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Spain
Now living in l'Olleria, south of Valencia

Thursday 29 October 2009

Horses for Courses




There was a lovely display of local horsemanship in town on Sunday. First of all, they all did a little tour around the town, and then each of them did a turn on the parade ground (wasteland/carpark!).

Some of the traps were beautifully prepared, with both horses and owners wearing their Sunday best. They demonstrated how good their horses were at turning tight circles and some of them could even go backwards, pushing the traps in reverse.

Afterwards, the single horses showed their skills. I don't know much about horses, but it was lovely to see the skill of both horse and rider. In Spain, a great deal of respect is shown to horsemanship and one or two of the riders were obviously very well skilled. Horses were riding diagonally, as well as backwards and showing off with there clever steps. Yes - they could go forward too!

One of the riders was our next door neighbour. He is only about 10 years old and had some trouble with his horse. It seemed to be frightened when everyone clapped. He got quite cross with it, and seemed very upset, but to be honest, taking his age into account, I think he did very well. We congatulated his grandad when we left, and hopefully our message was passed on to him.

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