This entry was posted on 7/1/2008 12:07 PM and is filed under uncategorized.
Saturday June 28 2008
Or, Raven Rides Italy!
Here
I am again, gallivanting off to another endurance family, who are
welcoming me into their midst. I don't know them, and they don't know
me, but Fausto has arranged it, so off I go.
After 3 train
changes and a bit of adventure, I got off in the little village of
Popoli - I'm not sure if you'll find that on too many maps - in the
Abruzzi region (in the center) of Italy. It's in the foothills of some
surrounding mountains that provide plenty of skiing in the winter, and
plenty of horseback riding activities and hiking in the summer. A few
people got off the train here with me, and there was only one person
waiting at the station: Adriano Marrama. He didn't speak English, and
my only Italian words are those that happen to be the same as the few
Spanish words I know - in other words, it was hopeless. We tried and
tried to communicate, but other than the weather, and scenery, it was
pretty hopeless and we just laughed at each other.
Adriano's 22-year-old daughter Chiara
just won the 160 km Italian Championship in Assisi a few weeks ago, on
one of the 52 horses (!) in Adriano's endurance stable, I Cavalieri
dell'Antera. **Author's note: There is controversy surrounding this, as I understand it: Chiara was the first to arrive at the finish but was declared to have made a mistake on course, as did several others. Chiara and some of the other riders contend that one area of the course was not marked, nor were there any officials to point the way. Simona Garatti was declared the official winner, but perhaps this is still in contention. **
Adriano took me to the Albergo (hotel) Moretto in
Pratola, owned by his sister Bruna and his niece Annamaria, who
welcomed me and plied me with pizza and beer - very welcome after the
challenging train rides! Adriano left me there to go take care of horse
business, then came back at 10 PM to pick me up and take me to dinner
with daughter Chiara and her boyfriend, and daughter Marinella and her
husband Jean Felice. It was a loud Saturday night crowd at the
restaurant - a typical European Saturday evening dinner - and it wasn't
till 11 PM that the others arrived, after a long day at a "pony
endurance ride" with one of the youngsters they teach.
After a
filling dinner, Adriano dropped me back at the hotel around midnight,
with instructions from Chiara - be ready at 8 AM, with your riding
clothes on!
Sunday June 29
Woohoo - I unpacked from
the bottom of my suitcase the helmet and chaps I've lugged around for 4
weeks (and for 5 weeks, on the trip before this one) and put them on!
Adriano picked me up at 9, and we were off to his I Cavalieri
dell'Antera stables!
Adriano started his stable 20 years ago for
trekking. Five years later when his daughter Marinella started
endurance riding, it became primarily an endurance stable. Chiara did
her first short endurance ride when she was 11 years old. Now, it's a
very busy stable, to say the least, with, between the three of them and
one groom, horse trekking (with Adriano), endurance riding and training
(with Chiara), and lessons and handicapped riding (with Marinella). In
November they will begin building a hotel higher up in the hills - in
the middle of their olive orchards - for an agriturismi (farm-stay)
accomodation, which will fit in nicely with the trekking business.
Horse
pictures and paintings by children decorate the walls of the snack bar
area, as do numerous endurance trophies the family has collected over
the years.
Chiara and Adriano saddled up horses for 4 of us, and
Paulo from Rome accompanied us on his huge Hannoverian gelding, for a
ride in the Italian countryside - a first for the Raven and me!
It's
easy to see why Chiara, at such a youthful age, attained the title of
Italian champion. First and foremost, she cares for her horses and
enjoys each of them - "they are like children. Each one is different. I
love riding them all!" She's very concerned about their well-being, and
very aware of the need to take the time for the development of the
whole horse - muscles, bones, metabolics, and the mind, especially
their mind. (The mare on which she won on at Assissi will probably have
the rest of the year off to relax). You can go fast on a horse, she
says, but you have to go step by step to get there. She very much
respects her sister Marinella and her knowledge and horsemanship, and
she aspires to be more like her!
Chiara may ride fast in races
when the horse is ready, but like many other top stables around the
world I've visited, she doesn't regularly train hard and fast. She
knows it's good, for the body and the mind of the horse, just to go out
and have an easy hack or just walk, to let the horse know it's okay to
take your time and relax.
We had a lovely 90 minute ride through
the rich green countryside of Italy, with my mount being a 4-year-old
mare that Adriano predicts will be another Italian champion. I had to
agree that this mare was pretty nice at this stage...
After
the pleasant ride I had lunch at the house with the family. And when I
say family lunch, I mean Family Lunch: Mom, Dad, two sisters, husband
of sister, Grandma, and Auntie Marianna, who kept piling food on my
plate because I'm so skinny. She wanted to fatten me up in this one
meal. We had piles of fresh salad, vegetables, and fruit from the
abundant garden out the front door. Marianna would spoon one helping on
my plate, then another "Due?" "No! No due!" I'd say, and she'd plop the
2nd helping on my plate anywy. Of everything! I'd surrender - there was
no arguing. "OK, due!" "Tre?" "No three!"
Which meant, by the
end of lunch, I was so full I could hardly move from the table. They
asked if I needed a nap? They would take me to the hotel to rest. Oh,
no, I didn't think I needed a nap. Marianna took me back to the hotel
anyway - stopping to show me a little scenic mountain canyon sanctuary
on the way - and of course I fell asleep at the hotel.
Adriano
returned at 5 PM and picked me up and took me back to the stables, for
another ride! The weather had actually turned pleasant - instead of
blazing heat, the sun was obscured behind clouds - there were even
little rain showers around, and possible thunder clouds! - and there
was a very nice breeze.
This time I got to ride a mare that
Chiara will probably ride in Gubbio (I wanted to say, "Wait! Are you
sure?!"), and I went out with Adriano and another man, on a different
track, hard and soft dirt roads past rolling fields and olive orchards.
This
mare was also quite nice; we walked at first, then had a good climb at
a trot or canter, before coming to a paved road. We followed this into
a regional park full of people walking and biking, and where there was
a little bar - and we parked our horses and went and had a drink! Chin
chin! We toasted. "Interval training," said Adriano - work the horses,
give them a rest, (and us a beer), ride them back.
After
our refreshing break, we mounted up and rode back home, walking all the
way. You could tell the horses enjoyed the outing - they were willing
and strong on the way out, and willing and relaxed, moving out, on the
walk back. Adriano made me laugh because he was always on his cell
phone - sometimes two of them! The mare was quite pleasant, as was the
scenery and the cool breeze, as was riding in Italy! I told Adriano it
was beautiful here, but he said in Italian - and I understood - if I
thought this was pretty, I have to come back and go trekking up into
the mountains - it is stunning up there. Chiara confirmed it - and
confirmed I have to come back and see it!
We got back at 8:30 PM
and I had dinner with the family and more friends again. This time, Mom
Francisca took over the piling of my plate, and didn't take no for an
answer. I think I did pick up a few pounds this weekend!
The
friends took me back home to the hotel, where, after a hard day's work
- two huge meals and two great horseback rides with a new family in
Italy - I fell into a sound deep sleep.
Monday June 30
The
Marramas put me on the train back to Gubbio in the morning - after
racing all over the place looking to buy a ticket for me, then refusing
payment - and all I had for a thank you, after the great rides and
great hospitality, was two words, a heartfelt Thank You!
Happily, I'd see them again in two days in Gubbio at the Nations Cup.
