A week has passed since my last blog update so I figure it’s
time to post again. I have to say that I would love to be in England right now
watching the Olympics. Reading about it on line, it sounds as if the opening
ceremony was quite spectacular so I am sad to have missed that.
Whilst feeling British, I must embark upon that most British
of traditions – complaining about the weather. July in Kenya is really not a
great month weather wise. It is the dry season, but it is really not that warm.
Often I am wearing a light fleece for most of the day – shock, horror! There
has been a distinct lack of sunshine for the past week and it gets very windy
in the afternoons with massive dust clouds coming across the stable yard. Mount
Kenya is rarely visible due to the cloud and there has even been some rain –
what is going on? Not that I mind if it rains as it helps dampen down the dusty
roads. It is also nicer for the horses to be ridden in cooler conditions.
Hopefully, the sun will reappear soon…
It has been quite a quiet week – polo ponies away in Nairobi
and not that many guests. Sacha and Joss have made it through to the finals of
the tournament so that’s exciting. Looking forward to the ponies coming home tomorrow
– hopefully with the winners’ trophy - and hearing all about it. Poor little
Nakita (one of my favourite ponies) has hurt her back though so she has had to
watch from the sidelines. I hope she doesn’t find the long lorry journey back
to Lewa too tough.
I thought the weaning of the foals had gone quite smoothly
and as Champagne has been apart from her mum for over a month, it was time to
bring the mare back up to Wilderness and start riding her again. Things never
go smoothly though and Bucks Fizz decided that her baby still needs a mum. Thus
she starts following Champagne around, nuzzling her and encouraging her to
suckle again (despite the fact she has no milk). So that plan didn’t work and
Bucks Fizz is now back at the shamba (farm). Champagne is very settled with the
herd, despite a 24 hour visit from mum, and is happily grazing with her friends
again. From the guilty look on her face, I think she knew that drinking from
mum was wrong and a bit babyish for a foal of her age! Not sure what to do with
the mare. Perhaps she needs to go back to the stallion and have another baby
since being a mummy seems to be the most important thing in the world to her.
Other dramas this past week include a guide falling off his
horse when she spooked at a jackal that jumped out of the long grass in front
of her. Not good when your guide falls off!! Luckily I was there too. It is
actually quite stressful taking people out on rides who can’t ride at all. I
did a five hour ride the other day with beginner riders. The potential for
disaster is high when you come across an angry black rhino because non riders
just don’t have the ability to get themselves and their horse out of the way.
On this occasion, we survived as the rhino decided against charging us. Also
had a rider kicked in the leg this week. Heart was in my mouth driving out to
the scene of the accident hoping that the leg wasn’t broken. Fortunately, just
a cut on the shin which looked worse than it was due to the amount of blood.
And a syce got kicked in the head the same day (not badly). So with two kicks
and one falling off in the space of two days, that is three bad things and
hopefully that will be it. Normally, our horses are so well behaved so I’m not
sure what has got into them – may be it’s the weather?!
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