Animals

Horses galore...

My parents went to Lucky Town in Grosspetersdorf, which is a replica of a Western Town. Yes, really ! Anyway they met a woman who was parading her horse and it turns out that she owns a Horse Farm nearby. A lot of my parents' guests at their Kellerstoeckls want to go horse riding, so we hotfooted it to Michi's place to see what she does.

Not expecting anything exciting, I was floored when I saw what she and her husband had achieved. They have 34 horses, a donkey ( we were debating if it was a donkey or a mule as it depends on its parentage ),ponies, pigs, goats,cows and an Alpaca. Wow....a kids paradise.

Actually I felt so good walking among her paddocks stroking the horses that I travelled back to my childhood when I helped out mucking horse stables. Looking back now, it was a privilege to shovel out the excrement because it taught me responsibility. It was not just about the pleasure of riding but also of caring for the horses. Walking into the stable yard yesterday vividly brought back the act of separating the " apples " from the hay!

Just talking with Michi, a professional riding teacher, I could see how she adores her animals. We discussed each of her horses different character and she was laughingly telling me the difference between the donkey's and the horses' character. " When a horse sees barking dog approaching, it retreats in fright, but the donkey will stand his ground or even retaliate with braying. " As the donkey also has an extremely stubborn streak, does it not resemble some Men....?

I will definitely go for riding lessons in the future and also help sort the apples.

Biggi