Sunday, April 3, 2011

Caballos

Hello dear friends!

Well today was a good day. I got up at 830 to go meet friends from the barn for a paseo through Sevilla. Little did I know what I was getting myself into!

We met at el Parque del Alamillo. We saddled up, all dressed in a mix of our finest: some wore the traditional Spanish outfits, either the traje corto (jacket&pants) o the traje amazona (jacket&long skirt), and others a la inglesa, an "English" style wear most anything goes. Since I own neither here in Spain I wore my riding boots and a Ralph Lauren white button down shirt tucked into khaki pants. Quite the picture with my bright bay steed, Neptuno.

My friends and I, along with over 100 other horse and rider duos lined up along the park. It was amazing. I've never seen so many people dressed in the traditional gear-it was so pretty. Most were Andalusian horses, but like the horse I was riding their were also Warmbloods, Thoroughbreds, and Andy-crosses thrown in the mix. At 11am sharp we took off, all 100+ of us for a walk through Sevilla.

Around 1130am it begins to rain.

We pass through all parts of Sevilla, moving in a long loop through the city. We pass my school CIEE, the Catedral, the Plaza de España, and the Torre de Oro. We put smiles on the face on all the bystanders and put some serious frowns on those stuck in the traffic jams we caused. All the while the rain keeps on coming. And this is no mild rain--it's pouring.

By the time we're halfway I'm soaked to the bone. My I remind you of my oh so preppy outfit? That features I white button down? May I also remind you that while everyone in the traditional outfit has saddlebags packed with rain jackets, English tack does not have saddle bags/a place to store a jacket. So while the majority of the riders are wet but semi covered, here I am the only rubia in the whole parade, soaked. But on the bright side, it wasn't hot. So in my opinion, we had good weather.

We made it back to the trailers around 230. At this point the rain doesn't even bother me. One of the horses in our group decided to be a complete cabron about loading into the trailer. Took over an hour. In the meanwhile, people snapped photos of me and Neptuno, the two of us soaked standing content in the rain. A man with a TV camera focused on us for awhile, but I have no idea if it showed on TV.

Later, a little kid's horse rears, Neptuno spooks, and without a stud chain, gets loose. I jog off after him. The ground's wet, but hard. Until I hit the orchard. I take one step into the mud and I go down, sliding face first into humiliation. In front of a crowd of dry onlookers, down goes the rubia covered literally from head to foot in straight mud. Neptuno grazes contently not even 10 feet away. Well I'm ready to go home. I'm cold, wet, and muddy, and this horse with his 6 stalks of grass has eaten more than I have today.

I get home just after 4. "Manoli, mira como yo he venido a casa. Como yo vengo a casa!" She's speechless. First of all, this is a perfect recipe para estar resfriado. Second, she just spent all day scrubbing the floor. I tell her I'll strip out here in the staircase, but she rushes me in and helps me take off my clothes. I don't make too much of a mess. And finally got to defrost in the shower. For once, it was super hot. Caballos. What they do to you...

I'M SO EXCITED FOR FERIA


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