And so Chandra was sleeping, I was drinking tea and it was two hours until the pickup truck was due to collect us. Then a mare trots down the road and wakes up poor Chandra with her calls. I asked the locals to stop her from entering the enclosure through the gap in the picture above while I tried to calm poor old Chandra down. Despite never having covered a mare, he has a very good idea of what it's all about and as he is now sexually mature the frustration can get the better of the poor guy.
Then to my horror, rather than chase the mare away, the villagers actively herded her in towards my stallion! I went to shoo her and she turned round and aimed a kick at my head that gracefully missed. She was in heat, and one of those mare who is aggressive when in heat, so she was trying to get to Chandra, or to attack me if I got in the way, I was screaming for help, someone to bring a stick, anything, find the owner and the villagers all stood round, blocking the exit and staring on the scene as immobile as statues oblivious to my increasingly panicked requests for help. Chandra was on the verge of mounting the homicidal mare when I managed to find a wooden post to chase her off with, but still the villagers blocked the exit, refused to catch her and made the situation much worse that it would have been out in the open (I managed to ride past loose mares without too much incident twice on the road). Then the mare started lunging at me again so, I'm not proud but I picked up the closest thing to hand, a chair and threw it at her. That and the huge heavy wooden post managed to get her away from Chandra and I got her through the villagers and away from my horse. Then the villagers started telling me to chill out, what's the problem, oh we can't help because we're all afraid of horses, it's not the owners fault that the rope broke. Interestingly an hour after he sees that there is a valuable purebred, tall Marwari stallion in the village his mare breaks her rope...and there was no trace of broken rope on her...A mating with Chandra would cost R5000, his mare is short and mixed so he would make a pretty penny off of the offspring of my stallion. Besides I'm only a woman, what would a woman do? A woman and a horse, pah, so goes the village logic. If I were a man no such thing would happen.
Poor Chandra was very frustrated by the whole fiasco and I got my things together, tacked up and rode off in record time despite my fever, abscess and pain and we rode back to Bur, 6kms away with me hyperventilating half the way from the shock and stress of it all. I was lucky, mostly stallions who are sexually frustrated like that will bite or rear and box with their front hooves to assert their dominance and frustration over the situation. I am lucky enough to own one of the few stallions that can be ridden away without trouble after such an event.
This event did have a lasting effect on Chandra's behaviour though; he rears more, and is much more sexually frustrated than before. Meaning that it was impossible to ride him in the Pushkar grounds, as soon as he saw all those mares he reared and reared. Not in an aggressive way, it's a natural thing, stallions showing off to mares. I'd rather his introduction to the world of mating to be better though. My friend Rafeek is a horse training near Ajmer, he has three stallions that understand when mating behaviour is appropriate and when it's not. I'm debating sending Chandra to him for mating training when I have money. If he starts with good habits then it is much kinder than letting him get bad habits and then trying to correct them.
Monday 15 December 2008
Monday 8 December 2008
Chandra rests before the drama begins...
And so we reached Bhotaliya, well a temple with a load of chai shops and the usual village madman wandering about shouting. Foucault would have a field day watching the insane in India. The attitude is not one of medicalisation, that the “mad” must be hospitalised and treated, it’s accepted as normal; “half mind” or “mind crack” are used to describe the babbling lunatics of whom there is always at least one in each village. In this one he herded cattle, and danced and ranted and sang nonsense. As long as he stayed away from my horse I didn’t care. So I tied Chandra to a tree behind the shops. There were walls on either side and at the back and so only a narrow entrance, it seemed secluded and peaceful. I was in too much pain to do anything, to put it in context: my leg had swollen from ankle to knee and was more painful than the two I had operated on here, for which I was given morphine and all I had there was some ibuprofen. My boyfriend John called from England and managed to convince me that my stubborn pride in wanting to ride the remaining 60kms to Govindgargh was not worth risking losing a leg to infection over. So I arranged for a pick up truck as I couldn’t ride anymore, it was to be three hours so I sat and drank more chai. A local came by who owns a mare, then we went away. An hour later a mare in heat came trotting down the road.
The final day
After nine days I had arrived in Raipur, which in itself was a saga. As predicted, Chandra's shoes had worn out. Beawar city was two days ride away and Raipur was on the way. The locals seemed convinced that there was a farrier in Raipur, which was preferable as it is a smaller city and involved less of a detour. My host from Buda Guda village had given me a fantastic route of quiet tracks avoiding the main roads to Raipur. Indeed the first ten kms were sandy tracks, the villages were far apart and there were hardly any people. But then we came upon roads that were tarmac, fresh and soft, oh yes madam you are very lucky this is new road, why only three days ago it was a horrible dirt track, isn’t’ it great now it’s paved? Indeed….The curse of progress, the black tar intrudes into the wilderness bringing traffic and noise with it. And so we arrived in Raipur, by which stage Chandra had lost half of each shoe in the back, making the wear on his hooves uneven and therefore in need of swift repair to avoid having his legs held in unnatural angles. Half the town said there was no farrier, half the town said there was, no one could give a straight answer. After an hours searching I managed to find the town horse man who had shoes and tools with him. So he took off the old shoes, and then put on new ones without adjusting the hooves for uneven wear, or reshaping the shoes to fit the hoof!!!! And so one side had the bars of the shoe sticking out a good inch behind Chandra’s hoof and the other was crooked. Then to top it off he asked for more than the cost of four shoes in Udaipur just for his awful job on two.
That night Chandra got the accommodation he deserved; he stayed in the stable of the old village fort, with three gates and his own security guard. Not to mention the masses of food that he had. I meanwhile stayed with a cousin of Rafeek’s in the town. That night I took a shower and inspected my swollen right leg, at which point a little dot opened up and began pouring out lots of puss. With no decent hospital nearby all I could do was buy amoxicillin and hope I could ride the two days ride to Govindgargh where I could safely leave Chandra and then go to see a doctor in Pushkar.
The aim then on day ten was to ride 35kms to Babra, and sadly the only directions that anyone would give me for the first 7kms was to go on the highway. The highway full of heavy goods vehicles honking horns, over laden with overweight goods and driving like a blind pack of buffalos would run. Not my idea of a safe or fun time, and equally not Chandra’s as he spooked at the monsters that threatened to run us over. Whenever I asked anyone where there was a side road, or a quiet road, or any road in a general north-east direction that wasn’t the highway they thought I was mad. “madam you do one thing, you get rid ride of that horse and get a vehicle” is one of the responses that sticks in my memory for its idiocy. I saw a track goining north so I followed that, wilderness surrounded us with only the sound of the highway on the horizon annoying us for a few kms until we hit field walls and so had to return to the highway side, meaning that once I tried to get off it again all the villagers had to tell me “no you can’t go there, there’s no road! It’s jungle! Why don’t you go on the nice highway?” and they watched as if I was suicidal as I meandered my way through the wilderness. Eventually we reached Bar, an hour and a half later and we had only gone 7kms from where we had begun, my leg was throbbing, my knees were aching and Chandra was wound up and tense from all the traffic noise. The next village Bhotaliya was 7kms on.
That night Chandra got the accommodation he deserved; he stayed in the stable of the old village fort, with three gates and his own security guard. Not to mention the masses of food that he had. I meanwhile stayed with a cousin of Rafeek’s in the town. That night I took a shower and inspected my swollen right leg, at which point a little dot opened up and began pouring out lots of puss. With no decent hospital nearby all I could do was buy amoxicillin and hope I could ride the two days ride to Govindgargh where I could safely leave Chandra and then go to see a doctor in Pushkar.
The aim then on day ten was to ride 35kms to Babra, and sadly the only directions that anyone would give me for the first 7kms was to go on the highway. The highway full of heavy goods vehicles honking horns, over laden with overweight goods and driving like a blind pack of buffalos would run. Not my idea of a safe or fun time, and equally not Chandra’s as he spooked at the monsters that threatened to run us over. Whenever I asked anyone where there was a side road, or a quiet road, or any road in a general north-east direction that wasn’t the highway they thought I was mad. “madam you do one thing, you get rid ride of that horse and get a vehicle” is one of the responses that sticks in my memory for its idiocy. I saw a track goining north so I followed that, wilderness surrounded us with only the sound of the highway on the horizon annoying us for a few kms until we hit field walls and so had to return to the highway side, meaning that once I tried to get off it again all the villagers had to tell me “no you can’t go there, there’s no road! It’s jungle! Why don’t you go on the nice highway?” and they watched as if I was suicidal as I meandered my way through the wilderness. Eventually we reached Bar, an hour and a half later and we had only gone 7kms from where we had begun, my leg was throbbing, my knees were aching and Chandra was wound up and tense from all the traffic noise. The next village Bhotaliya was 7kms on.
Khimara
Chandra and I all tacked up and ready to go. It's amazing how little possesions one can get by on, the saddle bags were entirely Chandra's things: rope, head collar, wind-sucking collar, brushes, creams, first aid kit, food and wormers, the bag on my back had only a change of clothes, some soap and my camera.
Khimara2
I was lucky enough to get these, the only decent photos I have of Chandra and I thanks to a journalist in Khemara. They took my photo on a digital camera and luckily there was a photo shop in the town where I got two prints made.
Thursday 4 December 2008
Some of the seemingly endless plains
After the hills and stones of Udaipur and around it felt like a dream come true to have sand and plains. In such areas the distance between villages is greater, due to a lack of water much of the land is barren and open and so it's great for riding. Often I would ride in the plains near the road, keeping the black tar in my line of vision as a navigation tool but avoiding riding on it as much as possible. Which Chandra appreciated one day when we encountered a herd of a couple hundred cattle walking down the road to a government cow shelter. He stood stock still, raised his head and make the most bizarre snorting noise. It was part aggressive, part terrified and he wouldn't move an inch until they were all quite far away. I find this funny as all horses are supposed to have an inbuilt fear of the smell of pigs, some sort of evolutionary survival tactic that saved them in the days when wild boars were a threat to them. Not my Chandra though, he will happily walk inches past several pigs running about and snorting but the second he sees a cow or buffalo he is petrified.
pushkar2008
pushkar2008
Indian bits in a shop
Just to give a wider picture, this is a selection of bits with various degrees of sharpness, none of them smooth. Snaffles and pelhems are available in this shop but nobody buys them so they don't get displayed out front.
The reason I chose to go bitless....
This here is a standard Indian bit, and it feels every bit as sharp as it looks. It is normal for a horse to have the sides of its lips torn and bleeding after each time it is ridden, even if only for a few minutes. Of course this renders their mouths so calloused that they can never be ridden with a simple snaffle without time and patience to retrain them to respond to seat and voice aids.
Chandra converting an old man to going bitless
When riding from Khemara I had no contact set up within the next 50kms and so left in the morning with the exhilarating lack of knowledge of where we would end up that night. Three years ago Rani and I had stayed near Bhopari village but I had heard the horse people there had since moved everything to Devgargh. After a rest in Ranawas, where again the villagers attempted to feed Chandra half his body weight in green grass for next to nothing, I decided that a village north of there should be a good place to stop for the day. I asked the locals if they knew of any horse men in the next village and some people thought there was a Rajput with a horse so I went along there. Upon arriving it turned out the said Rajput was working away, he had no horses and his wife couldn't stand the dam things. So we had no where to go, so I did the usual magic trick, sit in the village square and wait five minutes for the offers to come pouring in. Which they did, Rajinder Singh from near Bhopari had met me three years before and was passing by so stopped to invite us round. Once there his father wanted to have a go on Chandra, utterly unbelieving that there was no bit in his mouth. He took a leap of faith and had a go and came back very impressed, while Chandra just looked confused and kept looking at me with a lost expression on his face, bless....
Tuesday 2 December 2008
Lunch time rest at Muchalla Mandir, day 4
Day four saw us pass through the Khmbalgargh nature reserve, passing from the Rajsamand district into the Pali district, from the Aravelli mountains into the plains, dust and heat. The 12km ride through the nature reserve was without incident, we saw no wildlife, unlike in the Pali district where I saw a herd of 12 Nilgai once, a viper snake crushed on the road, lots of mongoose and some monitor lizards. When we reached the gate on the Pali district side a cute little dog adopted us after I fed it a chapatti. She loyally followed us for the 6kms to the Jain temple in this photo, where I tied Chandra up and we both had lunch and two hours rest before riding on to Narlai.
While digesting my Jain temple lunch, free from garlic, potatoes or onions as they are life forms and it would kill the plant to eat them, another dog came by. I have a photo somewhere of a dog I once found in a similar state, there really is no way that I can describe it other than that it was walking around with its brain falling out in a blackened and stinking cavity full of maggots where an ear or eye once was. It has been like that for some time, the locals chased him away with sticks and stones before I could get close to him.
From the temple it was 25kms ride to Ajit Singh's farm, and on the road we encountered a loose female horse for the second time that day (the first being near Khumbalgargh). Although very excited by the sight of another horse I managed to keep Chandra under control (without a bit too may I add!) and we eventually arrived at Ajit's stables at 4:30pm.
In that strange Indian way that makes my question my ideas of determinism, chance, coincidences and so on Dr Naveen had popped in to visit Ajit. Dr Naveen is a government vet from Desuri, a nearby town. Having graduated from Vet school in Bikaner he got the standard government job stationed in his hometown and settling into the tedium of artificial insemination of cows and helping farmers increase milk yield. His elder brother is also a vet however he went to work for Help in Suffering, a very good charity in Jaipur city, thanks to whom Jaipur is now a rabies free city for the first time, proving how effective the animal birth control and vaccination programs can be.
Anyways Dr Naveen's brother showed him how to de-sex dogs and so they started up their own little animal birth control program in their own free time, from their own pockets. Dr Naveen would catch a dog after tempting it with food and then operate on it, one per day meant that a couple hundred were done before people started to notice. Sadly the said people were Hindus, very religious Hindus, who formally complained that this doctor was depriving these dogs of the precious ability to give life without even getting their consent. So they moved Naveen and he began again, and again the Hindus noticed and complained. And so Naveen was told in no uncertain terms that if he didn't stop his silly hobby they'd station him out in the Jaisalmer or Barmer districts. And so he had to stop, although he still helps wounded dogs he finds and so I was able to tell him of that mornings dog and he promised to tell all vets in the area to carry an injection on them to put the dog to sleep when they found it. So the poor dog got lucky and his suffering was lessened thanks to some lucky coincidences on its part. Rabies is still a huge problem in the Pali district, ignorance aiding its spread.
While digesting my Jain temple lunch, free from garlic, potatoes or onions as they are life forms and it would kill the plant to eat them, another dog came by. I have a photo somewhere of a dog I once found in a similar state, there really is no way that I can describe it other than that it was walking around with its brain falling out in a blackened and stinking cavity full of maggots where an ear or eye once was. It has been like that for some time, the locals chased him away with sticks and stones before I could get close to him.
From the temple it was 25kms ride to Ajit Singh's farm, and on the road we encountered a loose female horse for the second time that day (the first being near Khumbalgargh). Although very excited by the sight of another horse I managed to keep Chandra under control (without a bit too may I add!) and we eventually arrived at Ajit's stables at 4:30pm.
In that strange Indian way that makes my question my ideas of determinism, chance, coincidences and so on Dr Naveen had popped in to visit Ajit. Dr Naveen is a government vet from Desuri, a nearby town. Having graduated from Vet school in Bikaner he got the standard government job stationed in his hometown and settling into the tedium of artificial insemination of cows and helping farmers increase milk yield. His elder brother is also a vet however he went to work for Help in Suffering, a very good charity in Jaipur city, thanks to whom Jaipur is now a rabies free city for the first time, proving how effective the animal birth control and vaccination programs can be.
Anyways Dr Naveen's brother showed him how to de-sex dogs and so they started up their own little animal birth control program in their own free time, from their own pockets. Dr Naveen would catch a dog after tempting it with food and then operate on it, one per day meant that a couple hundred were done before people started to notice. Sadly the said people were Hindus, very religious Hindus, who formally complained that this doctor was depriving these dogs of the precious ability to give life without even getting their consent. So they moved Naveen and he began again, and again the Hindus noticed and complained. And so Naveen was told in no uncertain terms that if he didn't stop his silly hobby they'd station him out in the Jaisalmer or Barmer districts. And so he had to stop, although he still helps wounded dogs he finds and so I was able to tell him of that mornings dog and he promised to tell all vets in the area to carry an injection on them to put the dog to sleep when they found it. So the poor dog got lucky and his suffering was lessened thanks to some lucky coincidences on its part. Rabies is still a huge problem in the Pali district, ignorance aiding its spread.
Day 5, into the sandy plains
The ride from Narlai to Thakur ji ki Guda, 45+km that day. After having a days rest at Ajit Singh's stables in Narlai I got up at 5:30 to feed Chandra, who as ever is one of the slowest eating horses I have ever encountered, meaning we finally set off at 7:30am, later than I'd have liked if we were to avoid the mid-day heat. In the Pali district the mid-day temperatures were in the mid thirties and without shade. That day was especially hot, with the mid day sun blinding us, even with a headscarf and sunglasses. To make matters worse one wrong turn resulted in a 12km detour-7/8 in the wrong direction and then a different route to get back on track. We had only gotten 30 or so kilometres from where we left despite riding over 45kms that day and so when we reached a village 1km outside of Khimara city I got off and asked the locals about getting some alfalfa grass. Which of course resulted in invitations for both of us and Chandra receiving half his body weight in lush green grass for about 20 rupees (30 pence or so). That night Chandra got a water buffalo stable all to himself so had grain, grass and water to gorge on to his hearts content once he got used to the strange smells. Chandra seemingly is the only horse in India who is terrified of water buffalo- quite possibly the most dim witted creatures to survive evolution without killing themselves. Although that said I once saw one run off a cliff edge as it wasn't looking where it was going but that's another story....
The interesting thing I learned staying in that village is that the kids schools actually have very good english books, better than "Language to go" or "Cutting Edge" from my CELTA course but the high standard of educational materials is somewhat let down by the fact that the teachers don't speak the language that they are teaching! A situation I saw echoed throughout the homes I visited. The children are expected to teach themselves or possibly teachers expect the knowledge to magically move from page to child's brain with no effort on their part.
The interesting thing I learned staying in that village is that the kids schools actually have very good english books, better than "Language to go" or "Cutting Edge" from my CELTA course but the high standard of educational materials is somewhat let down by the fact that the teachers don't speak the language that they are teaching! A situation I saw echoed throughout the homes I visited. The children are expected to teach themselves or possibly teachers expect the knowledge to magically move from page to child's brain with no effort on their part.
I do have a proper excuse this time
Yes dear readers, I have been tardy in updating although the reason for that is that with me nothing can ever go simply. For one thing there is the equine influenza outbreak that is spreading through all of India now, resulting in the suspension of racing in Mumbai and Calcutta, and the epidemic was made infinitely worse by Pushkar fair. In recent years the number of camels for trading has diminished while the number of equines has been increasing. The quality was quite good this year although, as ever, horses only come in the fashionable colours of piebald, albino, grey or black with a white face and feet. These are all lucky colours that command high prices, a black horse with two white feet and a small white blaze but an angelic temperament and good height will sell for less than the skinny, bad tempered horse who has the magic four white markings. But I digress, the point is horses come from all over Rajasthan and India for buying and selling and so Punjabi horses meet those from M.P., U.P. and further east and south where owners are changed and after the fair they all go back. Equine influenza is an airborne virus and extremely extremely contagious, so much so that in Europe owners can be fined for failing to vaccinate their horse against the disease.
Now the good old Indian government still hasn't thought to make the vaccine available anywhere in India at all. It's not available in the entire country. There was a break in 1987 in India, when approximately over 83,000 equines suffered from the disease. About 80-100% horses donkeys and mules were affected at various places. The disease involved all categories of horses, and donkeys without any variation in age, sex or breed. But has the vaccine become available since then? Nah....Then to make matters worse it was spreading through the fairground like wildfire, and did the government restrict entry of new equines to the grounds to prevent further infection? Of course not, in fact there was a cover up with the government putting in the press that the horses all just had a cough....with fever....and loss of appetite...but no no flu! My god if they admitted to flu then the tourist business would be effected and we all know how money must take precedence over animal welfare!
While in Pushkar I developed a chest infection, along with having three pussing wounds on my legs and so on December 6th Chandra and I went back to Udaipur in the truck that brought his horses up for a safari he had. I bought a good strong rug at the fair and put Chandra's sweat sheet underneath so the 8 hours standing in the back of a topless pick up van were fine for him (although it is now my priority to buy him travel boots after seeing what injuries can occur). By the time we got back to Udaipur I had no voice and was bedbound with a fever for several days and flew back to England once I was strong enough, i.e. after the third antibiotic course. I stopped off in Ajmer to say farewell to Rafeek, a horse trainer who put Chandra and I up in his tent for several nights, fed Chandra like a king and refused to let me pay him a single rupee. While staying at his house he offered to take me on a tour of the village with me riding Dipti and him on Al-Gareeb (more on them later). Now not having a saddle he put some blankets on Dipti and that all seemed grand. The area is fantastic, all sand and open spaces, Dipti is just divine, I'm head over heels in love with him too now. And it's a testament to Rafeek that we were both riding young stallions side by side and they didn't quarrel at all, Dipti can be stopped with voice commands alone (Chandra is almost there now) and he's so handsome and strong even with one eye blind.
Anyways during this two hour tour unknown to me there was a teeny tiny little burr that had attached to the blanket prior to my sitting on it and it worked it's way under the skin. By the time I was flying the splinter had formed a boil and by Monday morning when I went to see a doctor here, he took one look, said my god and sent me straight to the hospital where I was put under general anaesthetic and had it cut open in the operating room at lunch time. People can complain as much as they like but I think that the N.H.S. is fantastic and British people should be more appreciative of how good they have it. I saw a G.P. at 8:30am and was under general anesthetic 6 hours later, kept in overnight, there was a vegetarian food option and there is no big fat bill when it's all over. In Ireland it took me 12 hours to get admitted to hospital with atypical pneumonia, doctors don't work weekends, the service is abysmal, there is no vegetarian food option and you have to pay something in the region of a hundred euro a night for the privilege of being yelled at by sadistic nurses who don't read allergy charts before giving medicine. So I now have one crater 2cm deep and 3cm wide on the left and another 1cm deep and 2cm wide on the right but the puss is getting out and the fever and pain are over and that's the main thing. It'll take a long time for them to heal and I won't be able to ride for quite a while but it's dealt with at last.
Back to the flu epidemic; Chandra got off with a mild cough, no fever or loss of appetite so we were lucky. Poor old Dinesh though, all 7 of his horses came down with the flu and diarrhea, to make matters worse this was at the start of a tourist safari and so he had to arrange for other horses. The last thing that he needs at the start of tourist season in a year that's seen huge numbers cancel due to the terrorist bombings that occurred throughout the last year, the worst of which being the Mumbai siege.
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