We ate a lovely breakfast, lounged around the apartment (me working), ate lunch, and got ready for our ride in the afternoon. When we went to the barn to start our ride we found that nature was going to give us a few issues. It was raining out. Since my throat had started itching earlier that morning I didn't really want to ride in the rain. Andrea came and suggested we wait for the weather to clear, if it didn't then we'd simply go the next day. While we waited Andrea introduced Ahmee and me to all of the horses in the barn and told us about his horse (was very proud of her and we could see why).
After thirty minutes the rain cleared away and Andrea saddled up our horses, giving Ahmee a horse that supposedly was a good one who respected the rider no matter if they're expert or beginner, Poppy with a horse who was very strong and who was meant for a strong rider (Poppy is a strong rider so it was no problem), and me with my Lulu. We road out of the barnyard, through a field (picking up the speed to a trot), through a creek, and up through the brush. I let Lulu pick and choose her way up, letting my reins got slack as Lulu got to maneuver her way up on the rocky terrain.
What I didn't let Lulu do was trot every time Andrea's horse got about 20 feet away. I wanted to do this for two reasons: 1) Lulu was breathing pretty heavily (sounded like she had asthma) and I figured she needed to slow down to catch her breath because I didn't know how far we were going, and 2) I wanted to make sure that Lulu didn't all of a sudden forget I was on her back and that I was the one who decided which direction we were heading-not her.
At the top of the hill we got the stunning view of the valley. I didn't have my eyes in (my glasses were on) but I still appreciated the view because I could see all the colors of the trees, the outlines of the hills, the sky, and all the houses and towns that occasionally dotted the hills (difficult to see these). Also at the top of the hill was a very small village. I only saw one man as we walked through this village but Poppy saw two other women in the window. Another being we saw was a little dog. This dog scared Andrea's horse, but didn't scare any of the other horses. After going through this village we went back down the hill where Andrea had to stop to pee. After that we went on down through the brush, where we all got whacked with branches and thorns. The horses liked going under the branches because then the rain water fell on them, I didn't like these too much because the branches caught at my scarf and my helmet. It was no pain in the neck though, and we were able to guide the horses occasionally so that we wouldn't be brushed with these trees. Since I was right behind Andrea Andrea and I were the ones who got most of the water on us. We pulled from the "jungle" to an open area next to a run-down farmhouse.
Andrea told us that in the wintertime they hold a party there where they have a bonfire and a grill. We decided that it would be incredibly fun to be there during that, but that was later when we were eating dinner. Shortly after Andrea told us this he turned his horse and continued down the hill, this time there was less overgrowth and more rocks. We shortly crossed the creek again and made our way back to the barn (Ahmee's horse acting up and just about ready to sprint back to her stable, and Lulu having issues with the rocks in the road-picture Bambi on the iced over pond and that's what Lulu was doing every now and then) where we dismounted, thanked Andrea profusely, and went back to the apartment.At the apartment we did the usual: laundry, schoolwork, eat, and talk. What we didn't normally do was go to sleep. We went to dinner down at the main restaurant at 8:30. We were there till 10:30. Why were we there so late? We were seated right next to a wonderful Italian couple and their 12 year old daughter. The husband and wife could speak English and we enjoyed conversing on many different subjects throughout the many courses. Some of the topics of conversation were: whether or not they go to watch the Olympics (no they watch it on t.v. like Ahmee and Poppy do for the Kentucky Derby), who Ahmee and Poppy would vote for Obama or McCain?, horseback riding, the fox hunt that would be going on at the Casella on Saturday, the reason why Italians are against immigrants (take away valuable jobs), traveling from one country to another, finding La Casella, and languages. There was obviously more, I just can't remember it all.
After that wonderful dinner we went and checked our emails, while looking around at all the people who were in the bar and around the fire, and then we went up to our apartment to go to sleep.
No comments:
Post a Comment