A NEW DIMENSION TO BEING BEACHED? 4th DEC.

We all rise between 08h30 and 09h00. I have muscles in places I never knew existed. I am bruised on the inside of my left calf. My thighs do not belong to me? As for the rear I am carrying, I am not sure to whom this belongs…..We chill and chat. Greetings to the horses around the home and once again, I spend invaluable time in the paddock with them. We have a ride set for this afternoon with two clients. We have lunch and are told to be ready by 14h00. I’m told I will ride Alexander, who loves rolling in the water. Cheryl is set to test me. She has a wicked sense of humour.
We leave to round the horses up once again – They keep getting out of the paddocks we put them into recently burnt with new shoots coming through. Cheryl says it becomes a habit for them but with peak season on the horizon, we need to get the horses into a routine of where they are to stay. Again, we move the horses. It is raining and getting worse. We slip everywhere. My feet are dead but the passion for the ride takes over the pain. Once at the stable yard, we start the routine of feeding and then introducing the clients to the herd. The lady rider, has arrived in a long denim dress to ride in? They choose their horses with Luisas guidance. The female rider chooses Alexander. I am now allocated Robin Hood. 15.2 Hands and a dark Bay, full of himself in the stables. I am a tad nervous.
We have lost Don.... Don has got stuck in the mud with the car!
We tack up, help where we can with the clients and now we all mount. Don arrives. And off we go. Same route as before. We head to the beach, drop off a cement driveway and onto the beach, and I hear Luisa tell the client to make sure she watches Alexander with the water. The last thing I was expecting was to have Robin Hood drop his legs and drop down onto his haunches. He was preparing to roll in the sand WITH me on his back. It all happened in slow motion. As he lay down on the beach, Robin Hood waited for me to get off his back. He didn’t have long to wait, because as he dropped down, I voluntarily bailed off, for fear of being squashed. Only now to stand up, giggle and watch Robin roll through the sand WITH saddle on. What a sight. What a feeling. I was beached. I got up, with pride and dignity intact, brushed the sand off me, Robin and the saddle and remounted. All the riders had a good laugh at my expense. Robin won that round. I could not wait to get home and shower. When showering, you do so with every conceivable bug to be found in a rural area.
Don cooks up a stunning peri peri chicken meal for tonight. We ate and sat and chatted about the day and under the guidance of Cheryl and Don, learnt more of what we needed to learn. Their knowledge and stories are brilliant. Another day over, exhausted by 20h30, I take myself to bed. I yearn for someone to rub my feet.
M