Drowned Rats

Oh my – what a day. We’ve had lots of lovely weather since my last blog but yesterday the rain returned with a vengeance. And today has been the wettest day I’ve ever experienced in Kenya. Rather inconveniently, this is also the day the polo ponies are coming back from the last tournament of the season. There was not a hope in hell of the lorry making it all the way back to Wilderness so we decided to offload the horses not far from the main gate to Lewa and ride them back. Potentially quite fun - slightly less so in torrential rain. The timing could not have been worse. As we start getting them off the lorry, the heavens really opened. After seven hours on the lorry, the horses would normally be delighted to get off and stretch their legs but even they looked around as if to say are you mad? We were warm and dry on the lorry. Where are we? This is not our home.

After throwing tack on quickly in the pouring rain, we hopped on and set off. The rain stopped, the sun came out, there were elephant, zebra and gazelles grazing as we rode through the bush. It soon became apparent it was easier to off road as the horses were slipping too much on the muddy “roads”. If only we could have made it back before the heavens opened once again. Sadly that was not to be and the driving rain came again. It was quite funny when I looked back at one point to see misery clearly etched on all the riders and horses faces. As we got closer to home, the horses seemed to realise where they were and that their journey was nearly at an end which gave them a spring in their step. They were delighted to get home, have a good roll in the sawdust and get into their stables and start eating. Happy horses finally…

Please let the rain stop tomorrow. The tack room is one big mountain of wet dirty tack and the yard is a complete mud bath. This is why I could never work with horses in the UK – wet weather and horses is not a pleasant mix.

What else has been happening since my last blog? Actually, sad times on Lewa as rhino poaching is very much on the increase. Lewa has, in the past, been hugely successful in running very tight security and keeping poachers at bay. However, that has changed this year and five rhino were poached in the space of one week. In just one night, four rhino were shot, although the horn was only taken from one of the rhino, probably because the poachers didn’t think they would have time to escape with more than one. What a tragic waste of life. Rhinos are so endangered simply because of the ridiculous demand from the Far East for rhino horn. Deluded people who believe that the horn contains medicinal properties when it has been proven that this simply isn’t true. Black rhino are particularly endangered. I’m not sure of the exact numbers now, but I know that at one point numbers had dwindled to just 500 left in the world. We have about 60 on Lewa so we are very fortunate. Just days after the four rhino were shot, another rhino was poached. What made this particularly poignant was the fact that we can see its huge rotting carcass on the hillside opposite Wilderness. Very sad.