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.