Robberies and shrubberies

They say December is the rainy month. Not to be outdone, November put on a show today, much to the delight of our riders, the staff and the horses. The ducks, not so bothered, but the rest of us... grrrr.

Was greeted by 2 dead chickens, all splayed out from the previous night's rain with no blood in sight and not at all gnawed at by mongoose in the dark hours, so was wondering how they died. The boss thinks it was disease. But haaaeellll no am I gonna touch those corpses. Not good with dead things.

We had 2 rides booked, good for a Sunday, so D took the first lot and I was scheduled for the sunset champagne ride. Before that, however, I was asked to get in the horses and cows from free range grazing during the day. Usually my favourite activity, because it involves going down all trails by myself in the afternoon sun taking in the views and chasing around rouge animals.

Not so much fun today.

First, I thought I'd try one of the horses that doesn't usually go for the rounding up. Surely, they can't be THAT bad, just need a strong hand, right? Right?? So I ventured out with Caramel, not a lead horse and as I was soon to find out, certainly no hunter or gatherer. He was reticent from the start, always wanting to be back with the gang in the stables. Then, when he saw a herd of horses running down the mountain back there, he wanted to be with THEM.

At this time, I was in the shrubbery, and soon enuf my horse started bucking, rearing and turning around (or trying to) in the thick of it. It was about this time I decided to bail, in a nice, soft pile of long grass. No harm done, I pulled the horse out onto the road and re-mounted. A few staccato steps and I knew it would be a downhill battle (quite literally) back to the stable, and given his recent performance, I didn't fancy coming off on the hard gravel.

Lucky I'd kept a spare horse in the stable so I returned Caramel and hopped on Duende's much more reliable back, and went out for a look-see for these bovine demons of hell. Found 3 of the 4 but soon was led into the thickest of brambles, and not being able to see the horse's feet. Which led ME into an unexpected pile of fencing wire. Thankfully, my horse just jumped about enuf to let me know something was up, and I got off to fix him up.

In the meantime, the cows disappeared completely from sight and I again failed in getting every animal safely down to the yards to be locked up. Don't think they'll be sending me out much more in the future. But hey, I gotta learn sometime! Had to get back for my other work, so did a couple of rounds to no avail and headed back.

Had my evening ride to prepare for, and when they arrived asked if they still wanted to go into the water at the end. To my disappointment, they said yes so off I trudged to get into my boardshorts, having been treated to almost a whole day in my cowboy boots and jodhpurs. So much easier to crawl around and get messed up in that gear.

Already I was in for a challenge on this ride, as the day's rain had dampened all my firewood for the roasting of the marshmallows part of the ride. Also, to my dismay, the shitty champagne I was supplied with was almost dead flat so the poor couple on their anniversary had nothing good to toast with. When I managed to get some flames burning and the marshmallows on the roast, the rain started.

So we packed up and got back on the horses, the saddles of which were now soaked. The fireflies were out, as were the mozzies, so I was thoroughly enjoying myself by now. Then, an extra treat - more rain! Torrential rain! We were soaked to the bone by the time the ride got to the water, and they still wanted in, so in we went. The horses, bless 'em, got in and walked around, probably cos the water was actually warming us up! I think that rain made me almost shiver, unheard of here!

At the end of it all, I actually got a tip from the couple, 20 euros, so that wasn't so bad. Guides pretty much always get tipped if they have to ride in the rain, and fair enuf, it's pretty crappy!

Met a lovely, pretty black lady at Seaside today who was looking to start lessons up again and asked if she could start with me tomorrow. So hopefully, if they don't assign someone else to her, I will have my first student tomorrow after the cruise ship rides.

Heard more about the supermarket robbery last night... apparently the owner and security guards were hit hard over the heads. I hope they're OK. By the end of the day, my boss had changed our locks. We've already had the "crime" talk so we knew it was on the way. And according to my potential new student, crime rises sharply in December including street assaults so I need to be extra careful. As does the Erm when she arrives as well. New rule: no walking at night with the laptop!

On my way home I was looking forward to buying a mosquito net but was met with closed shop doors, me forgetting again it was Sunday (since most normal people don't work Sundays and therefore feel their day off!), so off it was home to another cold shower. Not so bad when I'm hot, now it's cooling off a bit. But oh well, at least I've got the mud off me - oh, the mud. It haunts me. And now I'm clean but my room STINKS of wet clothes. And my mozzie repellant is on its last legs. A terrific night ahead of me.