Time : 2019
Aroma : Roasting chicken
Drink : Red wine
Listening to: Lenny Kravitz
I am sunkissed & smug having toiled up & down hills this afternoon, dinner is cooking & I am rounding off a pretty peachy couple of days by sharing some pics with you lot.
As much as I love blue it's been green that's done it for me this week. England is impossibly beautiful at the moment, we're in the period of the year I like best, deep spring before the heat of summer starts to fade the colours. It's a chlorophyll cornucopia. The bluebells & blossoms are rampaging, everywhere I look I see wisteria, ceanothus, laburnum, lilac & possibly my favourite tree, the horse chestnut. If there's a more majestic tree than a chestnut fully laden with creamy white spires of blooms, I don't know what it is.
The display at Hampton Court Green is jaw-dropping and I'm truly grateful to whoever had the foresight hundreds of years ago to plant them in the huge numbers they did.
To make up for the times I turn up, whisk him over with a brush & then ride, I treated him to an all-over body massage with a rubber mitt yesterday. At this time of year the horses are shedding their spring coats & the short, glossy summer coat is emerging.
The massage is beneficial for lots of reasons and not just because it gives me a good upper body workout.
The new coat comes through quicker & more evenly if the old, dead coat is sloughed away. Furthermore, horses suffer the same tensions, aches pains as we do & benefit from having the knots loosened. Actually, horses probably struggle more than people for the simple reason that they were never intended to bear our weight.
I think that's part of what interests me about equine osteopathy, it's because I've always felt slightly guilty about riding horses. I've always strived in my riding to sit dead-centre and disrupt the horse's natural movement as little as possible. I'm not saying I achieve it, just that it's my aim.
As for the massage, I feel if I must ride horses, the least I can do for them is give a little back to them, to repay the joy they give me.
Horses enjoy massage as much as humans do & the ultimate sign of relaxation from a prey animal is when they drop their guard & allow their heads to loll to the floor. I was charmed to see the transformation in CB as he relaxed more & more until the breath from his nose was creating little flurries of shavings in his bed.
Massage complete & tacked up, we endeavoured to leave the yard. It's not as simple as it sounds because there are 2 exits to June's yard, fortunately for me, both are electronically controlled gates. CB will leave quite happily by the lower gate, but the upper gate is A Different Matter Entirely. And this is because of what Lurks Beyond. To avoid what Lurks Beyond, CB will try all manner of tricks to delay going through the gate. His favourite is to dance sideways up to the post-mounted gate-button & move around leaving my hand inches from pressing the button. Lots of 'Packitttttttin' will encourage him close enough to the gate that I feel I may depress the button. It is at this point he shoots backwards, leaving me dangling precariously over his ears. CB knows that once he edges snorting, through the upper gate he must face a creature more terrifying than any mythical gorgon, medusa or minotaur. The beast is savage, merciless, all-knowing & mightily powerful. The beast is ... a donkey.
The only way to safely pass this beast is for CB to raise himself up to his full height and to never take his eyes from the donkey. His eyes assume the proportions of soup bowls & I can feel every quivering, terrified inch of his 17hh beneath me as we inch our way towards the donkey. At the point we pass the donkey, CB will invariably try & trot (presumably so the donkey, which I should point out is in a paddock, segregated from us by a 5-bar gate) should run after & devour CB.
I should also point out that CB sees the donkey every day & this performance never alters.
Once on our way, we headed for the Downs. CB is still limited to walk, but this in no way diminished my enjoyment. Walk was the perfect pace to enjoy these ...
I don't know who was more astonished when we sprang this beautiful dainty red hind, but after she had bounded away from us, she stopped & regarded us casually over her shoulder. CB was transfixed & stayed still enough to allow me to take this shot. I know the deer is small (leaves me longing for more zoom) but just check out the green. Makes your eyes hurt doesn't it ? One of the most rewarding things about being on horseback is that the wildlife seem to see only the horse & disregard the human. It made my day.
The breeze made for perfect conditions once up on the Downs & better still, we had the place to ourselves which is what I love about shift work.
Today the forecast was hot, dry & sunny & for once they got it right, so what better activity can you think of than hill-walking ? Complete with lunch, copious amounts of water, a fully laden rucksack & accompanied by Milk Yuk I set out to test my knee again.
I have to say it's slightly dispiriting, scrub that, it's soul-destroying walking with Milk Yuk. Not the company of course, that's as enjoyable as ever. It's the fact that whilst I labour sweatily with every uphill stride he bounds alongside me, not breaking a sweat & chatting cheerfully about, well you know Milk Yuk, everything really.
Today was a case in point ; we had completed 5 stiff ascents when I said I would aim for one more & call it a day. By this stage it's fair to say I stank & looked like I'd run a marathon. Milk Yuk meanwhile was a delicate shade of pink & still managed, I know not how, to exude the faint but unmistakable tang of fresh laundry. As we did the last climb he would remark every now & then, 'Last little bit of hard work, then you're there' The only way I could manage to make it to the top was by silently but enthusiastically envisaging kicking him off the summit to fall to a messy but laundry scented death.
The last couple of days have been wonderfully relaxing and very enjoyable. I hope for a long summer of more of the same. I'm happier than I can remember being in a long time. The only cloud on the horizon ? - the fact that someone I treasure is struggling at the moment. I think about you every day & hope things get easier.
Cx
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