Let's go for a ride!!

There we are, just casually ridin´around the countryside..

My Sunday had a totally brilliant start. I woke up at about 6, after an agitated night of anxious sleep, and slumbered in bed a couple of hours, wanting to get up but not knowing what to do. Then my hostfather appears, slamming open the door, shouting "kids, you're going horseriding!".I have rarely scrambled out of bed that quickly, although it took longer for my sis to get up, given that she was actually sleeping and that my father is not very good at waking people up.

My guide and company, preparing my mount

So we went to a house a couple of blocks away from the charming house the family owns in San Miguel (a charming community about 180 km from Asunción on route 1) to meet our mounts. At this point my sister realized she was not feeling very well, and it was decided I would go with the son of the family to whom the horses belonged, on a tour.

Meeting my horse. I did not even think about ask her name,
I guess I just assumed she didn't have one...

And so we did. I haven't ridden western style before, resulting in me sometimes messing some things up, but it was brilliant. My horse was a fairly tall, nicely built and rarely colored mare with a nice temper and coherence, making my trip awesome. Also, my guide, whose name I unfortunately didn't catch, was very nice. Very much like me, ie not very talkative, making the ride really tranquil and peaceful.

There we are. Horse abit confused and me in all my "Woke-up-couple-of-minutes-ago-and-basically-still-wearing-my-
pyjama"-glory...

There we go, heading out to the fields

The Paraguayan countryside is amazingly beautiful!! I was totally awestruck. There I was, seeing, for me, rare birds and plants in their natural habitat, cowboys working old style to move cattle, atop a horse without all the drama that it usually means with the horses I am used to.

And what I thought? It would be worth giving up almost all material things I have to be able to lead a life like this boy accompanying me. I know it is not all easy strolling, that it is actually quite alot of work involved, but still. If I could live a year like that, on the cordial countryside, riding around on the fields... pretty simple life, but still full or challenges and with its own richness... Needs some thinking.

Random, nice-looking horse

Returning. with a substantially worse sunburn that before
but mood substantially higher

I also gave a great deal of thought to all the laws we have to animal keeping in europe, and seeing how fine all these animals did on the countryside, I started to wonder, Why do we have so many exact rules and laws to animal keeping in Europe?

Then I remembered all the half-dead animals I see on a daily basis in Asunción, and thought: That's why... because some people are fucked up in the head and do not hesitate for a second to abuse animals for their own winning even if it means the death of the poor creature...

Met a puppy!! (My hostfather was the photographer)

A thing that surprized me was how home I felt at that horse, after not having been close to one for about 2 years I would expect feeling a little strange or unbalanced, but it was nothing like that. Made me wonder why I stopped taking riding lessons 3 years ago, that is definitely something I will be taking up when I return. And also, once in my life, I will own a horse. When the time is right, and all circumstances sre the right ones, I will. 

PUPPYYYY!!