Part 10

A donkey to add to the menagerie?

With Christmas just around the corner I am always reminded of how different it is here now. Years ago, before we lived here we used to drive down for Christmas to stay in my parent’s holiday home in Los Romanos, above lake Vinuela. Our preferred route was via Calais as we found the two day drive quicker than taking the longer ferry routes. One year though, we did agree to take the ferry to Bilbao with my parents – never again! The trip out was lovely with smooth seas. We were able to enjoy time on deck in the sunshine and even saw dolphins. The trip back was a different story. A short time into the trip the sea started to get rough. Soon we were having to hold our coffee cups to stop them sliding off the table. By the time the captain gave orders for everyone to retreat to their cabins we were all starting to get worried. The boat was rocking so much that the goods in the shops were smashing to the floor and the restaurants all had to close. As we made our way back down the stairs to our rooms it was amazing – one minute we felt like we were flying through the air, then the next it was like we had lead boots as the stairs came up to meet us. What a nightmare! – we will always stick to Calais in future. On our return we heard that the storm had been so bad that the ferry should never have set sail. To make it worse, it actually turned round at Portsmouth and took poor holidaymakers out for a New Year mini cruise. The local Portsmouth newspapers expressed the concerns of the people – why on earth had the ferry been allowed to set sail again? There were a lot of questions for the ferry company to answer.
In those days we had to take all our Christmas things with us, you couldn’t buy anything unless you went to Gibraltar.
In less than ten years things have changed so much. Now it is quite easy to buy Christmas cards, decorations, crackers, turkeys and all the trimmings.
I have to say that I think at the moment the level of hype attached to Christmas here is just about right, it doesn’t start in September as it does in the U.K.
We still celebrate Christmas in the traditional British way. This starts on Christmas Eve when we have a lunch time birthday party for Clive. It’s usually a lovely warm sunny day and we all end up sitting outside. Christmas day starts with a walk with some of us perhaps riding some horses, followed by Christmas lunch and a lazy afternoon. Then thankfully, unlike in England, life gets back to normal until New Year, with none of that excessive eating and drinking for days on end. Don’t get me wrong, I love Christmas, but I do feel that it has become a bit much in the U.K.
Of course, we are lucky here that we can use the Christmas holidays to do more interesting things than sitting watching T.V. We usually fit in some skiing, though it can be a bit busy at Christmas, and it is a lovely time of year for exploring the country side and even having picnics if we’re really lucky. I have even managed to persuade Clive to take the horses on a picnic ride. He usually says he’s too busy, but is easier to persuade now that we have friends down the road with horses.
It was on one of our picnic rides with our friends in the summer that we came up with the idea of the Barbecue and swim ride. We had finished our picnic and ridden the horses back to our friend’s house. They have a spare paddock for us to put our horses in and it gave us the idea of bringing clients to their home for a meal and swim. They have a lovely large pool and always lay on a fantastic spread when we eat at their house. It suddenly seemed an obvious thing to do – they would provide a sumptuous barbeque with cava and hordeuves to start, and unlimited beer and tinto verano. We would ride from our place up into the mountains and on to their house, finishing with a ride home after the barbeque. It has been a huge success with clients saying it was the best thing they have ever done on holiday. We can take all abilities, right down to complete beginners, and children are welcome too, as are non riders who just want to eat.
We did have a slightly worrying occurrence on one of the barbeque rides. Our route sometimes takes us past a field with donkeys in it. Unfortunately, unknown to me, on this particular day part of the fence had been trampled down. My heart sank as we approached the field and I saw the donkey running towards its escape route. With a family of two adults and two children, all beginners, to consider, I could hardly think about trying to out run it. As the donkey got closer I could feel my horse tensing up. Of course, just to make it worse, the donkey then started braying at the top of its voice. Donkeys are not horse’s favourite things at the best of times, but to have one so close and braying its head off was a horse’s worst nightmare. Thankfully my horses are very well behaved and don’t spook easily. I could tell that they weren’t happy, but they didn’t do anything about it. I had to decide what to do very quickly, before anything happened. I jumped off of my horse, Hercules, who bless him just stood there while I chased the donkey back into a neighbouring field. As the donkey ran down the field I was able to quickly walk all the horses on past the opening. Thankfully, by the time the donkey came running back up the field, he decided to turn the opposite way to us, back to his friends and we were able to get away. Another time, about a month later, when I thought the fence had been mended, I wasn’t quite so lucky. I was taking an Australian tourist out on a hack and decided to take the route again. I had just been thinking to myself that I would ask him if he wanted to try a short trot, when trotting up behind us came the donkey. I just had time to shout ‘can you trot?’ and with his nod we were off. Unfortunately this didn’t work, and as I thought I might be pushing my companion too much to suggest a canter we came back to walk, with the donkey still following. As before, I jumped off of my horse, Lucy, who was getting a bit fed up with having a donkey on her tail, and turned round to try to shoo the donkey away. It then became like a scene from the children’s game ‘what’s the time mister wolf?’ Every time I turned around, the donkey stopped and looked away, then as soon as I started walking again, it started to creep up behind us. It was hysterical. In the end I decided to phone my son John, who came out in the car with a lead rope, to try to get the donkey back to where it had come from. By now we were getting closer to home and I was beginning to think that I would have yet another rescue animal on my hands. John kept scaring the donkey back, but it just kept following. We came to a goat farm where I explained to the farmer what had happened. He thought it was really funny and said that there would be another donkey loose in the campo, as if it was an every day occurrence. At this point the donkey decided to go and visit the farmer’s horse, tethered up on the hillside and we were able to make our escape. My Australian client thoroughly enjoyed our adventure, and it certainly gave him something to talk about to his friends afterwards.
I have to admit that I have always wanted a donkey, but since my vet told me that they carry lots of germs that can be dangerous to horses, a donkey would need to be quarantined for a while and I have always thought that it would be too much trouble. I just love the noise they make, and of course they are very cute!
Though we have had many animals abandoned at our house over the years, we are yet to have a horse or donkey dumped. We did come close to having another goat though, a few months ago. As I rode home one day a goat that was wandering on its own in the olives decided to follow me into the paddock. I put the poor thing into a stable and asked my neighbour, Pedro, to try to find out who it belonged to. Thankfully I only had to keep it a day before its owners claimed it.
Oh well, I suppose it is asking a bit much to expect a perfectly behaved rideable horse to suddenly arrive on my doorstep!
To be continued………………