Lipstick and White Linen

This afternoon I actually put on lipstick and some lovely White Linen body cream after my bath.  Got to try to make myself feel much better than I do.  Been having uncontrollable coughing fits that got to be a bit scary.  And, of course, they finally took their toll.  Ribs or tissue is now painful...but, today finally I am saying I've rounded a huge corner.  No coughing fits today.  Thank goodness..

Word from the doctor is .... bronchitis and severe sinus infection.  Gee... already knew that.... especially from the gunk I am blowing out...oh, sorry who wants to hear about that .. if you were drinking tea or having a nibble...sorry.

This is ridiculous. The cold didn't actually go away.  It just got progressively worse after the one day I almost fooled myself into thinking I was feeling a bit better.  Silly me.  I probably should have just succumbed. Or at least one of us should have. Gone to bed and moaned our way through a few days and told the others to go on without us  But, no....not any of us ..... Nope.  Instead, like somebody on holiday and be damned if a cold was gonna keep us down....onward we went.  I kept thinking and saying 'intrepid'; mostly to myself, but was really and truly thinking the other "i" word.  You know the one.  Idiot.

First to Porto, where we made things worse I'm sure and by then one or two of the others had a cough too. Walked by the river Douro after dark ...yeh..really good for us all.....like I said...we were nuts.  It was pretty though....I don't remember much...but, I've got photos to prove it....thank goodness.

We even walked across that lower footbridge to the other side and up and down hill and dale over there in the neighbouring town called Vila Nova de Gaia.  More on all of that for another post.
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For now... it is Thursday.  And that means there is Equine Therapy happening at the centre.  My friend Maria volunteers here..... I thought it would be just a little place known to locals and I tagged along on one of her days.  WOW!  It is a world class training centre!   Who knew?  It has it's own site where you can view the beautiful horses trained and raised on the quinta.  What an amazing day it was.  I hope I was not so very contagious that I passed on my illness to any of the little guys and gals having fun at the riding ring. I did not stand beside them too long and was out and about taking photos and looking at the other horses and land and stalls and exercising areas etc...and getting a slight shock before I realized the rope I was holding was a lightly electrified enclosure.... sigh....   Good luck everybody on not getting my plague.  Please all be healthy.

This huge Stallion... called Pino... was pounding his front hooves on his stall door..trying to get some attention... then grabbing his blanket from way outside his stall door...and trying to unlatch the upper lock...they have one placed on the lower part of his door just because he can..... and in general being waaaay too frisky for my liking.  I have been bitten twice before by horses...(I still love them but I am a bit wary nowadays) and know what it feels like so I wasn't going to even try pet him when we walked one of the handicapped kids up to his stall.  Maria was too brave for my liking and it made me nervous. ...she petted his nose and he did try to nip on her....he bared his teeth and nipped at her plenty of times and in general made a nuisance of himself...and was doing a lot of very frisky hopping (hopping as in how very BIG guys do if ya know what I mean)  around in there .... and then.....


suddenly..........this....

 

Little Joao stood close to the stall door and just raised his hand ....no words at all...just raised up his little hand........

That big horse just became a gentle giant.

This my favourite photo of them... I love it.

The kids were having their ride around on a very gentle much smaller horse in the arena...but, Celine, the trainer and manager of the quinta was training one of the big horses while they were doing so.  I am betting that if that horse gets to the top rings nothing will startle him in his beautiful routines.  The kids were busy doing what kids do and of course, it included a bit of squeaking and giggling and nonsense.... especially since somebody new was there.  Me.  Even Celine had to ask for a bit of respect for her horse finally...and then all went back to more or less normal humdrumming .....

Here she is on one of the horses in training...

Meanwhile on the outside of the ring...the kids were having their fun...... and standing very close to that very low barrier you see in the background...under two feet high I would guess..we stepped easily over it... .... and the horses are encouraged to use the whole arena... sometimes actually brushing you with their tails if you stand too close.

Kids riding around the outside ...Celine in the centre again.....

I think this one tells it all.  Celine. Slim and wiry as a whip.....master horse trainer.... looks like she means business doesn't she? ...