a love like no other;

i rode bareback on Tula for my last class last year, it felt so different. my legs were all sore after trotting on her bareback like that. it was way more challenging to rise trot without the saddle and stirrups to support my lower body.

seems like someone is really keeping up with this whole blogging thing.

i've had a fantasticly tiring day. the usual sundays where i have riding lessons, i thought of doing things a bit different today. woke up for fajr, and forced myself to stay up instead of sleeping back. i was pretty stoked for it the night before, i could barely sleep. i told the girls at the riding school that i intended to pop in earlier than usual, to set up Tula myself. 

i was hoping i'd be her only lesson and that they'd want to give her a shower or something after. i wanted to do all that. 

i drove out, came an hour and a half earlier for my lesson, and helped out with the yards. when i say yard, i mean, poo scraping. yes, scraping off horse poo from the ground into a wheelbarrow til its full and discard them somewhere behind the school area in between trees, so it would dry up.

it wasn't the most pleasant smell, but it was so fun getting dirty like that. i got to take Tula to myself, i took her rug off and started brushing her. she wasn't fond of being tied up to the new stable, so i had to hang on to her while Beth helped me with the brushing. 

when she was more comfortable, Beth held on to her for me, and i placed her saddle pad and saddle on her. she usually would panic, but i think she was fairly calm throughout. tightened up her girths and put her bridle on. 

all was good until i was walking her into the arena. she started biting me as i was the closest to her, and tried to bite everyone else that was near her. she started to be all grumpy. i don't think she liked the fact that we took her out of her stable while she was eating. haha

the trying-to-bite everyone started to get out of hand, i got annoyed and stood before her. face to face.

i put the palm of my right hand on her forehead. 

i didn't know what i was doing. but i know horses were one of the creatures that the Prophet s.a.w rode on, and that they are considered a special animal, to be part of his sunnah for us muslims to learn to ride them.

i gave my salaam to her, and gave a quick salawat to Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. i've been speaking to Tula in english, because thats what everyone does to her, but today i was reminded that she was one of the beautiful creations of Allah swt, and all creations of Him, understands, and knows its Lord.

i rubbed her forehead and recited bismillahi-rahman-arrahim, i whispered to her to stay calm, and told her all i wanted was to learn to ride like how the Prophet s.a.w did. i asked that she would make it easy for me by staying calm, and that i really didn't like the idea of falling off her anytime soon. lol

Tula stared at me, eyes blinking, but the best part was she stopped trying to bite everyone else. she'd usually try to be cheeky and move away when she knew i was about to step up to the saddle. this time, she stood still.

and was so responsive throughout my lesson today.

subhanallah, it was all Allah's will in making it easy for me. 

if you knew Tula, you would know her crankiness would get really annoying. it would be so so hard to get her to do anything, even with kicking. 

i was told she's like that because she's a smart horse. she knows what to do, and somehow developed this attitude to only want to do it when she wants to. 

it was such an amazing day, tiring because i was running around the school, giving carrots to other horses, and helped set up a few other horses for their lessons. 

i asked Mchlle how much it would cost to actually buy one, she said it was about 2k. which, is really not that expensive, considering you'd just want it to do basic stuffs, like to loan it to a riding school or something. but she mentioned of this horse that she knows that costs nothing. free, probably green-broke category. minimal riding experience, but friendly. 

my plate is almost full at the moment. knowing fully how i have attachment issues, i know i want one so badly, but i'm not sure to how i would take it at the end of the day if i had to leave it behind. and with my bags out already, i loathe the day i'd have to bid farewell to the school, to the horses, and to the girls.