Day 49: City Slickers - 27km

Carolyn in Champlain to Centre Equestre Ceraville in Trois-Riviere

I feel blogging will be a flow of negative complaints and opinions. Although I’m showered and dry and food will be made soon, I feel little comfort. Mostly I feel depleted, exhausted and sad to even express the day. Nothing tragic happened, but I feel myself dwindling. Growing tired. I have to try hard to clear my head of negative thoughts throughout the day. Simple things get on my nerves; people taking pictures without aknowledgng us when we say something. Other people just gawking at you when you’re having a bad day. The rain, being wet, feet slushing inside my boots after repeated downpoors. I never drink nearly enough water when it rains.. maybe it’s because i feel so wet and soggy the last thing I want to do is drink water. I normally drink 60 ounces, today I probably had 12.

The day started at 6 as usual, and as soon as Jewel and I went out to pack and layed out all our things on a tarp, it started spitting rain. Then harder rain as we tacked up the horses. Even with all efforts to stay dry, its simply impossible. We were on the quiet, wooded road by 8:21am. I just stared ahead at the pine trees and telephone wires, trying to clear my mind to no avail.

The rain slowed then stopped as we started to get into Trois-Riviere’s more residential area. By noon we were in the beginnings of the city. It reminded me of Montreal, a little run down, pot holes everywhere, signs in french, Depanneurs on many of the street corners.

We had stopped to put on the horses boots, I was getting very frustrated with Lux who would not stand still while I tried to pick, powder and boot his hooves. These two women came up and just stood there, very close to us. I was bent over Lux, but could see them peripherally. Unfortunately they caught us at a really bad time, as sometimes is the case. They didn't say anything, until finally I felt uncomfortable, these people are just standing very close, watching, not saying a word. "Hello" I say, "Allo" they reply in unison, then go back to staring. Great. The last thing I want while in my frustration, bent over and sweating trying to do up my misbehaving horses boots is to be watched. This continues for a while, finally I say "We're having a bad day." As my reason to not going up to talk to them. Jewel finally stepped in and spoke to them for a bit. They were just there to wish us well, but in my frustration I wanted to be left alone. Still finding the balance of letting go whats happening, and when to tell people I just need some space. Sometimes it can be the best thing to have someone come over and start talking to us to get us out of our heads, sometimes it's the last thing we want in our moments of weakness. This was one of mine.

We continued, more stares and questions, as is expected. For us it's just become our everyday, for other people, I get it, some have never seen a real horse before. It started to rain, again. But this time hard, big drops like crazy. I pulled my oil-skin back on and hopped back on Lux. The rain got even harder as we were headed to the bridge...great. Just as we passed a gas station, we saw Joseph underneath who came to meet us. We were trying to navigate to soaked horses across intersections without crosswalks and confusing Quebec lights. Jewel and Joseph just wanted to go right over the bridge. There were trees and bus overhangs just across the street, I wanted to wait out the downpour. So we did. Two huge bridges with 4 lanes of traffic is scary enough.. we don't need to be in torrential rain too.

The rain stopped, and the light was green, but somehow a truck was turning left at the same time I was trying to cross. Luckily they were going slow enough and I turned Lux quickly. There was a divided bike lane. Ora pooped 2 times on and between the two bridges, Lux pooped once right in the middle of the second bridge. Bikers went by us, one guy just came right up to the horses while we were walking and tried to pet them. I turned back and saw him do this to Ora, who kind of nudged him a little, sending the man into a biker that was passing. Just a little bump traffic, still it was kind of funny.. and always good to ask before petting an animal, especially one crossing a huge bridge. We made it to the other side! Yay! That's it!

Or so I thought. Little did I know we would be in the town for 3 more hours! Basically it was just a continuation of people honking, sidewalks that would end, leading us to crossing with no crosswalks or even proper lights. We stopped at the timmies right in town, Jewel hobbled the horses on the grass. As I was inside ordering, the girl had seen our Facebook page, and people swarmed Jewel and the horses outside, everyone so excited about what we were doing. I went out and joined her, we finally got to sit for a bit and eat our sandwiches, when a cop car pulls up.

Oh boy, I think. He just parks right in front, across the grass. I keep eating my sandwich. He rolls down the window and looks at me. I just keep eating my sandwich, hold his eye contact. He raises his eyes at me like "excuse me, I'm the king of all, why are you not at my side this instant." I just take another bite of my sandwich. Then he waggles his fingers at me to come over. So apparently I'm a dog now? I slowly get up, and take another bite of my sandwich as I walk over to his idling SUV. Already this guy has so much... whats the word.. arrogance? Asshole-ness? He asks me if I speak french. "A little" I lie, in case I need to feign ignorance. "You can't have horses in the city" He says at me, as if this is an obvious fact. "Oh really? I didn't know. We're riding our horses across Canada, and we've stayed at many locals houses, no one told me it was against the law." I say. "Well they're not supposed to be here." He says. "Again, I didn't know, I didn't see a law stating otherwise." I continue.

"Well do you walk the horse or ride them." He says. "Well we do both, but we walk them through the city." I say. "Oh okay, you have to walk them." He says, as if suddenly its okay to walk horses but not ride them? Then he says in french "Don't leave right away." And tries to drive off, but all the people that have gathered are in his way, and no one moves to make it easier, so he has to awkwardly back out.

We left right after we cleaned up our things. I wasn't being arrested, he had no grounds to make us stay there, and so we left. A cop car passed us later but didn't even slow. Maybe he had to check his book of bylaws and couldn't find one about horses.

Next time, I will ask him to show me the bylaw. Joseph figured he was just stopping to get his coffee and then saw us. Who knows. We went on our way. About 500 meters down the street, Ora, embarrassed to be caught by the cops again, had the runniest explosive diharrea I've ever seen. I couldn't stop laughing. We had been picking up all our poop with poop bags, but there was nothing to pick up, it just looked like vomit it was so runny.

Another 2 hours or so of navigating through the streets and traffic until finally we turned onto Rue Alexandre, and less then 2km away and we were at the massive Centre Equestre Ceraville. Katherine met us in the driveway and showed us around. I couldn't believe that part of the day was done.

We always want we don't have. Rain when it's sweltering hot, and the sun and warmth when we're damp and cold. Quiet country roads after hours in the city, and some houses and stores when we're bored in the forest trails. So I guess the only answer is presence with what is. As stressful as the city could be, it kept us enterained, on our toes, laughing to ourselves about the funny looks we got and how different people react. Some people love it, some people hate it. I'm finding it easier to carry with me the positive reactions that we have, people telling us how courageous and brave we are, how beautiful the horses are, over people like the police man and the woman that thinks we're cruel to our horses.

Our horses and f**king amazing. They went through busy streets, crossed huge intersections, stood at stop lights, and huddled beside buildings in the pouring rain. It was only 24km, we could have done it in 5 hours, instead it took 8 hours. They were incredible, and all the time, I like to think they have a sense of humour about it too. Ora, pooping every other block, Lux, carrying the longest pieces of grass in his mouth. They just go with it all and they will forever be amazing.