Can't. Keep. Up.

My time and energy to write is failing to keep up with all the things that are happening! So here is my cop-out with a list and teaser of coming attractions:

We finish our Ecuador trip with the most spectacular day that it is possible to experience inside the wild, amazing Cotopaxi National Park. The expanses of high grass and beautiful silence are simply beyond imagination.

Solo and I choose our new dressage saddle. We do not have it in hand yet, but there are some little English elves hard at work in a factory right now!

We also completed an amazing long format clinic with Becky Holder this weekend, fresh off her beautiful performance with Comet at the WEG's a week ago. Important lessons were learned: (1) Becky Holder has the cutest dog in the world. (2) If one leans forward during steeplechase jumps, carnage ensues (oh, this is a good story, you'll like this one). (3) Solo's booty CAN be engaged to great effect. Thanks to some VERY kind and generous co-clinic-ers, we even have pictures!!

Now, all I need is an eensy bit of free time to write all that in. Waiting....waiting....

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Day 6.1: The Running Of The Bulls

I also learned that Sam loved one thing more than anything else: running. And he loved something else even more than that: running while chasing bovines. So when the bulls were turned loose after a vaccinating session, his ears about popped off with excitement. You can almost hear him gasping Want, waaaaaaaantttt....

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Day 6: A New Landscape

When we left, I was tucking myself in at the Hacienda San Francisco. In the morning, we had to meet the van again to connect with Sally, who owns the outfitting company, and make our way to our new horses. We bumped around the edge of the valley and through the tinted window, I caught the first glance of what was to be a constant companion and undefinable presence for the next three days: Cotopaxi, which at 5,897 m (19,347 ft) towers as the second highest volcano in Ecuador (Chimborazo is the highest at 20,560 ft and just for reference, the summit of Everest sits at 29,035 ft).

In front of a chapel on a rutted road awaited our partners. I was introduced to Sam, a striking buckskin around 15.3 or so with a keen attitude and a strong will. One part English Thoroughbred, one part freight train, one part friendly companion, and one part enthusiasm.

Mum was paired with a very solid citizen named Jalisco.  (Yeah, it's HARD taking pictures from the back of a horse.  You try documenting nine days while never standing still!)

Anna found herself with a little liver chestnut named Alverito who was the very definition of his breed, a Peruvian Paso.  Although apparently from the back of Sam, he is the size of a Shetland pony.

An English volunteer, Hannah, brought up the rear with Caesar, who would be our chagra for the remainder of the trip. Hannah started out with one of Sally's experiments, a dark bay Hanoverian who Sally had brought down to see if the heavier horses did well at altitude (they don't). She led Anamike, a dappled grey Arab mare, while Caesar, riding the improbably named grey, General Pintag (it's a bus route in town apparently), ponied our familiar other-grey friend, Gitano (Anna rode him on the first half of the trip -- Gitano, not Caesar).

Our goal for the day was to ride south towards Cotopaxi, where we would arrive at the night's lodgings. It soon became apparent that we were in a whole 'nother world from what we experienced north of Quito. There was much more vegetation and livestock had flesh on their bones. It was greener and fresher and felt more...enriched, and yet at the same time, more wild. And Cotopaxi itself peeked out at us, flirting from behind the rolling hills.

Soon, we passed through a gate into a private hacienda. And by hacienda, I mean a massive ranch that sprawled across what was probably square miles. The owner bred (of course) Spanish fighting bulls and grazed them on the high meadows around Cotopaxi. Check out that pasture view.

Then, suddenly, we are on a high, tawny meadow. And I canter on, the snowy cone of Cotopaxi ahead of me, an entire alley of volcanoes, some extinct, some merely sleeping, surrounding me. It is almost pure bliss (if I didn't have to use every dressage muscle in my body to half halt Sam and convince him this was NOT a horse race), tinged only by the realization that I can only truly capture it in memory. Nothing else could hold its grandeur.

General Pintag really likes his job today. Gitano is just happy that no one is riding him!

Mum and I pose for posterity with Sam and Jalisco. One cannot pass by a Kodak vista!!  But I don't know why the volcano looks all weird behind us.  Perhaps the spirits are angry...

Anna and Alverito want some camera time too!

Caesar and the grey boys only make the landscape look even better.

We are getting close to the national park now and the land betrays its own past. Dirt becomes pumice and boulder fields are strewn across the slopes from the last lava flow that Cotopaxi threw into the skies.

The mountain over Anna's shoulder is Cincilagua. Which I have probably spelled wrong. We could never remember its name, so I called it Chinchilla instead. I longed to see a wild chincilla, but apparently they do not live this far north in the Andes. I had to settle for hungry puppies. Not quite as heartwarming.

The road in the last picture is the road down to our lodge, a sort of chalet called Chilcabamba. And what it lacked in facilities, it did manage to make up for in scenery...which you now have to wait for the next post to see.

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A Brief Update

I will interject again with a brief Solo update!  Because this is the Solo blog!  So I must talk about Solo!

Hmmm, I think my blood sugar is too low and it makes me crazy(er than normal).

So, since we have a ton of stuff coming up in October, including big horse trial, our dressage saddle decided to enter the phase of catastrophic-failure-to-fit-at-all. Fitter (#4) tried valiantly for a total of about five hours. Bless her. It is now to the phase of adequate-but-still-kinda-sucky (these are scientifically verified phases, I swear). To my dismay and horror, we must (a) replace saddle or (b) not ride.

Since (b) will result in descent into never-ending despair that terminates only with inability to keep breathing, I am forced to choose (a).

Now I must find the perfect dressage saddle before October 28th. And in all, likelihood, I will have to ride in the sucky one at our clinic coming up next weekend. Argh. The timing on these things...

Other than that, Operation Belly Burner has been 95% completed with success. Our hemoglobin problem is under construction, Dr. Bob has declared our supplement choice an excellent one after reading the ingredients and we are due to check blood count in late October. Solo's feet are hanging in there, surviving a dry Carolina late summer by the grace of Keratex.

I still think we are going to need fairy dust to get October to go off the way I'd like it to!

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Day 5: Halfway And A Goodbye

It was a slow start this morning, so I spent it wandering out to the breeding stock paddocks and petting the faces of the young stallions.  Eventually, though, we made it out the gate and I began my last ride with Capuli.  The track today would lead us over the mountains to the town of Olmedo.  We wound up and down the mountainsides and took a lovely canter weaving and darting through lines of planted gum trees and up a switchback road bordering more grasslands.  In the distance, we could see the snow-covered dome of Cayambe.  As we came down towards Olmedo, more and more agriculture sprung up as well, from wheat and potatoes to lupine.

Lunchtime found us in the central park of Olmeda -- right during the school recess. Swarms of giggling children engulf the horses in wide-eyed delight. With my non-existent repertoire of conversational Spanish, I can only smile at them blankly.

Then it's time to hug goodbye to the horses who have become our friends. They, however, look relieved to be rid of us and ready for a good nap.

Now it's time to pile into the van and cross the Equator on the way to the Hacienda San Francisco, where we will spend the night. I am surprised that the woman manning the facilities at the equatorial display has a very good presentation when we stop off to check things out. I learn that here, just across the valley on the shoulders of Cayambe, is the only place in the world where the equator crosses a glacier. It's certainly the most interesting line I have ever visited.

Late in the afternoon, we pull into the San Francisco. It's a lovely place, as they all are. Lots of interesting things to look at tucked into nooks and crannies. We are heart-broken when no hot water bottles appear though, we have been so spoiled! I opt to sleep in my fleece. We also bid goodbye to Gaspar and Christian -- tomorrow we will meet Sally, who owns the outfit and who will guide us for the rest of the trip.

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