The adventure started today. This has been one of the things we've anticipated the most on this trip. We're spending an entire week here in County Wicklow with one horse and this wooden wagon, known here as a
caravan. We had our training class today, will spend the night here tonight and then take off on our own in the morning. The trust thing seems so odd to us Yanks. They're letting us take and care for a horse for an entire week- and we're not horse people!
We need to pack up enough food for the week as grocery stores are not on the route says the brochure. We're takin' a whole lot o potatoes!
and we're off! so far everything is going smoothly. The traffic is a little faster than we had anticipated. Truck come whizzing by us at quite a clip. The girls don't notice but I find myself holding my breath each time.
When we get to our night #2 spot the other 2 couples that trained with us and set out the same day we did are already here. There are only the two of our caravans here in this huge field and what a view!! It is chilly though in the morning! We all had 'smokey mouth' when waking up. No one was interested in showering this morning. I have on 2 pairs of long underwear under my jeans. But the English couple in the other caravan are wearing shorts. ya, shorts.
It was great having the girls get experience with taking care of a horse. They've had very little horse exposure and are warming up to it quite well. I've been impressed with their self-initiation in getting out all the gear, food, and brushing. They have expressed great interest in living like this forever. "It's way better than living in a house" they say. hmmm...that's going to take a bit of convincing where I'm concerned! I'm feeling mighty proud of myself for doing a whole week, yet a lifetime. This is how many of the gypsies lived with oodles of children and throughout the winter. I keep reminding myself this is the warmest month of the year and I'm freezing most of the time. I cannot begin to imagine winter with a newborn plus 10 more in one of these things.
