“All cities are mad: but the madness is gallant. All cities are beautiful: but the beauty is grim.”
Christopher Morley
WEEK 21 | Mexico a Caballo
Week 21 started great! but ended up bad, health wise.
It started off good. After returing from Jurica where I gave my horse travel presentation, I rode from Colon to Atongo, to visit my new friend Javier, who owns an organic sheep cheese farm.
I hung out, we shared stories and I learned about his farm. I visited the beautiful Hacienda Atongo and took a lot of pictures. I did an interview with Javier and you can check it out here:
https://5000milesofhope.org/javier-perez-rocha-profile-and-interview/
Two Equine Specialist Vets showed up to verify that his and my mare Roxy were indeed, not pregnant. What a relief. What a major relief!
Unfortunately right before checking Roxy she got twisted up in her tie out line and fell down. I managed to get her untwisted and it looked like there was no problem.
The next day when saddling up I didn’t use my crupper on Roxy and that was a big mistake. As Roxy had been so fat lately, the girth and saddle was heading forwards on her, even with center fire rigging. I guess because I knew I was going to ride with another person and we were going to go hard, it would be better to not use the crupper as it would be tight. To compensate, I tightened the girth tighter than normal.
Anyway, that was a big mistake as I found out the next day she was partially lame in the front left shoulder from the saddle pad/ bootie rubbing her shoulder from being too far forward.
I broke my rules and I made a major rookie mistake.
The rule is, don’t change the setup for someone else. The mistake was not paying attention to the pressure on the shoulder.
I was not happy with myself. For being so inattentive, and for changing my routine because someone else rode with me. Normally I walk beside Roxy WAY more, and I also dismount more on downhills, I did neither that day. It was also due to the insane traffic and the fact that the other rider often put me and Roxy and him in danger by how he rode beside and behind us. It made me want to get away from him as when he was close behind all Roxy wants to do is kick the other horse. And with the traffic there wasn’t much room for error, literally. What a stupid day.
Thankfully I’ve forgiven myself since. But I stand by my rules, stronger than ever.
The other thing to note about Week 21, is that riding close to Queretaro the City, just sucks. WAY too much traffic. The traffic and development around the Megapolis majorly influenced my decision as to where I’d like to teach English. The Capital is out.
I finished the week by giving anti-inflammatories and resting Roxy as she had a little bump and inflammation on the back of the mid shoulder. More on that in Week 22…
I’d like to thank Luis Islas, Javier Perez Rocha, Elizardo Piñon and Monica Alcocer for helping me this week with Roxy.
Chris MacLuckies’ professional career began with a decade-long stint as an organic vegetable grower in Ontario Canada. His career is prolific in breadth and scope. He has farmed organics commercially, volunteered in Guatemala, ran a gardening business, raised and raced sled dogs, tended his livestock, and ridden his horse on a multi-country expedition.
Chris is a certified TEFL ESL English Teacher, author of seven books, freelance content creator, and outdoor travel gear designer.
