Week 10 in Mauritius

Monday morning, we woke up to lovely rain – we love the cooler weather. After going to pick grass for our boys (as Klaus says “all for the love of horses), we were off to the sea. We took the boys down to the sea for a swim in the pouring rain, it was absolutely beautiful to see the rain on the sea, it looked like glittering diamonds, twinkling, as the rain drops hit the sea.

On Tuesday morning we had the most wonderful ride on the beach. The tide was just right, and we could safely canter down the beach. The horses loved the freedom, they even started racing each other ( not that it was too fast) After the canter we had a slow walk back to the stables – a very slow walk, because our boys had to eat along the way, and who are we humans to interfere with a horses requests, or should I say demands. Even God has made their time here special, with pretty skies for them to see outside their stables.

It is starting to get hotter now, as summer starts. Our two boys are really battling with the heat, so we are hosing them off twice a day, to try and keep them cool. Our two boys are really starting to get used to all this pampering, and are enjoying it more every day.

We have some beautiful sunrises and sunsets here as well, so once our boys are locked up for the night (quarantine rules, they have to be in bed 2 hours before sunset, and can only come out 2 hours after sunrise) we sit on the varandah and watch the sun set, then we run inside before we get eaten up by Mosquitos, and little Rascal is always at our sides.

On Wednesday we took our boys for their swim, there was no water at the quarantine station as a pipe had burst, so the next best thing to cool everybody off was a swim in the sea. So every horse went to swim, in relays, just to get cooled down, even the humans were grateful to stay in the water. Fortunately when we got the last lot of horses back from their swim, we had enough water in the tank to give all horses fresh drinking water, so everybody was happy again.

We had another spectacular ride on Thursday, this time we did bending poles in the beach parking lot, using the rows of pine trees as the bending poles, it was a lot of fun, with all the obstacles like roots and branches in the way. We thoroughly enjoyed playing around, and doing something different.

Thanks to Cisca, we are going to be able to send little Rascal to Canada. Thanks for all the help Cisca! On Friday we got little Rascal’s traveling box, and he had all his shots, and got micro chipped, shame he cried so much, that Kayla and I were ready to cry with him. At least that is now over.

On Saturday we put up some paddocks in the pine trees for our boys – when I say paddocks, I mean string tied from tree to tree, just to show our boys where they need to stay. They love their new shady, grassy paddock, where they get to eat and stay a little cooler.

We had to give back the car we had borrowed, so on Sunday we were off to Grand Baie to deliver the car. Lindy came to collect us, and we went for a lunch at a South African restaurant – Kayla had a bowl of biltong, and calls that lunch. We then went with Lindy to check on her horses that were re-homed, which was interesting to see how the stable yards do things here in Mauritius. Lindy’s final stop was by us, to check on Arusha, and to drop us off. All in all it was a lovely day.

We now are ready for week 11, with only 3 more weeks before we go to Germany. (Only 9 swims, 6 rides, and 2 weekends left)