Heartache with animals: Part II

An early start today lent little promise to the outcome of the day, as I saw Paloma, one of the 3 horses struck with colic the other day (from the same batch at the now-deceased Ritchie), looking quite poorly. I tried to leave a bucket of fresh water by her as I readied the horses, but she looked bad. Bloated and constipated, just like Ritchie. But not quite as bad... I thought.

My own horse, Chico, was laying down in his stall when I went to get him for the ride. He often lays down in his stall, which is a bit weird but he rides OK still, I just worry it's a sign of exhaustion as he is worked every day I work and that is several rides a day. The boss and the owner of the horse (his good mate) told me I need to use him as much as possible, I just hope I'm not burning him out too soon. He's still only about 3!

I pulled him into action, a little stiff (maybe a result of yesterday's fall after I tried to leap a trench with him - the horse will never be a showjumper, that's for sure), but when I was on him he seemed fine. I hope so! Wouldn't want to be the one to ride him into the ground!

The rain of the morning thankfully cleared, leaving the sun to blaze through the clouds but also an insistent misty haze over the best part of our hilltop view. On a good day, you can see the islands of Saba, Stacia, St Kitts & Nevis and St Barths on one side, and Anguilla on the other. Only about half of that today. A bit of a struggle when stopping to kill time with the guests... would be much easier if I was born n raised here, and could just spout out some local folklore to entertain them!

I did 3 1-hour rides, the first a group who'd been booked into the stables on the French side by mistake but still wanted to ride with us. They were staying in the ritzy part of the island, by the French/Dutch border, so they started the tip train nice n early. The other 2 rides were fine, one with an entertaining group of three hungover from a night of partying on the cruise ship the night before. I get them occasionally but really, the cruise ships don't usually hold much of a party scene from what I hear.

The tips trickled in, and then I thought my day was almost done, when the sunset ride was re-assigned to me and I was on for 2 hours longer. Had tentatively planned to go to N's house and organise the photos she took of me, but that was called off as she was tired anyway. And so it was that I had the kinda freaky couple from the States that had me conjuring up all sorts of weird imagery in my head. All thanks to the officer manager telling me they'd bought a sex DVD from a guy selling at work earlier in the day.

They were in their early 60s, freshly married last year, and spent much of the ride telling me how they'd managed to save X amount on the event, as well as commenting on the price of things here. I threw in my 2 cents about the cost of living in St Maarten, just so they knew I was working for tips here. Still wasn't confident about getting anything, though.

There was just something creepy about the guy, and they were touchy-feely at the sunset point and that just grossed me out. Like my parents having a smooch. Wrong. I really wanted it to be over, spent my time trying not to have these images in my head about this gross guy... and the funny thing about them was that they would just do things, like come up to the horse area when they thought it was time (I was still helping with the horses) - in hindsight maybe wanting every penny spent to be worth it - and the just putting their helmets back on while the fire was still blazing to show they were ready to go. Just weird behaviour.

When we were mounting back up, I saw Paloma stagger up the hill looking very sickly indeed, lying down, rolling around, then getting up again. She even followed us a few steps along the path. I still don't know if she genuinely wanted to come with us or that was just the same way she'd decided to her walk of death. Animals often go away from the main area when they knew they were dying, and I feared that was exactly what she'd done.

I took the couple for a brief spell in the water, nothing special as it was dark, the horses weren't keen and there was a boat freaking them out right by the beach. Fine with me! Back to the stables it was. Thanks very much, hope you enjoyed it, oh, a tip? How kind. Even he said, "Here's something to buy you half a bottle of wine" as he handed over the fiver. You're right there, buddy.

When I told the boss where I'd seen Paloma, we jumped in the car and went in search for her to give her another injection. We found her. But there was no need for the injection. She'd found a spot on one of our paths and laid down for the last time. Yep, 2 horses in 2 days. A sad state of affairs. She was beautiful, too, an albino with blue eyes. Everyone always loved her. And she was a gentle spirit, too. Poor thing.

I solemnly got home, showered, cooked dinner, spoke with A about my day... but it so deeply saddened me. This is why I shouldn't work with animals. And I had to witness one of the security guys that keeps a dog by the old stables at my house kick him back into his cage (I dropped my bag at the time and commented it was because I just saw him kick his dog, to which he just grunted, the cunt). This is why some people shouldn't work with animals.