Resolutions

Happy belated new year! Can’t believe how fast this year flew by, never had I ever thought I’d be where I am right now. If you had told me last year that I’d be celebrating New Years in South Africa I would have laughed. It was an interesting experience to celebrate both Christmas and New Years in the heat, I must say it just doesn’t have the same feel to it. Next year I want the cheesiest Christmas ever, with snow, markets, decorations, carols and everything to make up for it. It’s been a pretty awesome year though, mostly because of all the great people I’ve met on my travels. I’ve also learned that you don’t have to physically be close to someone to be really close to that person. So to all my friends: thank you for being there for me and always listening to my rants.

I’ve spend most of 2017 travelling and I hope to be doing that in 2018 as well. On that note, my next destination is *drumroll* Iceland! That will certainly be different climate wise ;) I’ll be going there over March and April to work at a stables, similar set-up as here: horsecare, training and trail guiding. But with Icelandic horses! And to make it even better, Ilona will be there as well! Remember her from my first South Africa adventure almost three years ago? Can’t wait to travel and work with her again. I don’t really do New Years resolutions but I do have a lot of plans for the coming years, and they involve travelling and horses. It’s still very tentative but I will definitely keep you posted!

We’ve been quite busy over the holidays. I’ve had a lot of trailrides with some really nice guests and I had some company on my training rides as well. It was nice to have some people to chat to and to help with the horses as it can get tiring sometimes, no matter how much fun it is to ride out here. For New Years we had a ‘recycling’ theme party where everyone had to dress in plastic (let me tell you, that’s not the best thing to be wearing in 30 degree Celsius weather). And of course half the people there (including me) ended up in the pool. Last week I went to Richards Bay with Trienke to do shopping. Being in the mall made me realise how secluded we are here, it was so strange to see ‘normal’ shops again, I felt like someone from a tiny remote town in the middle of nowhere who goes to the big city for the first time.

I had a few days off this past weekend and Heleen had invited me over again so I went back to the park. It was so nice to get away from everything for a while and I love spending time with Heleen and her family. It was very warm but we still saw loads of buffalo, rhino, giraffe, zebra, antilope, warthog, birds, monkeys, baboons and the lions (having a nap next to the road). We went to see the horses again and this time I worked with the third horse that I didn’t have time for on the last visit, while Heleen worked with Spirit. Storm was very grumpy and nippy but as I worked with him he got a lot better. He’s a sensitive horse but he was good when I rode him (after a few bucks) and Fi and I even took him and Spirit on a little ride into the park. Both of them were very alert but they didn’t spook or try to run so I was quite happy with that. Ow and we didn’t get eaten by a lion ;)