Update

I have decided to extend my stay here in the US by two weeks! Emma has kindly invited me to go with her family to Myrtle Beach (in South Carolina) for a week in June, so I will now be coming home on 16th June. I'll be sad to leave Avalo but am looking forward to spending a week at the beach and to seeing another part of the state. The time has gone so quickly, I can't believe I'm half way through my stay already!

Poppy with her blue ribbon (1st place)

Trail ride

We have had a busy week here. More cross country schooling for Emma and Michelle (where I took photos again) and they also went to an event last weekend where I photographed and helped with the horses. They both won their divisions again! One afternoon six of us (Michelle, Emma, Anni, Maude the new French working student, Michelle's friend Anna and me) went on a long trail ride to the big field where we can canter. I rode Teddy who hasn't been on a trail ride in a long time and she seemed happy to be out and quite eager to go! On Teddy at the farm I have also been riding without a halter or bridle which is cool. When doing this I have to steer using body weight and (if all else fails) the stick- first I turn my head, then turn my body, and then if she still doesn't respond squeeze with my leg, and if she still doesn't respond then wave the stick near her nose so she turns away from it. We did a fun exercise off the horse where one of us gets down on our hands and knees and the other sits on their back so we can see what certain things feel like to the horse. As the 'horse' you can feel which way the person being the rider wants to turn just by them turning their head, and when the rider looks down or leans forward it adds so much weight to the horse's back! If you straighten your back, tuck your pelvis under you and look up it feels so much lighter to the horse and it is much easier for them to go forwards.
I do feel like I'm improving, especially playing with the horses on-line. Now that I know the basics and have a bit of practice I can deal with problems much more easily, and this means that both me and the horse are more relaxed. I would really like to try some of what I've learnt with horses I know in England.

Casanova

On Monday, Dr Ridgeway, a vet who travels around doing acupuncture and chiropractic work (among other alternative methods) on horses, came to the farm. He was here to look at Casanova, one of Michelle's event horses, who has stomach ulcers and had been very crooked in his body at his last competition. I was a bit sceptical of acupuncture before, but it seemed to really work on Cas. Dr Ridgeway would press on certain muscles in his back that would spasm if they were tight (Cas was very tight on his right side) and then he'd put a needle in somewhere else in his body and press the muscle again, and it wouldn't spasm because it was now loose and relaxed. It was really interesting to watch and hopefully will help Cas.

In the trailer

On Tuesday we all went to Charleston for the day, which is a couple of hours' drive away. We got up extra early to feed hoping we would leave by 7.30, but the truck had a flat tyre so we ended up not leaving until 9.30. We dropped a horse home who had been here for training on the way, and Emma, Anni and I rode in the trailer instead of the truck as there was more space there! We weren't in the section the horses go in but the bit where you put the equipment which meant we could lie down and sleep! Charleston is really nice. We went downtown first to a covered market (someone at one of the stalls said I sounded like I had an American accent..?!) and to look around the shops. We then drove around an area that has some really nice houses in it on our way to the beach. Steve, Michelle's husband, loves fish and fishing, so when we all went in the sea at the beach he took a little net and caught some anchovies. Near the beach is a marshy river area where he showed us how to cast a shrimp net. Despite not catching anything I found it really fun. It is something that I never imagined I would learn how to do! The others caught some tiny shrimp and 3 crabs. We went to Steve's parents' house for dinner which was nice.

Charleston

Charleston is very different looking to Aiken, or at least the bit of Aiken I have seen which is only the shopping area. Charleston is fairly old (for America) and pretty, and I think a bit European looking, whereas Aiken has lots of very wide, straight roads and seems totally built for the consumer. The shops in Aiken are all huge and each have their own big car parks that you drive between. I don't even know if there are pavements as I've never set foot on one, and I haven't seen a single cyclist. We went to a charity shop (or 'thrift store') yesterday that was enormous! The same size as a lot of mainstream high street shops would be in England. There are loads of churches in the area around the farm and Aiken, and what seems really weird is that they are all modern buildings. It seems silly to realise this but of course churches don't have to be old, they just are in England!

Sunburn! 

It has been hot this week, around 35 degrees celsius. I think I'm getting used to the heat, but I still got horrendously sunburnt last week! There is now a pool up in the garden that we can use, so we go in most days to cool off. Today we had a lesson in the evening instead of during the day so that it was cooler. We did some really fun things like trying to get onto the horse bareback- it's a lot harder than it looks!

Emma, Anni and I bought matching rings in Charleston

Really big charity shop