A message from another World....

Some of you may have read about my Shaman Ceremony at Macchu Piccu with Adrian my Shaman and if you haven't go to blog titled Macchu Piccu 21st December so you get the whole picture!

At the end of my ceremony I had a message from another world...I had a message from a little beastie, well actually it was quite big!!

At the time both Adrian and I called it a Centipede but now I have looked at the  picture and looked it up on google, this is a Millipede - how amazing is that!  Adrian had just been telling me how our Angels appear in different forms with messages and to look out for them when this wee cutie appeared in the grass next to us and Adrian immediately said to me - 'you have many feet and will travel, that is your message'.  Well those of you that know me even when I am not on a 6 week tour of a continent then I am usually off somewhere - my best friend lives in USA so I am lucky I get to go over there whenever I can and I get to travel a lot with my work so this really made sense at the time but I have done a bit of googling into what the spiritual meaning of Millipedes might be and this is what I found....

- Centipedes and millipedes alert us to new psychic environments and connections and to new and previously 

unrecognized psychic relationships. They also appear to alert us to any possible pitfalls within those relationships. 

Theirs is the energy of quiet protection in psychic exploration - 

That means so much more to me in the way things are than the traveling message from Adrian - I am sure travel is included in the message the Millipede was giving but to have quiet protection from this wee cutie makes total sense.  I am sure I will learn about the psychic relationships I need protection for or from!  I have been pushing forward in the psychic world, recently becoming a Master of Mediumship, so it makes sense that I need protection whilst doing this.  I am keen to do some platform work so will definitely need quiet protection for that!

It also shows that what is presented as a brilliant message from another world can change and lead to something else so we should always look a bit deeper into whatever messages we get.  I will continue to ask my Millipede Guardian for further clarification and I promise to keep you posted on whatever develops.

I am going through all my photos from my trip and will post blogs on various things things that spring to mind and of info I have to share and promise to do a blog with the highlights which will be mostly photos some of which you won't have seen as they were taken on my big canon camera.

suzxxx

Paraty-Rio-London-Glasgow-The Wadlin - Home safe and sound!

Home safe and sound but bag less!  Can you believe my bag made it through 5 south american countries, 14 flights, loads of buses and a couple of trains and it's between Heathrow and Glasgow that my bag goes missing!  I laughed when the woman at the desk told me my bag hadn't made it! She was very surprised, I don't think she has ever had someone laugh when they get the news that their bag hasn't made it to its destination!

Some of you will remember at the start of my trip there was a chance my bag wasn't going to make it to Chile because I had to change my flight and instead of going via Madrid I went via Sao Paulo and they really didn't think my bag would make the change as there was only 40 minutes but it did and it was a bit of a miracle so if this is Karma balancing all the positive force that was put into getting my bag to Santiago then I totally accept it, coming home and my bag being a bit behind me isn't a problem at all - at least I get to delay the HUGE wash that I will have to do - although some of my clothes should just be incinerated after 6 weeks of travelling, even though I did wash my clothes it was always by hand and usually with warmish or cold water so there are definitely some bits of clothing that will need a 95 degree wash or just put in the bin!

Fortunately Raul, my monkey, and Fernando, my Parrot, were in Mark's Suitcase so I have put them out in the conservatory - aren't they so cute?  I think they will be very happy living here!

My cats were pleased to see me too - Dexy enjoyed a big cuddle and a BIG head rub

and Finnley slept on my head all night, although that might be because we have run out of oil so there is no heating so we had a wee electric heater on in the bedroom so it was the hottest place in the house!!!

I will write another blog on the trip - the highlights etc but will get the house, animals and my washing sorted first - just thought I would let you all know I am home safe and sound after an amazing 6 weeks.

And of course I will continue to blog about my experiences as a trainee healer so please keep checking in.

suzxxx

Riding with Raul - Day 41

Today started with me having to run up into town to pay for our new transfer to Rio airport for tomorrow because the company I had booked with emailed saying they couldn't do the transfer any more which is really shite as it was fully paid up front but fortunately through paypal so I know I will get my money back.

So I had to get to the tour company to pay the full amount and then get back to the hotel as Raul my riding partner for the morning was meeting me at 10am.  So I ran up into town to do that while Mark had a leisurely morning - he didn't come riding with me choosing to let me go off and have some adventure while he sat by the pool topping up his sunburn (the pair of us are like a couple of burnt lobsters!!)

So I got all that done and met with Raul and headed off to the horses - Raul has a small horse riding business but offering more adventure than most - with the promise of at least one gallop!  The one thing I haven't done since being back riding is to gallop!  The last time I galloped would have been about 14 years ago on a lunatic horse called Mulder - we went on a trip to the beach with the riding school and this lunatic hoofed it down the beach like a galloping loony and then turned immediately and galloped like a loony back!  not my finest moment of horse riding it has to be said!  I clung on for dear life and then had to switch horses because he really was difficult to handle!

Anyway my horse Little (Big) Jack was nothing like that, although he was a strong horse with his own mind and very bouncy in trot but a good solid horse.  He is an ex jumper so he wasn't used to some of the hills we too (Raul has only had him for a year) so he was sweating within the first 10 minutes through the hard labour as we went through the mountainside but he was always willing for a canter and when we got to gallop its unfortunate I got a bit scared - he is such a big fast horse that his gallop felt just a bit too fast and as we were heading past Raul at top speed I said to him 'he is a bit too fast!' and Raul responded 'well just tell him to slow down!' simple but true!  I was letting Little Jack take the lead but I had only been riding him for about 30 minutes when we went into the gallop so we hadn't really sussed each other out yet but as I reigned Little Jack in he slowed his gallop and then we went into a fast canter.  But I galloped even if it was just for a short time it was amazing to do - I AM BACK IN THE SADDLE!!! although saying that I used to really love jumping and I haven't been back to that yet but give me time!

Raul and I had great chats about training horses and how you have to listen to the horse and learn from it, we must not be forceful. I totally love Raul for loving his horses so much that he won't ever use force to train them in a way they don't want to go.  don't get me wrong we shouldn't accept bad behaviour from our horses but being a gentle leader is such a great thing or in fact being a 'Passive Leader' which is something that Mark Rashid writes about in the book I am reading at the moment 'Horses Never lie'.  If you own a horse, want to work with horses or just love horses you have to read this book - he is a true horseman - none of this Monty Roberts pish who forces horses to give up.  Mark Rashid writes about how we cannot be the alpha leader in a horse herd - WE ARE NOT HORSES - SIMPLE!  Its the same as dogs, why do people think they can be the Alpha Leader in a pack of dogs - YOU ARE NOT A DOG SO YOU CANNOT BE THE LEADER OF THE PACK!

Animals accept us as part of their life but they don't accept us as being the same as them!  Horses and dogs are usually happy to go along with a lot of what we offer as human beings as we make their lives a little easier but they know we are not the same kind as them so they are never going to follow us as alpha leaders but Mark Rashid's idea that you can be a Passive Leader which is someone who the horses and dogs want to follow is something I totally sign up to.  My dogs, Chip, Poppy and Molly wanted to follow me, they loved what I could give them - freedom, playing with the ball, treats and of course dinner.  I never beat my dogs, I very rarely raised my voice and in fact when I was trying to rehabilitate Mad Molly I never once reprimanded her for biting me - many people thought I was mad but I was ignoring the bad behaviour and praising the good behaviour so when she didn't bite me she got lots of love and attention and when she did bite or growl I turned my back on her - it worked and she and I had a much better time together because of it.  But I am classed as a 'soft trainer' because of the way I work with animals but is that not good?  I would hate it if people talked about me as a hard trainer.  Animals are part of our lives and we love them so why do we feel the need to be hard on them because they do not give us the behaviour we demand - horses that must stand absolutely still when we want them too, horses that jump huge jumps because we want them to not because they want to and horses that we need to win races - beating them isn't going to make them do it better but loving them is and showing kindness is.

Anyway that's my view and blog rant over!!! Mind you I start my Equine Behaviour Diploma this year so there may be more ranting to come!!

So back to the day and Raul and I were up off into the mountains and after about an hour of riding we stopped at a beautiful waterfall and got off to have a look - I hadn't brought my swimming costume so didn't go in but Raul using this place as his own swimming pool - pretty beautiful isn't it?  but it reminded me of home - I have a few waterfalls just like it in my woods, I am so lucky!!!

this was the view the other way down the river - absolutely stunning but looks just like the Maich Water!

We got back on the horses and headed up the hill towards the Distillery we were due to visit - how amazing to turn up to a distillery to in a minibus or car but on the back of a horse!!! that is so the way to do sightseeing!

This is the inside workings of a Cachaca distillery - its sugar cane that is made into alcohol - it taste GOOD!

I had a couple of tasters although I have been drinking it a lot in Brazil in Caipirinha which is the local drink - its lots of limes, lime juice with Cachaca and sugar - mmmmmmmmm and very refreshing.

One of the distilled Cachacas they do is with cinnamon - it was really delicious - I can imagine its good in coffee so some Brazilian Coffees coming with the Argentine Empanadas when we get home!!!

After the distillery we headed off down the mountain back towards Paraty but thats when it got exciting as we got to cross the river - it had been raining all night so it was deeper than Raul had expected - I was ok because Little Jack is actually quite big so my feet didn't get wet but the water was filling Raul's wellies!!  We crossed the river at one point then road up onto the main road which was quite busy with traffic - another horse riding fear of mine is riding on the main road but it was fine and the traffic stopped to let me cross - that would never happen at home!!!  we then went passed some posh houses then back into the river, this time it was so deep we couldn't take the usual exit Raul would take and had to push the horses up a really steep embankment to avoid the bit of the river that would have made us all very very wet.

I loved riding with Raul, it did push me a bit out of my comfort zone and thats the good thing about it.  Little Jack was a big bouncy strong horse but I learned to work with him and he worked with me.  It was 3 hours of great fun and a great way to end my 6 week holiday - I have been riding in Chile, twice,   Argentina, twice, and now Brazil.  I never managed to ride in Peru or Bolivia but next time....

The only thing about the day was I had to wear my rucksack which was bothering my sunburn especially when we were trotting because Little Jack was so bouncy so I have taken the top layer of skin off my shoulder so it is really painful - I didn't realise until I had got back to the hotel and sprayed suntan lotion on my shoulder - OUCH - that was f*cking sore!  I headed into the swimming pool to stop it stinging and wash the oil off and also to cool myself down as I was roasting after my riding experience.

This is the view back towards Paraty - we had travelled a fair bit...

here is proof we rode through the river!  horses head in shot to prove it!!!  We rode down the side and then crossed just beyond the fallen tree on the right hand side.

Here I am with my big smiley horse riding race!!!

After riding I headed back to meet  Mark at the pool and relax and have a few beers - its our last proper day of holiday as tomorrow is a whole day of travelling.  We then headed into town to my favourite italian restaurant for a big pizza and a couple of drinks although first we had to go and find the monkey that I wanted to buy that I had seen in a shop on the first day we arrived - don't panic its not a real monkey but a really beautiful wooden hanging one that I fell in love with so it took us a wee while of methodically searching the Paraty streets for the shop but after an hour we found it and the monkey is coming home to scotland - he will live in my conservatory and I am sure he will be very happy there.  I also bought a big parrot - wooden again but he will also be very happy in my conservatory!!!

Can't believe 6 weeks has gone - it hasn't gone too fast but if I didn't have all my responsibilities at home and I had the money I could quite easily keep travelling.  I have loved my 6 weeks and all of the different things I have seen and done.  it has been truly amazing and I know I am very lucky.

suzxxx

ps.  meant to add this nice pic of the beach tonight after it had rained - looks very scottish don't you think?!

Out on the boat - Day 40

We headed off after breakfast to go and find our boat - well first we had to find the pier!! luckily Paraty only has one pier so it was easy to find.  Then we had to find our boat - the pier was full of people and their boats selling tours of the islands but we were booked onto Banzay - yup the same name as that crazy Japanese tv endurance programme on the telly - I was really hoping we wouldn't have to swim through mud then eat worms before we could get on the boat!!!

Luckily we found our boat and didn't have to do any tricks to get on board - well all they wanted was the trick of opening my purse and paying for it!!!

The boat wasn't too packed either so we got a couple of seats on the main deck - we didn't want to sit up on the top deck as we were sunburned enough!  The boat headed off passing lots of tiny islands on the way - they looked fab!  great places to hide away from everything!!  there are 365 islands in this area big and small.

Here I am with some of the islands in the background and also wearing my famous orange scarf!! Mark commented on how I seemed to have worn it every day I have been away - well it has saved me from some severe sunburn in Chile (wish I had been wearing it yesterday) and it has helped me breathe through the dusty mountains of Chile and it has kept the rain off my head in Macchu Piccu - it also can be used as a top, a skirt or a dress - what more do you want from a scarf.... my favourite piece of clothing by far!

Thankfully the sea wasn't too choppy - I had my sick bands on but didn't need them at all, very pretty scenery...

The boat stopped a couple of times to let everyone in the water for a swim - it was actually not too cold and was beautiful and crystal clear.  We went on shore using the wee dingy which I made a complete tit of myself the second time by falling out of the boat - luckily I had left my camera, phone and wallet behind on the second trip otherwise more than my pride would had been damaged!!!  Mark was to hand to help me up to my feet although you could tell he really wanted to laugh but since I had hurt my leg in the fall onto the sea bed he had to stifle it and show concern instead!!  The wee boat driver didn't stifle anything and had a good old laugh to himself...fucker!

Here is my very own daniel craig walking purposely out of the sea!  Mark was swimming with his tshirt on, as was I, because of our sunburned bodies!  Thats our boat behind Mark.

I was starving when we got back but we needed to find an ATM as I have booked for me to go horse riding tomorrow so needed to get more cash out so we headed off to do that first before I could get anything to eat - as usual I had to try three different banks before I got money - my bank is owned by HSBC - one of the biggest banks in the world, surely it must be easier to get money from other banks?!!

As we arrived at a restaurant it started to rain so a good excuse for a couple of Chopps (draft lager) and a chickpea and aubergine sandwich for me.

I am off riding with Raul tomorrow while Mark has a restful morning in the jacuzzi.  Really looking forward to riding as I haven't ridden in Brazil yet!

suzxxx

Paraty - Day 38 and 39

The journey from Buenos Aires to Paraty felt like a long one.  We got up at 3.30am for our transfer to the airport to check in at 4am for our flight to Sao Paulo and once in Sao Paulo we had 2 hours to wait for our bus to Paraty which took 5 hours and for 3 of those hours we were going down sharp twisty bends, I had my sick bands on which is just as well as there were a few times I thought I might have puked my guts up over the lovely smiley drivers back!

We got to Paraty at about 2pm but I went straight for a lie down as my stomach was still on the come down from the twisty bends!  I didn't really get much rest as there was a Brato screaming his head off in the pool which is next to our room but once I felt better we headed over the road to the beach for a big plate of Batatas Frites - or chips!  they went down a storm as did some of Marks beer - I was definitely on the mend.

We headed off into the town - our hotel is about 2km from the main town so we walked up the hill.  Paraty is a World Heritage site and the main streets are car free which is just as well as the cobbles are pretty hard to navigate - not cobbles like we know them but huge boulders cemented into the ground and when it rains its a nightmare to walk on but its a really pretty little town.

The town is surrounded by mountains - which is why we had such a twisty turny journey in...

and the buildings were really pretty and well looked after - here is one of the main streets.   Paraty town is not very big but is full of lots of shops - mostly selling crafty stuff.  I have fallen in love with a wooden hanging monkey so will have to go and find that shop again to buy it to bring home!

I don't know what they were celebrating in Paraty on Friday night but they had music on a big bandstand and also some mad scary puppets dancing around the streets with all the people following - it was nice to sit and have a drink and watch it all even if we didn't know what it was all about.

The next day we stayed by the pool all day and have the sun burn to prove it!! it was pretty cloudy all day and we did have factor 20 on but just shows the power of a sun even behind the clouds!  One of my legs is really badly burnt - you can see where I sprayed the oil but didn't rub it in so I look like I have got some dreadful disease as I am all red and white patches!  Thank goodness for Aloe Vera though, lucky I brought I big tube of it - it will sort out the burnt bits and hopefully we won't peel!

It was nice to sit and do nothing for once!  I have been pretty active for the last 6 weeks with the odd morning to have a long lie so it was great to just not move and we had the pool to ourselves as everyone else at the hotel seemed to be out on tours so it was nice and peaceful and nice for it just to be the two of us.

Mark and his fake smile enjoying the jacuzzi!

and here I am enjoying the pool - so glad I didn't have my bikini on - more bits that would have been burnt!!!!

Later on we headed into town for something to eat - I had spaghetti arrabiata - my favourite and it was delicious.  They had some music on the main stage so we listened to a couple of sets of Ceefax music before heading up the road - we made it back to the hotel before the thunder and lighting started - it was pretty epic, well apparently... I was asleep within 5 minutes of getting back to the hotel, must be the sunburn!!!

We are off on a boat round some of the islands tomorrow so that should be fun.

suzxxx

The Argentinian Falls - Day 36 and 37

We were both very sad to leave Buenos Aires - it was a great city, so easy to get around.  It is a grid system so you never get lost and the Metro system was so straightforward it was nearly as easy as the one in glasgow.

We had such a lovely apartment too with a great Landlord - Juan, who was on holiday from work so every time we saw him he looked like he had been up all night drinking and as it turned out he usually had!  Palermo Soho was the area we stayed in an I would highly recommend it, really nice area to walk around at night with no worries and lots of bars and restaurants - didn't have an ATM that worked though!  my only problem with BA was how difficult it was to get money out of a bank but Rio was a little bit like that too.

We headed off to catch our lunchtime flight to Puerto Igauco which is the Argentinian side of the falls we saw last week.

We arrived at the hotel too late to head to the falls so instead we headed to the pool and I booked in for a massage - yippee!!! I love when I have time for a massage!  I had a beautiful hot stone massage and was on another planet when I went out to meet Mark at the pool although he was tucking into the local beer so he was quite happy.  I think everyone should have a massage at least once a month - its so important to help you relax but it also helps to eliminate toxins out of the body, if you have a massage regularly it can also help you to lose weight - when I have a weekly Manual Lymph Drainage massage I usually lose about 2lbs a week.  Now thats my idea of going on a diet - lying on a table and someone massaging me.

We went off the the falls the next day, getting the local bus up to the national park.

Is this where 'Somewhere over the rainbow' came from?  not often we are above a rainbow.....  Don't think these people even realised the special position they were in....

he's a big boy! a huge iguana just walking by us - not even acknowledging us !!!

here I am touching the rainbow - is that rude?!  thank god I wasn't wear white as I think I might have taken the miss wet shirt title!!!!

You can't go to the falls and expect to come away dry!  here we are a couple of argentinian wetties!!!

here is one of the wide shots of the argentinian falls - it really was spectacular!

and a wee cutie to finish off...

just hanging about eating a banana skin!!!

The falls were more spectacular that the brazil side just because you could get so much closer to the top of them, a really impressive new seventh wonder of the natural world!

After the falls we headed over the border and on the advise of the hotel tried to get a taxi at the border to take us to our hotel as it wasn't far from the border so no point in going all the way into town on the bus to get a different bus out but getting a taxi was easier said than done.  We had a border guard helping us as he kept an eye out for empty taxis coming over the border but after 30 minutes we had no luck so I phoned the hotel and luckily they had once of their transfer vans just about to pass the border so we jumped in that and got to the hotel within minutes.

The hotel was nice and had a big pool so off we went to put our sizzling bodies into the pool - we both had a bit of sun burn as the sun was really hot at the falls.

We are up at before stupid o'clock (3.30am) to get our flight to Sao Paulo and then our bus transfer to Paraty to the beach so off to bed to catch a few hours sleep.

suzxxx

Learning to play Polo - Day 35

I had a morning of sitting on the balcony drinking ginger and lemon tea before getting ready to head into town with Mark to drop him off to meet his guide for the football stadium tour - he was heading to River Plate - apparently where all the best argentinian footballers play (accept Maradona and Messi as they played at Boca).  He was meeting his guide at 2pm and I was being picked up down at Indepencia for my polo experience.

Once Mark was on his way I headed off to try to find an ATM that would work with my card - easier said than done at the 6th bank I finally got money so headed off on the underground down to Indepencia.  It shouldn't be that hard to get money out of an ATM but so many of the banks don't recognise my card which is an HSBC card so you would think it would be a worldly recognised card but no.

Once at the pick up point I met 3 american girls, Kate, Dee Dee and Robyn who were all heading for polo too, all nice girls so I knew we would have some fun.  Fernando our teacher arrived to take us out to the stables which were about an hour outside of the city.

The 3 girls are all in the military - Kate is a pilot, Dee Dee drives ships and Robyn is a marine - she didn't give much away about what she did on a day to day basis so with my imagination running riot as it usually does I have her down as Special Forces.  They were all young and good fun and Dee Dee hadn't ever ridden before but she did really well.

We all got our hats on and off we went to the practice field get our horses and to learn the first thing in Polo - how to steer your horse!  the best way is to lean into the stirrup of the side you want to go and turn your body the way you want to go so if you want to go left, lean into the left stirrup and turn to the left and the horse will go that way.  The other way is using the reigns but the horses mouths are sensitive with the bit so you can imagine in a polo match you turn and twist loads so its not fair on the horse to be pulled about by its mouth so much.

Here we are fresh and ready to go.....

My horse was Big Daddy - no idea how to pronounce his name or spell it so Big Daddy will do.  He was bigger than the other polo horses which meant I had a bit of a longer stick as we were further off the ground.  Big Daddy was a bit of a tricky horse to get started, a total tester, which is a horse that pushes to see how much knowledge you have an how much he can get away with not doing!  I was kicking hard to get him to move so in the end Fernando suggested a whip - I hate whips normally but unfortunately Big Daddy needed the threat of something - I only had to use it sparingly as generally just showing him the whip was enough to get him into trot.

Here we are listening intently to Fernando as he explains how to hit the ball - I wasn't to great at the ball hitting bit! Definitely couldn't hit the ball backwards!

After we had been practicing hitting the ball for about 30 minutes I started to feel really unwell, I felt faint and that I needed to eat or drink something but I knew I didn't really need to as I had had free range scrambled eggs with a big baguette for my lunch and I had also had 3 huge mugs of ginger tea so I couldn't really understand why I felt like this.  I felt like I needed to get off the horse but I wasn't going to do that as I wanted to learn to play polo!  I just couldn't understand why I felt like this but Mark has Man Flu so I thought may be it was that but it had hit me so quickly and it is really not like me to be ill and not to get flu that quickly.  So I carried on and after a few minutes I realised that it was Big Daddy who was taking my energy - he was an energy vampire!  I have come across many human energy vampires and know how to spot them and protect myself from them but I had never come across a horse or animal energy vampire before but that was exactly what Big Daddy was.  I put up Reiki protection for myself and sent out healing energy to Big Daddy - generally people who are energy vampires need healing so animals will be the same.

Within 10 minutes I started to feel better - isn't that amazing?!  Its great that I have started to recognise these feelings in myself - if I had got off Big Daddy which was what I really wanted to do I would have drunk some water and eaten some nuts and thought thats why I was feeling better but the real reason would have been because he didn't have access to my energy any more as I wouldn't be riding him.

After I protected myself we were fine until I discovered how ungrounded Big Daddy was - after our practice and then we had a break we started to play a match and towards the end of the match someone in the distance fired a shot gun a few times - Big Daddy reared up on his back legs - my instinct kept me on him as I leant into his neck but at one point I thought he might go all the way over, he then put his front legs down and was bucking with his back legs, at this point I lost my left stirrup which would have been fine if the gun hadn't started firing again so Big Daddy was rearing up again and I could feel that I may have to make an exit strategy as he was quite uncontrollable but the last time I rode a horse that was uncontrollable and I hit the exit button I didn't ride again for 10 years and I really didn't want that to happen again and I have handled a lot of feisty horses in my years or riding so I knew I could handle this. I sat deep in the saddle (hard to do when your horse is rearing up!!) and put my right heel down in the stirrup and my left heel as far down as I could and gave one strong tug with the reigns giving him the signal to stop and he did!  He was very jittery though when we had finished our rearing adventure.  Horses that need grounded often are the once who are bouncy on their feet and have a habit of rearing, at the end of the whole session I spent a bit of time working with Big Daddy and grounding all four of his feet - I hope he feels much better for it.

Immediately after I had settle Big Daddy Fernando asked me if I wanted to get off and I said no as long as Big Daddy was going to be ok - that would have knocked my confidence to give up at that point and I surely had been through the worst with him?!  So we carried on playing the match and Big Daddy and I went on to score the 6th and winning goal of the match (a complete fluke by the way!) so all was well even if it had been more of an adventure than i was looking for.

It was a good experience to have as I was so proud of myself for staying on and also continuing - horses are not robots, they do shite like this and its important to know that I can control the situation.  If I had sat deep in the saddle and tugged his reigns on the first rearing perhaps he wouldn't have bucked or reared again - its all learning but I am pleased it happened as it has boosted my confidence.  I do know how to ride and I can handle difficult horses - I always was able to when I was younger so why not now?

Here I am practicing hitting the ball - an impressive swing out don't you think?! (I probably missed the ball on this one!)

Leaning in to hit the ball (I think I did hit this one, hey its harder than it looks!)

another action shot and proof in the 2nd pic that I did actually hit one ball!

and here I am - too happy for words!!! This pic was taken before the whole rearing incident!!!  but I was still smiling like this as I was so proud of myself for handling the situation.

So polo was a success - hard work but I really enjoyed it - I really enjoyed the match even though none of us were that fast we all had fun and we all enjoyed a bit of ball hitting and a bit of defence - I think I may have a career as a shoulder pusher - I was quite good at riding my horse up to whoever had the ball and pushing into them - is that the German blood or the Scottish blood that makes me good at that?!

Fernando was a brilliant teacher so if you are going to BA and want to learn polo look him up - www.poloelite.com.

suzxxx  - ps. here is a pic of where Mark went for the afternoon, he found it interesting but I reckon he would have loved polo!