It's been a very busy couple of days indeed here at Kentish Towers, with preps for the folks and Rui arriving which has necessitated the preparation of three separate guest rooms and the slapping into shape of the bathroom. Sid and I have been hard at it for ages and were reaching the end of our endurance.
So Friday arrives and I've got a day's leave. Up at the crack of dawn to do the boys then off to Waitrose to buy a large consignment of food for the forthcoming festivities. We no longer do presents for each other but instead a big five course extravaganza to celebrate, which is nice.
Arrived back home at exactly the same time as Rui landed, this time in a vehicle other than the gold coloured popemobile from last time. Joyful reunions followed, a quick catch up and then on to work the boys. As we know Rui's "mounting" activities were confined and as such I had fondly imagined that he wouldn't be riding T. Ha! The only time Rui would come to England and not ride T is if he no longer had a pulse. However we did agree that using the picadeiro would be prudent on account of the pulled ligaments. Rui rode him first and he was very "up". The small part of me that wibbles at things was thinking "hmmm" about getting on afterwards but then my big girl pants took over and on I clambered. T was immediately relaxed, bless his heart. We have been doing an awful lot of work on relaxation (mine and his) and it has paid off in spades.
We did lateral work to begin, and he was feeling really good. We went through the whole gamut of things - piaffe, passage and canter - my first canter with him at home and I could have died of happiness! His canter is absolutely sublime and it was that combined with the culmination of effort of all that work that really made it a special event. Ahhhhhhh.
We then took Q down to his Old Home down the road, and he was lit up like a Christmas tree! Wow, no shotage of energy. Quick lunge to let him look then jumped on. Still lit up so immediately proceeded to some fast work to get him settled. By this point having ridden T I needed a wheelbarrow for my enlarged cahoonas :) which really helped enormously in doing what needed to be done with Q. We worked on SI, HP and leg yield transitions, first in trot and then in canter, finishing with a flying change and then work on his piaffe. Got some lovely lovely steps and great feel to take away with me. Rui did a little work with him and my beautiful new leather long reins (yay!) but Q was quite mullahed by this point and didn't wanna, so Rui kept it short, finished positively and we all went home for .... arrgghhhhh is that the time?
There followed what can only be described as Benny Hill-esque activity - well apart from the bevy of suspender-clad lovelies - as we rushed around trying to beat a path through the house for the folks, who arrived about 5ish.
That night we had a big meal all together, lots to drink including a fabulous bottle of port which Rui had brought, and laughed and laughed all night. Fabulous. Haven't enjoyed myself so much in ages.
Saturday morning - arrghhhhh. Feeling a little rough around the edges, and up early to make the most of Rui before he had to go off again. T first again, in the picadeiro. Rui had a fabulous ride on him; rarely have I seen him quite so unbelievably strikingly beautiful; a real fairy tale of a horse. He blew us all away, and Rui was exuding an air of barely concealed joy - he loves T like no other horse.
When it was my turn he said "Rach, now I want you to ride like I just did. Ride with your heart". Sometimes a word or phrase comes along at precisely the right moment and captures the essence of the experience, and so it was with this. I thought yes, the sun is shining, it's my birthday, I am just about to ride this fabulous, fabulous stallion of ours and damn, I'm going to ride him with all of my heart. And I did. It was the best ride I've ever had and I finally felt what Rui and Sid have spent endless hours discussing about the nuances of this horse when you really tune into him. Suddenly everything was effortless and I felt connected with him in a way I've not had before. Awesome awesome awesome. We went through all the exercises again and I experienced many strung together moments of perfect happiness. I found a rhythm with him in piaffe and passage that I hadn't felt before and again had some really powerful feels to take away with me. Amazing boy!
Then time to take Q up the road again for his lesson. We did a lot of work on changing bend from eg SI to travers, followed up with HP and finishing up with a flying change. Still don't feel I own these in any shape or form but we seem to be getting them more, so that's good. He was lively again especially as there was a heavily in foal mare being walked alongside the school, which ticked all his testosterone boxes. Good opportunity to deal with stallion behaviour though, and he settled well once we agreed who was wearing the breeches.
Rui was then off down to Canterbury in the afternoon and we could all relax a bit and attend to the matter my birthday feast. What we had planned was this:
* Dressed crab/Gewurtztraminer
* Sticky fingers lobster/Amarone
* Seafood linguine
* Fruit meringue dessert
* Half a hundredweight of cheese
What we actually did was get through the first two courses and then agree by consensus to continue the rest next day, as everyone was completely stuffed, and were all in bed by 11pm, being completely knackered from the previous evening's activities :)
It's been an excellent few days - there's something about this house that really thrills to the joy of free flowing wine and good company - it sounds weird but it's true.
Today we have one final treat to look forward which has been organised for us by our good friend Phil the farmer - more on that later.
Really great couple of days, and loads of good food still to come. Yay!
Mmmmm...food porn!
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