Orquidea's Horsie Stories

To my Sponsors

It was an exciting day on Sunday, my transport arrived on the yard only to leave again soon afterwards without me. However, I was having a bath and so knew I would be going somewhere. After a while the trailer came back and in I walked as good as gold only to be confronted by a pair of teeth from “Sally” who was pretending it was her trailer – the cheek of it – who did she think she was? Off we went, to be unloaded with lots of other horses and no dressage arena or show jumps in sight – what was going on? We were given paddocks on a football pitch, but with no grass, and all night had someone watching us as the naughty horses next to me all escaped and went running around loose. I am always very good in my paddock and stayed in with my leg held up, as I do, asking to be let out too to join in the fun!

Monday morning arrived and Pru, my rider, came to tack me up. She walked with me down to the river Guadiana and then we waited for all the others to arrive. It was very exciting and as we set off I decided to show all the people in Alcoutim that I was a proper Portuguese horse and could do a piaffé-like walk all through town! All morning I jogged or did extended trot when the others were cantering, or collected canter when the others were trotting, it was great fun being different. We all had a lovely morning, though one horse wasn’t feeling very well and had to stop at lunchtime. There was a lorry at the lunch stop and then a trailer like mine arrived, I quite expected to go home again, but to my surprise after lunch my saddle and bridle came out again and we were off for another 4 hours – up through the hills and across some very beautiful but rather barren lands of the eastern Algarve. That night we stopped in a valley where we had yummy grass to eat – a rare treat in the Algarve. I had made a couple of new friends on the ride called Novak and O’Hara (especially O’Hara) and when they went into their paddocks I made a lot of noise and wanted to follow – so despite my long day as it was now 7pm and we had set off at 9am, pulled Pru about trying to go after them. I had a nice paddock though sharing with Rebecca.

Tuesday morning arrived and we were off again. Pru was quite nervous at times as she doesn’t like steep hills and big drops so I stayed to the inside track and one of my friends came to the outside of me all the way round, which was very kind of them. Today didn’t take as long and I still had plenty of energy to jog a lot of the time.

Wednesday we were woken up rather early – this seems ominous - … We all had to line up in the car park for our photo to be taken before setting off which was quite good fun, but it did make us a bit late leaving.
The countryside was still mountainous, but much greener and we had our first view of the sea from the top of the hills. We were now about 500m above sea level, having started the first day at sea level, or thereabouts, and having gone up and down over the last 2 days. We had a very, very, steep hill downwards, which was very hard on my legs and Pru didn’t like it at all – she turned the same colour as me – grey! Anyway we got down it in stages and then spent most of the day going through valleys and up and down much smaller hills today. Lunch was very late and I was very hot, tired and thirsty by the time we eventually stopped at 2.30pm, even though we had had several short stops for water from streams and cisternas (Portuguese water tanks). .. And as we arrived at Alte for lunch there was a photographer from that day’s sponsors taking pictures of us all. I didn’t feel like putting my ears forward for him so I walked straight past, head down to my water bucket and lunch! By now Pru was the same colour as the soil – bright red! (not from sunburn fortunately). After lunch off we went again until the police came to meet us and give us an escort through the town of Messines. We met a silly van driver who had to wait for us under the motorway tunnel and hooted his horn. We were trotting through and the noise frightened some of the other horses, but I was ok as I am used to going under the railway bridge on my rides out from the stables. That night we were very late in, it was 8pm and all the riders as well as us horses were very tired. We had nice grassy paddocks though and a good night’s sleep. Pru went home as it was nearby and also had a good night’s sleep.

The following day, Thursday, some horses went home and some new ones came to join us. Unfortunately one rider fell off and had quite a nasty accident. (We have heard from her since she returned to the UK and she is Ok but rather bruised). Today we set off along relatively flat land by a river and Twiglet and I had an extended trot competition – she is an endurance horse with a 16km per hour trot, and I showed her that anything she could do, I could do as well. They were cantering behind us as we were both at the front of the ride! Today also became very, very hot, well into the 30s and we had to climb and climb and climb. Some of us didn’t make it to the top. A couple of horses got too tired to continue, but I made it over Picota ridge and on to Monchique.
I settled much better at the front of the ride and was with my new friends, Twiglet, Rebecca & Oz. They were all grey like me, and I much preferred them to all the other coloured horses.
Twiglet & Me(Orquidea)

We had travelled about 46kms and went from 281m to 773m and back to 458m at Monchique. It was very beautiful scenery but we were all very tired at the end of the day and then the midges bit us at night so I rubbed my tail, which I don’t usually do. I have rather a nice thick tail normally. Because we were in an arena and not on grass the “naughty horses” from the first night – not me as I am good – broke down the rope fencing between us all so by the morning all 20 of us were in together! Fortunately we were all tied up for breakfast so no one could take my food.
Pru was quite silly this day, as she had been asking me to keep in on the tracks and not go too near the edge, so as we went along a narrow footpath near a ravine I kept in. Her bottom must have been too big as all of a sudden she was no longer in the saddle but clinging to a tree stump! I walked on, but she wouldn’t let go of me either so I had to reverse until she was back in the saddle. I then had to reverse even further so she could detach her clothes from the tree before going a little nearer the edge and having a second attempt at passing the tree without falling into the water! The horse and rider behind just laughed! They couldn’t do anything to help as the path was so narrow and the drop was into a ravine! We got past, although Pru had ripped her T-shirt and jodhpurs in the process only to be called to a halt on the hill the other side as someone else had also been attacked by the tree. They had come apart from their horse though.

Friday was just as hot as Thursday. We had another climb of 400m to Foia, the highest point in the Algarve 902m (3,000ft) above sea level. The views were breathtaking and we stopped to admire them and nibble some grass. Pru was very excited to see the wild peonies growing – I’m not sure what they are as I don’t eat them. But anyway today we went down hill most of the way. It was a long journey, over 50kms over tough terrain. We had a wonderful reward at the end of the day in the form of a huge grass field, which I shared with Xami, Rebecca and Touriga. It was the biggest and best field of grass I have seen here in the Algarve and I munched and munched and munched. We were told by our riders that we were nearing the end of our journey; - but I am not sure that I believed them.

Saturday came and off we went again. Then we saw the sea and everyone cheered. We went along the cliff tracks and down to the beach on the Western Algarve coast. I love galloping along the beach normally, but was glad we didn’t today, as my friends and I were all tired by now. Xami went into the sea so I stuck close beside her and went in too. Then this white thing came towards me and I jumped sideways into someone else, who jumped sideways into someone else. It could have been a bit like playing dominoes except we all stayed standing. Then I got a bit braver and started to get the hang of this water thing with its white bits and sloshed about cooling my legs and feet. We stopped under some trees for lunch and were all tied up in a line to ropes – we looked a bit like the washing hung out to dry. After lunch, we discovered that our riders had been telling us the truth as a couple of hours later we arrived at a very cold and windy Cape St Vincent. Here we were cheered and clapped by the crowd as we came in and all our riders were smiling and gave us big pats.
The Only Cool Day

All of our transport was there waiting for us and I had my rug and travelling boots on, but stood firm! I didn’t want to leave my new friends! I stayed like that for 20mins before Pru got annoyed and asked Julian to wave the schooling whip at my bottom. Reluctantly I went in to the trailer to start my journey home. It felt quite strange to be going home from the opposite direction to that which we had left a week before.

I am now in my field having a well-deserved rest. I was pleased to be back with my friend Uzzy and we had a play in the arena galloping and leaping about together.

THANK YOU ALL for sponsoring me and helping to raise circa. €23,000 For Riding for the disabled in the Algarve and PSP in the UK.

Love,
Orquidea