evening we spent eating (Asian food, actually, all we could find) and resting/writing in the pub. To bed around 11 pm, tired and happy.