Night Sky

Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Zoo trip

Az and I took our long-ago planned trip to the zoo yesterday. On Christmas day. Bad choice. There were quite a lot of people. But thankfully, not that many so that we'd have to push through tons of bodies to look at the animals.

Pictures will come below, but I want to mention something quite memorable.

We'd taken the tram ride for one full round, to check out and recon. on what sections of the zoo we wanted to focus on. After the ride, we walked to the sections like the Reptile Garden, the Australian Outback, Cat, and Children's World. The last section allows people to come into contact with animals like minature horse breeds (the fellabella), donkeys/mules/hinnys, and stuff.

I'd gone to gaze at one of the Standard Work Horse. It was quite large. And after that, I hung out at the fellabella section to look at them. Their keeper was there, this guy from the UK, who's named Frederick. I'd asked him if the horses were fellas or shetlands, and how about that large horse over in the other paddock? So, he answered my questions, told me the standard work horse was between 18 to 20 hands, and we fell silent for a bit.

He suddenly asked me again if I owned a horse. I said I didn't, but I rode.

So, we got to chatting for quite a bit. Az and I took turns asking questions about riding, about Frederick himself, his experience with horses/riding, and the potential of using riding as a skill to gain a PR in other countries. It was a nice chat, and we were both very impressed by his loyalty to the zoo.

Maybe I'll own a horse one day. Well, if not a horse, then at least a large pony like Anna is.

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