Well, I’ve officially been back at La Ripa for a week, and a fast week it has been! I am currently sitting on Claire’s computer listening to Time of Your Life by Green Day and thinking of how incredibly fast and slow the next 20 something days are going to go by. Where to start?!
How about an update on life while I was gone: We have guests coming!!! Which means Claire and I have been in full gear running around the farm riding six hours a day, six days a week. I am pretty darn tired in the evenings, but watching movies and eating cookie dough is quite re-energizing. Two of our baby donkeys are gone and the other two – Eric and Poncho are still shy…though super cute. Tonka and I are developing a relationship and donkey kisses are my new favorite way to get a smile. Going outside is actually pleasant now – summer has fled and fall is officially here. The trees are starting to change colors into brilliant shades of red, orange and yellow. The coming of fall has brought many rainstorms as it has rained practically every day since I have gotten back. The first few days were the worst – the roofs were literally a drop off point for waterfalls. Intermittently we have had light rain showers and some torrential thunderstorms that knock out the power sometimes! Living at the top of a hill gives us a great view of the thunderheads rolling in and Claire and I marvel at how cool they look almost every day. Even if it doesn’t rain on us we can often see electrical storms lighting up the hills in the evenings with pink and orange flashes of light. It is a good thing Claire like clouds as much as I do…I think half of our feedings consist of conversations about that days’ cloud formations. The rain and cooler weather has been just fantastic – Claire finds the mornings cold, but I happily enjoy getting out of bed early each morning and working as the chilly air nips at my skin. Seriously…I think I must be transforming into a polar bear…I can not WAIT to experience snow again!!!
Unfortunately this new rainy season, while fun, has resulted in us getting caught in many storms while out riding. See, the weather here is extremely unpredictable (or maybe we just don’t understand the weather forecast that we don’t watch on TV). It seems that our clothes are always damp in one place or another. We have finally gotten smart about it and have begun bringing rain slickers. You know the western movies where the cowboys dress in yellow slickers? These are as bad as those…they are big ankle-length bright yellow coats the make us look like giant bananas, big poofy horseback riding bananas. We are trend setters, that’s for sure and as big bananas we are slowly perfecting our cowboy, donkey, fly, frog, and chicken impressions. We at least find ourselves funny…I wonder how on earth we are going to fit back into society when randomly braying like a donkey or squawking like a chicken is normal. It is true!
On a more typical Tracie note, early this week I somehow got something in my eye that hurt so bad! My eye was very red. Normally dust and stuff clears up in an hour or two. This eye thing last three days! And as with all eye problems, that means no contacts. I am too stubborn to listen to logic and I did not want to scratch my glasses, so for three days all I could see was a blur of color. This blindness led to a fantastic reflection on the Road to Damascus and opened a great door to pray to see with my heart instead of my eyes. I really had to trust the horses I was riding (yes I galloped blind through the dense forests) and I really had to pray to not get mad at the fact that for those three days I felt like a shard of glass was cutting my eye anytime I moved it. But I made it and can see again! The mysterious eye injury did not prevail over my good mood, I still laughed and squawked like a chicken on our rides.
I still have to write about the Denver ladies that rode with us before I left to travel with my family and I still want to write about my food movement idea and I am definitely panicking about a job in the future!
Update on the home front. Today is day three of guests, a full day of riding, which means I should be on a horse, not on this computer. I am not being irresponsible, just taking a lunch break since I so unexpectedly ended up staying home. Remember Mini, the new horse Vittorio bought a month or so ago? I have officially decided that he was tranquilized when we went to look at him. I have spent most of the afternoon recovering from a fairly traumatic few minutes and after a couple of hours listening to music and breathing slowly I think I can write this with humor, oh I was so mad at him!! So Mini has severe (understatement) separation anxiety when he sees another horse leaving him. Today we were running a little late getting the ten horses ready for our guests, in my practiced hurry of tacking up ten horses I managed to put a bit in wrong. I tried to fix it on the trail without dismounting. Bad plan, the mare started spinning with one rein unhooked and I had to get off to fix it. Easy fix. I told them to catch up to the group and I would be right there. Amazingly enough (especially for Mini), he stayed still while I get on. We start walking. Car. Oh yes, a car is a nerve wracking thing when your horse is dancing all over the road, ignoring your cues to keep him in a straight line and there is a steep downhill on the other side. Mini decided to start jogging in place. Fine, I tolerated it because I didn’t want to fight him in front of guests. All of a sudden he reared (front legs in the air) and tried to bolt with me. Fortunately I have quick responses, good balance and strong legs. I pulled him to a halt, where in mid stop he spun to the right, pushing is rear end to the left. I kicked him with my left leg, away from the cliff covered with trees and he ignored me. So here we are spinning and rearing in the middle of the road, car watching from a relatively safe distance and the rest of the group unaware that I was fighting for my life. Claire had to fix something and was back at the barn. Suddenly, with great attitude, Mini caught me off guard, backed up extremely fast and crookedly and I could feel us sliding down that steep hill, into a tree. I dropped the reins with one hand, wrapped my arm around the tree and prepared to use it as a stable object when jumping off should Mini actually fall down the rest of the way. You know the saying “see your life flash before your eyes?” I had that moment. In the fraction of a second before I grabbed the tree all I could see was Mini falling on top of me and the two of us sliding downhill until we slammed into one of the hundreds of trees sitting so solidly below us. I am not sure how, but somehow he caught himself. And we sat still on the incline, catching our breaths. I kicked him up back to the road where he proceeded to act stupid. I ended up cantering him home and switched horses, turn around, follow Claire’s texting instructions to where the group was, to be told to come back home when I was about ten minutes away from them. Bugger. So I spent the afternoon to myself and hence the opportunity to write this blog in an otherwise very busy week. I am starting to think I must have a stupid horse and tree magnet in me somewhere...lol.
Okay, moving on...Along with our animal impressions, Claire and I are still working on fly training. They are slowly sort of kind of not listening at all. Hmph. And I write that because they won’t stop landing on me!! Agh!! Stupid flies. I have continued to befriend Tonka and now spend minutes at a time cradling his head in my arms; resting my cheek on his forehead…it is one of my new favorite ways to calm down.
Now, today (Thursday) day four of riding I am ready to go to the internet and post this blog, walk home and realize the things I have forgotten to share, feed, ride more horses and wake up at 5:30 again tomorrow. Woohoo!
Lessons of this week:
- I need a job
- I will always have a soft spot in my heart for donkeys no matter their level of obnoxiousness
- Fall in Italy is amazing – much better than summer I’d say
- I need a job
- The one time you don’t bring a slicker it will downpour leaving you drenched for the rest of your 3 hour ride
- Wet jeans are itchy
- I am not keen on the need a job to support myself idea – AH!
- One should not try to train a horse and take care of a group at the same time
- Excellent TLC 0= ice packs flying at your head
- 7:30 is starting to seem like sleeping in
- Claire and I with all our injuries almost make a whole person with our healthy parts
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uummmm.......wow! quite a story!!! glad you ar safe!! ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) haha i just got an email from you. I don't think I could handle being tickeled for 15 mins straight. My insides would come outside. haha so here is your blog post!!
ReplyDeleteI haven't figured out why you don't seem to like the drnched trail rides. I would LOVE them!! It would feel sooo good!! But at the same time, I just like trail riding!!! I really want to try this lasso thing from horse back! It would be fun!! Allie said she want's to film if for blackmail reasons.
you know, about getting a job. there's a lot of ranch jobs around here. i think it would be pretty easy for you to find one. I was talking with Alicia yesterday about being a ranch hand for a summer and she was encouraging me to do it. Too bad I have to be grown up and get a geology job though. still not sure where I will end up after graduation this december. It's looking like I will have to leave CO. I will cry. I don't want to leave this state. Starting over is really hard too, as you found out in Italy this year. have a great week my friend!!