A Horse Comes Calling

Yesterday morning, Norman rode his white horse down the hill from his place.  I was in the bathtub when he arrived. I had taken Blanche for a three mile walk earlier in the morning.  I heard Norman’s hearty British accent hailing from below the window.  Throwing a towel around my head, wrapping another one around my body, I hung out the window to talk with him.  My husband wants to put screens on the windows but I feel they’re too modern and they keep you from being able to truly commune with nature, or from hanging out the window to chat with people.
 
Norman had waited at his house for me to come up and go riding with him, but I had forgotten, so he came down to get me.  By the time I quickly finished my bath, my husband had returned from his morning bakery-run and had invited Norman in for coffee. I had to split my croissant with him. I didn’t want to do it, but it was the neighborly thing to do.  He said I could take the horse for a little spin so I unhitched her from one of the poles of the sheep’s pasture, Blanche was bawling at the huge animal jealous that I was lavishing attention on another, I walked the horse over to the house, positioned her near the edge of the terrace so I would have a step up in order to mount her, and then we walked around the farm yards and a neighbor’s walnut grove.  I had to get her out of the walnut grove because she was interested in eating the low hanging branches.
 
It was obvious that she was an easy-going old horse and so I asked Norman if I could ride her up the hill to his house.  He agreed, and my husband agreed to drive Norman home.  The horse ride took half an hour. 
 
I haven’t ridden a horse for years.  I haven’t ridden since 1991, and then, I rode on a long, painful for my backside, pack trip into the mountains that border Yellowstone Park to the north.  As you know, I have wanted to start horseback riding here in France, because there is an endless system of old roads/paths that crisscross the countryside that are perfect for horseback riding.  Nicole up the hill once went by herself and her horse on the trail of St. Jacques de Compostelle which traverses hundreds of miles through France and crosses over the Pyrenees Mountains into Spain.
 
I feel safe walking these trails with my sheep.  But I felt supremely safe and comfortable astride this tall, powerful horse.  When walking with the sheep, I have to look down at the ground a lot so that I don’t trip over rocks and logs, or step on snakes; but on the horse, I was free to look around at the countryside so that entirely new vistas and discoveries were revealed to me. 
 
I can see why young girls enjoy riding horses. Riding a horse gives the adolescent female rider a sense of power that isn’t attainable to them in any other way.  One controls this giant animal that can kill you if it so desires.
 
Well, I was hooked, and I’ve arranged to ride again tomorrow morning.  Norman’s wife Pamela is going to round up Nicole’s horse and show me how to get him saddled and haltered, and then I’ll ride off by myself.  (I bought a horse helmet yesterday.) When I return from my ride, Pamela will show me how to brush down the horse and put away the tack.  After this lesson, I will be free to take Nicole’s horse on a regular basis.
 
Last year, I had told Pierre Yves that I wanted to buy a horse and so wisely, he intervened with my wild fantasies and took me to meet Nicole.  Her spine was badly injured in a farm (not a horse) accident, and now she is bound to a wheelchair and can’t ride.  She has two beautiful horses, and she wants people to take them out to ride.  I didn’t take her up on her invitation last year, because I had the sheep and it was necessary for me to walk them every day because they didn’t have a pasture, so there was no time left in the day to ride a horse. 
 
Nicole provides everything, so it’s the perfect arrangement for me, when I’m not living here full-time to borrow her horse.  Because of her generous offer, I can see how intent I am on horseback riding without shelling out the thousands of Euros of investment that a horse initially requires.  Besides, I need to get better at taking care of animals.  My rabbit and sheep death count is high and so I hesitate to take on a horse at this stage of my farm learning curve.  Amazing how cats that I’m starving and poisoning and shooting at just won’t die, but the animals I like drop over like flies.