Officially 18

I don't feel a sudden spurt of maturity or wisdom, but yes, I am finally legal to buy alcohol, go into the casino, and do all these bad things that people say you shouldn' do but do themselves anyway. :)

Anyway, very very very tired now because I had to wake up early and run to meet a horse riding group at uni. It was hilarious cos we ran from the house to the tram stop, rode one stop to the next tram stop, leapt off, ran to the Union House, spotted the group departing (since we were half an hour late), then ran out after them - back to the front of uni, barely ten feet from where we jumped onto the tram in the first place -_-" Lesson for today: never run.

It's been a long time since I arrived home so dead tired and covered with dirt that I actually luxuriated in the shower then dropped into bed without watching both hours of The Simpsons. I've forgotten how good it is to come clean under hot, running water when you've spent the majority of the day splashing through the mud on an equally muddy horse. They treat their horses really differently here than at home. We basically went for a trail ride, which yeah, I knew would involve some muddy jungle, but I was at least expecting a nice wide open field to canter around in. But nope. It was a straight, half-day trek through the muddy, sloppy, pot holey jungle. I never knew a horse stepping into mud produced that kind of squelllllch sound. And there was this frail dirt bridge over a deep river which had basically melted into several suspiciously deep looking puddles of mud, which the guides just told us to run over, resulting in the poor horses having to sink knee-deep into mysterious stinking mud with us heavy city folk on their backs. My friend's horse actually fell into one of the mud holes, but she yanked him up before she went in too and they made it out together, together, lalalaala. The horse got a little paranoid of mud after that though. But mud's not good anyway. Throughout the ride, even over dangerously steep hills and tree-strewn paths, the guides simply yelled at the tops of their voices and scared the horses into running faster than was safe to. They broke sticks off trees and used them as whips, and forced their horses into some of the most disgusting conditions. Personally, I though the route was very dangerous, especially since most of us were beginners. And for me, coming from background in jumping and dressage, it was the epitome of disgusting, cruel and oh so devoid of the need for skill.

We didn't exactly get a very good impression of the place when we first stepped off the bus anyway, so I should have known what to expect. Over twenty horses were tied up in extremely close proximity, extremely dangerous especially since certain horses are kicky. And to make things worse, every other minute a horse would artfully lift up his tail and shit. Great, green chunks of chlorofillic shit, a results of munching on grass and leaves and probably a sick, sick stomach, which splatted onto the ground, spraying the horses next to it in the process. What was surprising was the fact that the poor, victimised, shat-on horses didn't even blink an eye. They merely stood there, getting showered with drops of shit, as if it was something the occured everyday. Which maybe it did. And to top it all off, the ground was slightly uphill, so whenever a horse peed (have you ever seen a horse pee? It's like a jet stream. You could put out a fire by aiming a peeing horse at the burning object), a river of pee flowed downward, soaking the feet of every other horse standing downwind of the guilty culprit. Imagine my trepidation at mouting a horse with my expensive Rockport shoes as I tread my way through lumps of shit, mud and pee to hoist myself as quickly as I could off the ground. If I was a horse, I would have up and revolted that very minute. Or at least complained to my union. Back home, horses are groomed and clean and have their own stables with nice warm hay and grains to eat so their shit isnt quite so liquid. And they seem to do it much less, too.

Every single muscle in my body seems liquefied right now. My birthday was the best, it was yesterday, but I'm too tired to tell you about it right now, so later. And I have pics too :) Why the hell didn't I turn photogenic upon my 18th birthday? Sigh. Back to bed then. Good night.