Day two (a day late)

I woke up at 6:00 today to see if I could get away with an extra half hour of sleep, which it was. I dressed and ate some toast and headed out to find Katrin.

She first had me groom horses again, which I didn’t mind too much. I know I will be doing a lot of it, so I figure I better enjoy it. I then went back to the barn where the yearling fillies and pregnant mare were kept. I mucked and groomed them, meanwhile watching the horses on the treadmill. One of the enormous jumpers was on it and she would occasionally get sleepy and start to fall over, which terrified me. Then one time she fell hard and started to come off the contraption. I braced for an accident, but the treadmill stopped. It has a safety mechanism, thank god.

While watching all of this and putting fresh bedding in the babies stall, one of them noticed that I had left open the door just enough to sneak through. She leapt out and started to trot out of the barn, but luckily the other filly screamed for her to come back, so she did. I put my arm around her nose and Peggy, one of the workers, came to my rescue. She threw me a halter and I led the crazed filly back into her stall.

I finished up in that barn and then did more grooming. I then helped Peggy turn a horse out. This is when I found out there are more fields across the street. Taking horses across a street daily that has no speed limit seemed dangerous, but the people at this barn do not take so many precautions as I do. They leave horses “ground tied” for minutes and pick feet in a way where you’re asking to get kicked. They like to turn horses out with boots, which I find weird. About a quarter of the people I have met wear helmets. Their number one concern isn’t safety, it’s cleanliness.

I rode Angelina again and I was better but I still didn’t feel at my best. My jet lag was still effecting me. After, I had the privilege of sweeping down cobwebs in the barns and almost getting killed several times after scaring the shit out of the horses. I tried to calm them down but they don’t listen to me much since I don’t speak a language they understand.

I was actually able to eat lunch today. It was peas and carrots and something like potatoes au gratin. Yum! My first full meal in awhile. :)

Then I got to lounge a horse, which turned out to be somewhat of a challenge. Voice commands are a bit different but it was fun nonetheless.

Katrin took me to the grocery store to get some more food and I also ended up buying an internet stick. Hopefully it works.