The Garden and the Horse

(Best read after reading The Journey Begins)

Day 2 of the trip..... Waking up from a chilly night is really difficult. It's like asking me to get off the bed when the AC is on... Real difficult... But I had to get up... Brushed and bathed... Bathing was a different story. The lodging had bathrooms with double valve taps: Hot and Cold, and I didn't know how to use them. Turned on the hot one, turned on the cold, and it was neutral water. Upon pouring it down, I realised neutral water was the same as cold water and bathing in cold water in Coonoor is suicide. Came out of the bathroom desperately trying to hide my chattering teeth. 

Came breakfast, ate and off we went......  First to the Rose Garden. I thought I'll see a host of roses, but mostly I saw just bushes. Seems like the season is in May, and so is the Flower show. But we still got to see a lot of other flowers in the Garden. Got to click a few of the roses there (can't remember any of their names. They had specific names... I'll just call them Roses)

 

An hour later, back in the car and off we went..... 

Sometime later, we saw many people lending horses, and we thought we'll ride them. I was dead scared of the horses. The owners who controlled the horse were to come with us. Seeing that I was really tall, they made me sit on a single horse. My father and younger cousin sat on another horse while my sister and elder cousin sat on another horse.

 The owner of the horse I was riding asked me, " Have you rode a horse before?". I said, "No". I already knew this was not going to go right. He said, " Now u will learn how to ride a horse".... OMG!!!!! Hands shaking, leg shivering... Everything happening... 

He said, " Just pull the rope to the direction you want the horse to go. If you want it to go left, pull the rope to the left; if you want it to go right, pull the rope to the right ". I said Okay but my mind voice was like, "Why did I even think of getting on this horse???".

So the owner slightly let go of the horse. I think the horse was either a former or aspiring racehorse, for it started charging like anything. My initial and only response in times like these is to scream, but now that I am surrounded by people and am 20 YEARS OLD, I couldn't scream. But I was holding on to dear life!!!!! 

Moreover, the owner started nudging the horse to make it move faster. I still don't know how I held on to the horse. When I pulled the horse to the left, it started turning the other way. I thought I was doing it wrong. Can't let anything go wrong at this time... To say that I was scared is a gross understatement.

When all three horses reached the hilltop, we took a photo. You know when you want to smile but can't smile the way you want but smile anyway? I smiled like that for the photo. After that, we rode the horses back, and all of us started dismounting.

After a while, I saw the photo and was really angry at the horse. The horse I rode was literally grinning ( yes, you read that right) in the photo. I think the horse let out all anger it accumulated from riding day in and day out on me..... That might have been a smile of revenge!!!