I am Gladiator!!

Warning: I have not proof read this, but wanted to post it...please excuse any grammatical, spelling, random thought errors! :)

In case you are interested, here is a blog I forgot I wrote from 2 weeks ago (June 27th and 28th): Even though it is outdated, still a keeper for the memory books!

I realize in the many new experiences and stories I have hardly talked about the main reason I am here – my job. Or at least, not as in talking about the horses and the “Italian Way.” Italian way being having different supplies, more limited and more expensive than the US. Example: Swat in America is five dollars, tops, here we saw it was twenty five euro!!!

Side note: Today we turned on the TV to try and find the forecast (failed) and stumbled across MTV, which was playing in English Michael Jackson’s song Black or White…random! (until later last night when we saw that this week is Michael Jackson week) (UPDATE from current times…now realize that it was from his death…funny we didn’t find that out until oh, last week!)

In riding the same horse for nine years I have come to know her very well and she doesn’t challenge me as much as she used to. I know when she is being silly and when she doesn’t understand. She is a seasoned, well trained horse with good days and bad like any of us. Out here, riding younger, less well trained horses has given me a greater appreciation for all the time I put into knowing and training Precious. Sometimes I wish she were here. On the same hand, riding so many different horses is challenging me to be a better rider – mainly in the department of patience, calm, and accepting that I am less experienced in the problem shooting training department. There is a saying in the horse industry that “a horse is always honest.” Given, you can have a poorly trained horse, but for the most part in the honesty of a horse, it is humbling and hard to recognize my faults, or at least to try and see what I am doing wrong, or could do better. I find that I don’t trust unresponsive horses. Today (Saturday June 27, 2009) on the way home, I was riding a three year old, Saturno, and he grabbed the bit, ducked his left shoulder and pulled a hard turn on me…thankfully I have a strong seat, but I nearly came off…it shook my nerves! It was hard to not get mad at him! Saturno is young, so he gets some slack – but his responsiveness is that of a brick wall with a few loose bricks, and it is unpredictable which bricks are loose…not so much slack in that department.

Last semester we had a woman’s night at Church and the speaker, Dr. Kim spoke of two emotions – fear and anger – and all the side effects they can have. The best cure? Deep breathing. I never thought I’d actually use it!!! After all, I am NEVER scared or angry. I have used that “trick” more often this month than I ever thought imaginable. Oh that night I was not feeling good, sitting at the commons on the back couch next to Allie, Michele and Ashley. Another lesson that is actually applicable out here is HALT – when I feel my emotions getting out of control, I think of this acronym Monica taught me. Am I hungry? Angry? Lonely? Tired? 9 out of 10 times, the answer is yes to one of those. Who would have thought I’d actually utilize the wisdom taught to me by others?!

Speaking of utilizing information, as Claire and I try to make this place into a more efficient stable we are realizing the value of business plans and budgets that exist (or in our case don’t exist…). I have decided that having the materials you need to take proper care of the horses, a stated business plan, and job descriptions are completely overrated, along with clean floors, ovens, microwaves, toasters, dish washers, bathtubs, normal refrigerators, freezers, dryers, function-able screen windows, bug free living quarters and cars. Side note: Why job description? Claire and I have recently received a request/goal/need to have done task of…training donkeys. I am sure one of you giggled out loud. Well, every time I think of it I laugh. Do you KNOW how stubborn they can be? After trying to get Rusty in the stall, I can only laugh at the tasks Claire and I are now in charge of: the care, training, and conditioning of 13 horses, 2 ponies, 3 donkeys, and 1 mule…along with an endless to do list of cleaning, organizing, and more cleaning. Busy much? Yes.

I frequently laugh at our desk…a mixture of random lists…you could say we have mastered the art of to do lists: what needs to be done when the vet comes, what do we need to talk to Vittorio about, what to do next time we get to the internet, what do we need at the store, what places do we want to see when we take our day trips, what needs to be cleaned, what needs to be done around the barn and probably at least four other categories of “to do/get” lists.

The last few nights we have been hearing really weird noises in our wall…I assumed it was just a horse fly caught somewhere. I was wrong. Last night we were watching a news clip on the Palio and we heard the noise. Claire looked above her head and we found the source…a scorpion. EW. She grabbed the Raid and well, that was the end of that. As I have mentioned before, here, bugs are our constant companions. We have ants in the walls of our living room and seem to be constantly battling with the flies and (now) scorpions (hopefully that’s just once though). Luckily, the both of us aren’t easily grossed out and find our constant horse-like swatting pretty funny. A can of Raid is by far the best investment made thus far. We have been waging war with the ants and victory is imminent! Updates from the front to come soon.

And every now and then I get to go on little adventures. Today Thomas took me to run an errand and we ended up in the kitchen of a little old woman, who gave us sheep cheese and bread…it was pretty good and another awesome cultural experience. (Yes, I had to mention food!)


Current day: July 13, 2009

Water soluble paint – water based paint; sprite – tonic water; 2 o clock – 4 o clock; 9 o clock – 10 o clock…they are all the same, right? Not exactly.

This week has been a week of a whole lot of bleck! Bleck meaning “stupid stomach flu disease, virus infection of GI tract, keep you in bed, force you to memorize route to il bano (to prevent hitting walls at night), nauseating sickness.” It started off innocently enough…and then hit me out of nowhere…beware of hitchhiking ghosts!!!
.
STUPID FLIES! They keep landing on me and I wish I had a top technological gun that would shoot darts that chase them and stab them through their miserable little bodies. I can’t quite explain it, but there is something about them that will make you go absolutely crazy. Maybe its just the general grossness associated with them, maybe it’s the feeling of a light *annoying* tickle when they land on you, maybe it’s the buzzing that never leaves your ears. Either way I am growing more convinced that a great torture device would be to stick someone in a room crammed with them for any length of time. Claire agrees. Yesterday we got a fly swatter in IESA. Is it bad when buying a fly swatter is just about as exciting as getting that new dress that fits just right or a new car? Well, even if it is, this is life at La Ripa, I could not stop smiling, so excited to start swatting flies!!

Okay, now that I have had my vent session about those most annoying black buzzing things, I figured now would be a great time to write about oh, you know…my job! Typical me…writing about adventures and travels and I haven’t even really shared what I am doing day to day. Silly me. Well, as always there are up days and down days and this week was definitely a big drop on the roller coaster week. Monday was great, went to look at a potential horse for a beautiful evening trail ride and laughed nearly the whole time, we had conversations ranging from how I am a caution sign to how Claire is an antique lightstand. Life was good.

Tuesday we finally go to shop for options to obtain much needed barn items and did research on donkey training (31 pages!). We also went to look at a potential horse for Vittorio to buy. He was beautiful. As Claire and I watched him move and looked at his overall health and chatted to each other, Vittorio talked to the trainer, in Italian which equals cluelessness in my world. All of a sudden we realized he bought the horse! Fastest purchase…ever…at least in my books. Minion (now affectionately known as Mini) is a 6 year old bay Anglo Arab (meaning he is 60% Arabian), moves beautifully and is just good looking! He is also only half trained, which means Claire and I have another project on our hands. I am actually very excited about this project, it should be a lot of fun and a great learning experience. The disadvantage to having a new horse is that Vittorio is a business man. He wants to make money, he will only keep a certain number of horses. He told us on the drive home that we had to choose 1 or 2 to sell…in Italian language that essentially means slaughter. :/. We were very quiet on the way home, rather depressed for a few days. How do you choose a horse you have come to know and love to be processed for some sort of food? They are all good horses. Needless to say, we were depressed for a couple of days. I wrote about the issue of horse slaughter in my Capstone class when we talked about ethics, I understand that it is actually a very logical method of horse population control – I would be okay with it in the United States again. However…I am not okay with choosing the horse, I am not okay with a horse going simply because someone doesn’t want to pay for it anymore. I am not God, don’t like choosing who lives and who dies. Deep breath, moving on. That night I started feeling queezy.

Wednesday – Queeziness starts to increase, stomach aches on the rise. By night I have stopped eating, or at least anything of substance, mm bread. We watched Gladiator – awesome movie!

Thursday – I am full blown sick in some way or another, I won’t share the details, but I was bed ridden. Phrase “I am Gladiator” arises. See, feeding horses when you want to lay down/sit/bend over every 3 steps is miserable. As I woke up to feed, I thought of Russell Crowe killing the emperor with a wound in his side. Surely I can kill hay bales with a sore stomach! (The adrenaline rush might be a little different, but it could work, right?) And so my gladiator training began. I am Gladiator I said, trying to fight the misery. Mission? Pretty much a fail, I was useless beyond forcing myself to help feed. My meal all day? 1 bowl of white rice – plain (not a great substitute for chicken noodle soup) that led to a great reflection on hunger in third world countries. We also picked up Mini…yay! Vittorio told us that there is a lady who might be interested in one of the horses to do therapeutic work. I am hoping that she will want Frieda, it would definitely save me from growing in ways I don’t want to grow.

Friday – too sick, still not feeling well enough to go to Montigiorni like we planned (they were having a medieval festival…how cool would that have been?! Stupid stomach.). We stayed home and prepped for Saturday and then went to Siena. Saturday we were supposed to have 12 12-14 year olds for a day camp. YIKES! Hopefully my stomach wouldn’t act up…I was on the hill back up to healthyish! Vittorio brought us paint so we could paint the horses, way fun! The only problem? We asked for water based, he brought water soluble. I have a funny feeling you can’t wash acrylics off of horses. But you know, they are all the same, right? Also that night I asked for Sprite for my tummy, they gave me tonic water…ew.

Saturday and Sunday – stayed in bed all day and it was marvelous. Camp was cancelled, the kids were not coming. And so life at La Ripa is back to normal - horses are breaking pens, Rusty is bothering Nutella again (this time we just said deal with it…no energy to fight that one!!), the dogs still won’t stop barking, two more halters are broken, and the sun still shines with random thunderstorms.

Update on the front: Claire has found only one more scorpion (on the shower curtain) and the ants are gone…yay! We have fixed our screens so keep out unwanted extra critters. As the frustration showed earlier…the flies are our most current threatening battle. However, armed with Raid and a fly swatter they are starting to submit to our ferocious attacks and determination. Mercy is no longer a game factor…the flies must die!

Currently we are cleaning the Med room – aka the secret lab of Dr. Jeckyll. How so much junk has fit in one room is beyond me. The courtyard is currently swarmed with microscopes, bunson burners, flasks, incubators, needles, saline solution, betadine, saddles, tubes, harnesses, reins, tarps, 1000 copies of one horse’s pedigree, and a whole bunch of other random and unidentified items. It’s a slightly overwhelming picture and task. In the midst of trying to decipher this secret lab of sorts, we did find some awesome tin helmets that we can’t wait to wear! Now I really can be a gladiator! HA!

With that, I hope these 2 in 1 blogs have not been too long and well, I guess I failed in describing my job, but hopefully hearing my week has been entertaining enough. Maybe someday I’ll get to it.

PS – Every now and then (like just now) these giant silver fighter military airplanes fly over us and all you can here is the roar of their engines far before you see them and long after they are gone. I’ll try and get a picture, I think my military fan readers would love them! I don’t know much else about them beyond they are big and intimidating and really cool!

Lesson of the week:
Always overpack!

Love you all,
Tracie