Monday morning, and Im feeling quite sick with nerves at the thought of spending a week on the back of a horse, when as child, I couldnt spend 5 minutes on a donkey walking round whitestone pond.
I am met at the bus stop an hour later by a woman who is to become my teacher... her warm easiness, the cup of tea and biscuits help me relax.
I learn to groom a horse and pick out its hooves.. not the most pleasant of tasks.. but necessary nonetheless!
After doing some rope exercises which enable me to make the hose move where I want her to go, I am shown how to saddle her up, and then actually get on her!! The day is spent in the paddocks, where I learn to walk, trott, and accidentally canter and jump. A natural, I was told... i obviously have the Lunzer genes.. the lunzers having been broguht up on horses!
The next day, after what became the daily grooming and cleaning of the horses, we went to the beach for a beach ride... The west coast of new zealand is called the wild coast, where the sand is black, (i may have already mentioned that, apologies if so), from the iron..unusual and stunning.
we then rode through the forest, the floor of which is still sandy, showing how high the sand dunes rose as we were, by that point, quite a way baove sea level.
The next day I learnt some clicker training, which is positive reinforcement for desired behaviour in horses.. i enjoyed this, although found it quite hard to negotiate a clicker, two ropes, a target, food and about three horses all at once!
I then had a pretty gruelling lesson, in which i was encourgaed to ride without holding on, and without stirrups and with my eyes closed. I was able to manage that, but when the horse then decided to trott towards a barrel, clever selina thought the horse would jump, and therefore sensibly decided to throw herself off the horse to prevent the believed apparant fall off the horse... yes.... well.... that was fun! Although I didnt look at the horse, apparantly, she looked at me for quite a while before bucking and trottering off to play with her friends!
Thursday and friday were spent doing gentle walks along the beach and throuhg the forest again... the horse, whose name was Toad, and I both seeming to prefer the gentle pace of her walk to the trot, which required much to much concentration and definitiely too the cantor, which made me yank on her reigns to the point that I must have hurt her. A forgiving horse, I was told, but one with plenty of attitude!!
The week ended and I returned to auckland with sore shoulders, back and legs... but I could still move so I thoight that was an achievemnt!
I went back to the synagogue next door to where I wa staying, that despite being the furthest i ever was from home, reminded me so much of my own synagogue that I felt quite comfortable... and I had the added bonus of being invited out to lunch which was lovely. The poeple i went to had a labradooddle, much like our own at home, so again, i felt very much at home!
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