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| Children in the Lesotho Village on Sani Pass |
GABBY - The rides for today were out of control. There were smaller groups as well as larger
groups. The biggest ride was that of 19
people, which were scheduled for an 11:00 ride.
It was the biggest ride that we had ever sent out. We also had a Lesotho trip leaving that
day. Ben and I started our day early
seeing as we needed to make about 40 sandwiches for the 3 hour ride of 19
people. Wanda, the woman I had spoke to
about bumping up her ride an hour arrived and was quite a joy. She told me that if she would have had the
extra hour that they had planned on, they would have been able to stop at the
pharmacy to get their daughter some acid reflux meds (I guess she wasn’t
feeling the greatest). This woman
basically cut me down wherever she could, telling me that I should be the one
to tie her kids’ shoes because I made them get up and hour earlier. I had it up to my ears with this woman and it
took all of my might to not give it right back to her. Sometimes I hate having to bite my
tongue. The group of 19 arrived and
introduced themselves as a party of doctors.
They were loud and pretentious, making us feel inferior, but paying us
before the ride, which is always nice.
It took almost an hour for their horses and guides to be ready since we
do not have that many ride-able horses at the moment. One of the horses was barely trained and
should only be ridden by the most experienced riders. Claire had been trying to train her, Ginger
for the past week and had been doing a great job. One of the doctors claimed that she could
ride Ginger, but when she tried to get on, Ginger through her off and she
landed on her butt. The doctor insisted
that she would be fine, despite Claire and the other guide’s hesitations. We finally were able to get the ride off and
enjoy some peace and quiet. We read,
listened to some music and wrote some postcards until Claire suddenly ran to
the window and told us that something was wrong. Claire and ran outside and down the horse
path to find Garreth leading his horse, Apache with the girl who was riding
Ginger on top wrapped up in a makeshift sling.
One of the other doctors and her boyfriend had walked down with her as
well. She had been thrown from Ginger at
the lunch spot. She landed on a bunch of
boulders, her wrists and knee in excruciating pain. When her boyfriend tried to lift her off the
horse, she burst into cries of searing pain, which made my heart stop. Good thing she was surrounded by an entire
team of doctors. We each catered to what
the young doctor needed, fetching clean water, soap, towels, ice, etc. It looked like she had broken one, maybe both
of her wrists and had a bad bruise on her knee.
This was the first time that something bad had happened on a ride while
Ben and I were here, but apparently this is not an uncommon thing. The doctors were really awesome about the
whole thing saying that the horses are animals and you never know what they are
capable of. Claire and I felt bad about
the whole thing because we knew that Ginger shouldn’t be ridden by an average
rider. Accidents are bound to happen
with a group that big and horses that are not quite fully trained.
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| The Puddle! |
After all that excitement, Ben and I went to
visit Puddle and the other baby horses and mommas. We were actually able to touch Puddle because
he was very curious and confident. It
was really great that we were able to touch him because he will be much less
inclined to run away from humans after this.
It was also his 2nd day in this world, so it was good to be
starting early. After we touched the
incredibly soft Puddle, Ben and I went to visit Thembi in her house down only a
little bit from the Tack Room. I hadn’t
seen her for a couple weeks and missed having her around the backpackers. She greeted both Ben and me with warm hugs
and showed me her new bunnies that she bought.
I really miss her at the backpackers because we now are working with
Zola, who is a bitter 24 year old Zulu woman with an attitude problem. Thembi showed me such kindness on my first
days at Khotso, washing my swollen eye with warm water. It was great to see her and spend some more
time with her. We walked back up to the
backpackers to start preparing food for dinner.
I decided to go Mexican for dinner tonight, upon Claire’s request so I
went with steak and chicken fajitas. We
thought it was going to be Claire’s last night (again), but she was actually
going to stay for a couple more days, with Ben and my convincing! The fajitas turned out really well! I cooked up chicken, steak, red, yellow, and
green peppers, onions, mushrooms, and rice.
I really enjoyed the fajitas and I think everyone else thought they were
good too. We also were informed that
Garreth had been asked to come back and work on the farm until late
January. He is really talented with the
horses and can lead all of the rides on the farm and in Lesotho. He can also handle small things around the
backpackers, like answering the phone and writing down any bookings. It will be nice to have another pair of hands
around here. He will also enable Ben and
me to have some more free time to do what we want in the area if the days
aren’t too busy.
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