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Its been work as normal for the past week, although the first half hour of the 6.00 am wake up is brutal work is still fun. I had my horse changed a for a day. I was given a criollo that permanently wanted to fly and took the first opportunity to do so. I spent two hours trying to get him to brake by which time he had worked himself up into a white lather. Eventually he worked it out and became a bit more relaxed.
Last weekend (24th) we went into Juarez to watch a horse tournament. It was a load of horseman riding between bollards in a race. It was fun although I was not totally convinced by the quality of the horses, they seemed very jumpy, nowhere near the quality of the ones we have on the farm.
On 26th I went to town to change my boots, which had torn off a sole within the first day of using them, unfortunately they did not have the same light tan boots so I had to go with a slightly more understated pair of darker ones.
Today was (27th) a cracking day. The morning was a bit dull but then in the afternoon Marcelo and I went to (recorrer) look round the farm and check the cattle. It was pretty standard and me and Marcelo talked about horse breaking and the need for patience. Then towards the end he let me ride Alisan, their newest criollo, a small light brown number who was spectacular. The only difference between his gallop and canter was the speed, it was phenomenal!!!! Then we had to round up some cattle and Blanco started to come into his own with rounding up the cattle galloping around sin problemo. My riding is pretty complete now I think. God this is fun.
28th Main thing today was in the morning we woke up especially early (oh joy 5.30) and went to vaccinate some calves which had a type of debilitating disease we rounded them all up into one of the corners of the fields. I had a new horse (Paco, light greyish brown), which was brilliant but had a b**** of a canter, but a pretty good canter. I have worked out that the criollos whilst brilliant have a very difficult stride pattern when they canter. He worked well keeping the cattle in but it was hard work, and my saddle decided to give me gip.
29th Storming day again. The morning we were moving cattle (Marcelo and Juanjo and I), which was pretty simple, Blanco is really starting to get a handle on it and Eduardo reckons he has lost weight and I reckon he is getting a lot sharper. Then in the afternoon all of us went out except for Ramon and Martin, we were separating cattle that had changed fields and also moving the bulls. It was good work and plenty of galloping. My ability is improving no end and culminated in me helping to push a cow into another field, Blanco had a stormer reacting brilliantly. Jose is starting to get the hang of the camera so when we start vaccinating the cattle hopefully I will have some more good photos of me. As long as it does not rain Saturday, Monday and Tuesday look like the vaccination days for all the cattle, so plenty more riding to go.
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