A meeting....

One day in Austria while Phil was out on his competition run I went for my usual ramble up the lanes little knowing how fascinating it would turn out to be.

It was a hot sultry day and I was on my way down the hill after deciding enough climb was enough climb and I couldn’t possibly sweat, sorry, perspire any more when I noticed a rather red-faced elderly orienteer come charging out a gateway and promptly carried on his way downhill. So far so good. A couple of minutes later a rather irate man came also charging out the gateway shouting  ‘what the hell’s going on, why are these people coming through my land and leaving the gate open ?’. Unfortunately the elderly runner had not thought to shut the gates after him which was unfortunate and as I was just passing felt obliged to explain/apologise for his behaviour which I did. We then started talking about his border collie dog….

As it turned out I spent the next hour or so chatting with the lovely man who turned out to be a Dakota Red Indian who had married an Austrian girl and emigrated to be with her.  He had bought a small farm and was in the process of renovating the buildings and was also working as a horse breeder/whisperer. Each year he would buy some foals and train them up but in his own way – with the whispering method, so no ‘breaking’ of the horse’s spirit at all, just working with the horse. I told him about the horse place up the road from Forest View where I had watched an Australian horse whisperer in action.  He came over once a year and did a day’s class in the field there. No saddles and no proper bridles, just a sort of rope around the head and then the rider had to make the horse understand bodily commands and of course visa-versa – it was fun to watch as the riders struggled incredibly to make it intuitive for both.  Wasn’t sure who to feel sorrier for, the horse or rider as both were confused to start with.

The Indian chap had actually trained as a graphic designer first and was a very competent craftsman as he also had made his jewellery – fabulous chunky stuff – with bits of coral, turquoise and wolf claws worked in.  His Indian name was wolf claw so they were special to him, they looked pretty amazing to me too!

He had a tepee on his land and was quite surprised that I knew the name for this (didn’t like to tell him it was because I had watched so many cowboys and indian films as a child).  He invited me to have a look inside, it was full of animal skins (rabbit, goat, deer, silver and red fox furs) and was used as a sort of fun room I gathered.  He very gallantly posed inside  for me to photograph him. He had been to Britain once and spent 3 months with friends in Northampton of all places. He loved Austria but found the long long winters hard to cope with, especially the extremes in temperatures which got into his bones he said. It was almost as cold on his reservation at home but not for so long and not so deep a cold apparently.

All very interesting and unexpected, especially somehow in rural Austria.  And, so, I carried on down the hill to the ‘gemutlichkeit’ – cosiness – of mainstream Austria in wonder at you never know what or who is just round the corner!! Life’s magic moments.