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[RC] Linda in Abu Dhabi - Day 5 - Jay Randle

Hi Everybody

We had a bit of a slow start to the day today as the social calendar was
looking decidedly (and blessedly) bleak. The social secretary must have
forgotten about today as we had absolutely nothing planned and wasn’t it
good to have a few hours break mid-day and then not have to fly back to
the motel and get organised and head out again!

On the trip to the stables we stopped in at the service station to fill up
with fuel. They have a bowser monkey to do the work for you and these
services stations are always packed. If you don’t move off the minute the
man hands you back the change then horns start tooting and don’t stop
until you’ve pulled out of their way! Luckily for us there was a Baskin &
Robbins (or Buckskin & Rabbits according to Naomi) shop so we had the best
ice-creams there. I had a Love Potion 31 which was strawberry and vanilla
with big choc bits and a raspberry syrup. Very delicious! Naomi had a
very decadent chocolate drink and Kristie had the biggest cone you’ve ever
seen in your life with a couple of scoops of different flavoured
ice-cream.

Water bottle practise was on the cards again today and we had some fun
doing this with Kalahari starting to wriggle away or trying to canter off
again! Our ever present guardian must wonder what we are up to sometimes.
Every time we go out we are accompanied by a man in a ute but we’re not
too sure what is role is. Apart from occasionally flashing his lights at
some on-coming traffic he just tags along behind us. It makes it
absolutely impossible to have a squat if you’re caught short and need to
go to the loo on track as he always stays behind us.

Saw heaps of camels again with a mob of free running camels running along
the track. We saw two riders get off their horses and try to lead them
past the camels. The camels got a bit excited and started heading towards
the horses to investigate and that sent the horses skating sideways. The
riders were very lucky to hang onto the horses.

We decided that discretion was going to be the better part of valour with
Kalahari who already was up on her toes doing the spaz attack walk! We
headed off the track and gave the camels a wide berth. Some of the camels
started running off and the men following them were chasing them back with
the camels. Combine this with the water truck and the graders doing the
track and the girl coming behind us on the horse that was going crazy and
it was absolute mayhem but very, very funny. Well, probably only for
Naomi and I who were laughing ourselves silly watching all the horses
going every which way.

Once the workout was finished we were able to return to the motel for some
chill time. It was great to be able to have a bit of quiet time although
I had a lot of emails to catch up on. The internet connection here is
really crook – you have to pay about $10 per hour and you can only log on
once. If you don’t use the full hour then you lose whatever unused
balance you have! It is such a rip off and I’ve spent about $50 already
on internet access.

After the afternoon chill we headed back out to the stables. This
afternoon we needed to give the horses a good long in-hand walk so we
headed out and spent 1 ½ hours walking. We travelled a fair distance in
this time as Kalahari is a strong walker. On the way back Kristie showed
up at the top of the hill with some refreshments for us. Naomi was behind
me and decided to do a sneak attack by running up the hill. I caught on
just at the last and we had a dash to the top with Kalahari and I winning
by a very short margin. We then stood there for a while catching our
breaths and laughing at our stupidity!

Back to the stables with the horses, give them their night feed and then
we headed back to the motel. Dinner was the usual fare – salads, hot
meals, soup, about 8 different breads and heaps and heaps of different
desserts. We are pigging out big time on the desserts and I’m thinking of
becoming a HWT.

We retired to bed after that and I got a call at 9.30 p.m. advising that
someone from the Duabi Equestrian Club was here and needed to see me. I
went out and Jolanda, who is helping with the organisation of the event,
had arrived and had jackets and caps for us. The smallest jacket was a
medium so I grabbed four of them. We also were given a bright green cap –
very bright and I’m not sure I’ll be wearing it anywhere!

So that’s it for another day over here.

Cheers

Linda



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