14 and holidays
So on the 9th and 10th December, Maria(my riding instructor) and I went on a riding holiday to Amigos Horse Ranch in Pasir Gudang in Johor. In the morning I went to the stables to help out, and got to ride Sharpy, though the girl was most probably having PMS and wouldn’t budge, but she began kicking at me too. I blame it on the back arenas’ ground. So after that we said farewell to the people at horsecity, except Mr B, else he calls us traitors. My dad sent us to the checkpoint and then we had a taxi pick us up from the petrol station that sent us to the hotel. We met up with Mos, the ranch owner, who may seem a little stern and quiet at first, but he’s actually a pretty funny guy. We ate lunch together and then went to check out our room. For some reason, we were giving member’s lodging. Gosh the room was magnificent! My entire bedroom could fit inside the bathroom. We had 2 TVs in the room, fitted with a DVD and CD player. So we had a tad delay trying to open the damn safe.
After that we went to find Mos at his ranch. Situated a short distance away from the golf resort, there was a world of difference. While the hotel was grand and luxurious, the ranch was near kampong ground which had every single domesticated animal you could find, except livestock. So we saw dogs, cats, chickens, boars and ofc, horses. The first horses we got were Royale and Ziba. My word, these horses are strong. I rode Ziba first and he was fast. We were put in a circular paddock so that we rode in a circle. Ziba would constantly collide with Royale’s butt, but Royale didn’t seem to mind a bit. He would only slow down if I a) put him in the lead or b) pull and hold darn hard.
Later we switched horses cause Royale had a leg problem. Maria took Ziba this time and I got Hachiko, a sweet-mannered beginner’s horse which I got to practice my sitting trot on. Maria was cantering Ziba, ofc. Later we moved to the big arena, which was prolly the size of the school field. I did trotting and walking only, since I couldn’t do the canter. Instead of cones, we used chairs instead to practice change in direction, so it was a bit funny. Mos let us ride an extra hour, and then we got off.
As for dinner, we were joined by Mos’s girlfriend-of-sorts, who was an avid rider as well. We went to this seafood restaurant located near the sea (duh) which faced Pulau Ubin. Seafood there was great. The best thing I remembered was the salty egg yolk crab, not something that can be easily found in Singapore. The worst thing I remembered was the apple juice that had added sour plum powder. The restaurant had all sorts of animals too: monkies, chickens, geese, fish, rabbits, parrots, dogs etc.
We drove back at around 10pm (never knew time passed so quickly). Maria and I returned to our rooms and we talked and ranted alot before falling asleep. Though the bed was comfortable, I’d say I didn’t sleep much due to the excitement and anticipation for the next day’s events. There were weird noises like water falling onto wooden surfaces and birds screeching. I’d just pretend I didn’t hear any of those.
The next morning I sorta woke up to the sound of UVERworld’s ‘Hakanaku no Towa blablabla” , which Maria had so conveniently set as her alarm. Btw, I forgot to bring my handphone during this trip, so imagine the inconvenience I had!
Later we headed to the main floor to have a continental breakfast, then went to the ranch to meet Mos. We prepared to go on a jungle trail ride!
Me: For the jungle trail ride, where are we going?
Mos: To the jungle!
So anyway, Mos’s assistant, Rocky followed us, because Mos and Maria are more likely to canter off, so at least there’ll be someone to stay behind to trot with me. We went uphill, downhill, through the lalang, through the palm plantations with its puddles full of tiny frogs, to the beach which hostile stray dogs and into downright ulu-ness. Mos was feeling unwell, so he decided to return first. For the rest of the journey, Rocky showed us around. When we returned to the lalang area, Rocky decided to let me canter on Hachiko. It amazes me that my first time cantering is not in a school arena, but out in an open field in the wild! Nonetheless, Hachiko was very cooperative and gave me his maximum trot before going into a canter. For some reason, I wasn’t nervous and I could feel like I could trust the horse. Maria was once again on Ziba and even though she waited far behind until Rocky and I were up ahead, Ziba caught up in a matter of strides. That silly ol’ boy.
When we returned, Maria and I went back to our room for a quick shower and to check out. We were quite reluctant to leave. We headed down to join Mos for lunch, since his stomach proved ok. After that we went to the ranch to ride some more. Maria and I paid for 1hr and 30 min of riding, Mos let us ride for 3 hours. I also got to try Jet, who disliked having something behind him and began kicking when Maria (on a horse called Beauty) came a little too close for comfort. There was a free roaming horse that was called Marshall, who had some health issues. He liked coming close to my horse and walking side by side with me, then he’ll just walk to the shower area and wait for someone to shower him. If there isn’t anyone free to shower him, he gets depressed and leaves the shower area reluctantly.
There’s also a stallion pony there by the name of “ Ding Dong”, mainly because he has his manhood intact. He shares a stable with Royale, since they’re best buds. Mos let him out after that, and then he and Marshall wandered off in the forest to “have a conference with the wild boars”, as quoted by Mos. It’s funny to see horse and pony get along so well. The horses there are very well-mannered, almost like giant dogs. They go towards Mos or Rocky whenever they’re near, and they know how to head to the shower area by themselves and stand there while being washed without being cross tied.
Before we left, Mos gave us an Iranian horse charm, a horse stuffed toy and a whip for me. While the lessons may be expensive, we still got overtime, but in the end, I’d still say that this is money well spent.
We headed home after that, but we definitely will be going again some time soon.
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14 is not a lucky number.
Maria and I went prawning after work yesterday. I could have seriously embarrassed myself fighting with the hook. The bait we used was chicken heart and worms, which were zombified I tell you. It was costly, $25 for 2 hours, but it’ll be $30 for 3 hours. Maria caught the first prawn, but she was clumsy and dropped the whole holding net with that prawn into the pond. When I caught my first prawn, it pinched me so darn hard, I had red streaks at the pinched areas. It was quite funny putting them on the floor and pulling their pincers out. I stayed at the same spot all the while, since there was food at where we sat (I’m a glutton) and in total I caught 9 prawns~ one of which was fairly huge. Unfortunately, Maria didn’t manage to catch much, so she ended up giving me her prawns.
This is actually quite fun. ^____^ I might just want to go again~