Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch…
I was glad to leave Mozambique. Whilst the horses were lovely and the riding spectacular the racism was pretty hard to stomach.
And I was very much looking forward to coming back to California. After all, I didn’t really get the full experience last time due to the broken legs. Yes that’s right. You may recall that I wrote about breaking my foot in South Africa. Well just about 2 years ago I managed to break both of my legs just a month in my summer in California.
I wasn’t even working! It happened on my day off. We trailered a couple of horses up to my boss’s property to go for a fun ride. I was supposed to jump on a little grey monster, sorry Arab, called Rebbe (short for Running Rebel), just so I could go and catch another horse up there that I was going to ride. Rebbe had other ideas and was spinning in circles around me, making it difficult to mount. So I asked the girl I was with to hold him while I got on. That was a bit of a mistake. As I sprang upwards he sprang forwards and the girl holding my horse LET GO! My ass had not even connected with the saddle at this point and I came down as quick as I went up, landing in a heap as Rebbe galloped off into the distance.
I knew something was pretty wrong. (Readers of a nervous disposition are advised to skip this bit) After a few minutes getting my breath back I slowly lifted my leg, and there was a new and interesting bend to it. I had snapped it in half. Totally. Fantastic. The girl I was with was running around hysterically asking me what to do, and I told her to go and catch the bloody horse before he came back to finish the job!
The next hour was quite surreal. The guys from the ranch arrived. The boss arrived. An ambulance arrived, but couldn’t help me as they have no orthopaedic surgeon in Mendocino. Then the Fire Brigade arrived. They were great. I just remember being very calm and a bit pissed off that my summer wasn’t going to work out when planned, especially as I had been having such a great time. Drugs were administered thankfully at some point. Then the helicopter arrived! Gorgeous, sexy male nurses/pilots. It was quite nice to be the centre of attention, although I wasn’t looking my best.
It was only at hospital I found out that I had actually broken the other one as well. Let’s face it, the one with the bone sticking out had been my most pressing concern. So what’s a mere crack in the other one?
Nine days in hospital and a brand new metal leg later, I was good to go (along with some top quality pharmaceuticals). Lari, the boss, was fantastic, and moved me into her house to recover, as I couldn’t do much for myself for a while. I stayed on for the summer after all. I did lots of work in the ranch office and was back on a horse 8 weeks later (too soon, as my huge swollen limb demonstrated) and even did my first ever endurance ride just 3 and a half months later. I still had a fabulous time – just not the one I was expecting to have!
So when I received an email for Lari asking me back for this summer, I didn’t hesitate to say yes! My own little trailer at the ranch, a car to get into town, and best of all fully functioning limbs. Not to mention the horses I had fallen in love with and the great people I had met.
I just love being back in America….
Welcome to America!
Sorry for the long, long delay in posts….
I have been writing this bit by bit for the past three weeks as I have very little free time anymore, and there being no such thing as internet cafes out here…
Well as you can see they obviously let me in. For reasons I’d best not go into here I was a bit worried about even being allowed into the country. However the immigration man was lovely and couldn’t have been nicer as he ushered me through without even a second glance at my form.
I spent a fun 3 days in San Fransisco having a bit of a holiday (no really – this isn’t just one long holiday you know.) There was much seeing of the sights and also a very nice hostel pub crawl. Little did I realise how much more hectic things were going to get.
I arrived in Fort Bragg on Saturday 10th May, and I my feet have hardly touched the ground since. I am working a LOT, but enjoying every minute of it. I get to take trail rides down onto the beach and in the forest, and am riding some excellent horses. I’m driving a huge truck and trailer loaded with horses after only a few days. I’m living in my very own trailer on the ranch, and have even got my own company car! Americans are much better tippers than the Brits, so I’m earning good money too…. well at least enough to pay for my social life. And what a social life it is.
Just as there are people I expect to keep in touch with in all of the countries I’ve been in so far, it didn’t take me long to find another. Barbara is a 22 year old Texan divorcee(!) that I work with, but I feel like we’ve known each other for ever. She’s very much a party girl and thanks to her my life is now a non-stop whirl of working, riding and er… drinking!
Not since the golden olden Nugget days have I been caning it so much. Fort Bragg however, is not London. It’s very much small town America, and we usually have to stick to the three bars in the area, and the bowling alley (which has Karaoke at the weekend). Believe me, after the 3 months of social stand still in Romania, I’m more than making up for it now and we’ve become quite a familiar sight in the local redneck bar!
The other people that I’m working with are odd to say the least, from your stereotypical American teen brat, to your stereotypical miserable old cowboy. The boss is eccentric to say the least, but a saint compared to the evil Ecuadorian one.
I can honestly say that I’m loving every minute of it here. I expected American culture to be much more familiar to me than South American or African, but the truth is that this is the strangest, weirdest, oddest place on earth. And I love it. We think we know America from TV and Films and because we speak the same language. But small town America is like nothing I’ve ever known before, and scarily enough I seem to fit right in!
I have so much to write and so little time. I want to write about the horses, the guests, the boys, the work, and so much more. Next time I promise not to leave it so long!
Round the World on a Horse... 