So this is a rather huge blog post because I have been naughty and not been writing my blog as regularly as I should - but as you will find out I have been VERY busy!!! And I have many little adventures to share with you all! I hope you enjoy and don't feel like you are reading too much of an essay... there are plenty of pictures to break it up!
Day out with Kaitlin's family
So a little while ago, Kaitlin's family came to Virginia to see her for a few days and they kindly invited me to go sightseeing with them. I was very excited because as you know - I love seeing new things. We set off towards Luray Caverns - the largest caverns on the East coast of the USA. I love caves and always have - the rock formations fascinate me and it is amazing to think how they have formed so perfectly over such a long time by nature and nothing else. I can't imagine what the man who first discovered the caves must have felt. The caves were actually discovered fairly recently in 1878, due to cold air rushing out of a limestone sinkhole at the top of a big hill west of Luray, Virginia, which blew out a candle held by the town tinsmith. He recruited some friends to explore what he suspected to be a cave and sure enough, they discovered an eerie, candlelit world of stalactites and stalagmites. On arrival at the caverns, the first thing that struck me was the sheer size of the cave - I have been down a few caves before but nothing the size of this. As we walked through the caverns, each room seemed bigger than the one before and passages were woven in and out of these rooms like a giant honeycomb.
I stared in amazement and gasped.
My eyes must be fooling me, I thought. But everyone else was staring too. Everyones' eyes can't be fooling them, I realised. The car was slowing down but I was hardly aware of it because I was so intent on what was sauntering across the road. He strutted across without a care in the world before casually jumping on the wall beside the road. At this point I came to my senses and began desperately scrambling in my bag to try and find my camera and take a picture of this incredible sighting of....
A BLACK BEAR!!!
He looked like a young bear that had probably only recently left his mother. Seeing this was one of the most amazing experiences of my life - he was so close to us, just a few meters away - and it was so unexpected. Unfortunately, after he got on the wall he didn't stay around for long so I didn't manage to get a good photo. In my excitement, I hadn't focused my camera properly so I only have a very dodgy looking picture that looks like I am making the whole thing up - but I have 4 witnesses who can verify my story haha!!!
Before coming to America I joked lightheartedly that I would be living with the eagles and the bears - never expecting to actually see any. However, Virginia has lived up to the stereotype and my musings became reality.
The interns of the MARE center were lucky enough to get the opportunity to attend the WEG Preparatory Trials which were based a few miles down the road at the well recognised Great Meadow equestrian facility in a local town called the Plains. The event included the typical dressage, show jumping and cross-country sections you would expect, which were spread across the course of two days. However, the event also included a bareback puissance competition, which I will discuss shortly. It was a great experience to be able to watch riders and their horses of such a high caliber (many of the riders were in or had been in the USA Olympic team) perform at such an intimate event.
When the puissance began, it became clear that there were a few that were clear favourites and some 'under dogs' or should I say 'horses' in the competition. One of these was a 13 year old 14.2hh mustang pony who was much smaller than his competitors and was definitely not as athletic looking as some his show jumping superiors. I was rooting for this little guy but didn't really expect him to go far. However, as the puissance progressed he began to impress the crowd with his big bold jump and before long, half of the competitors had been eliminated... but the mustang remained.
As the pole was raised above the 4 foot mark, more competitors were eliminated and before long the mustang was clearing an impressive 4 foot 6 jump! In the end, the little guy came second as he narrowly clipped the pole at 4 foot 9 which meant instant elimination - but it was still an incredible achievement and very fun to watch! The atmosphere at the puissance was really fantastic - the crowd was often in hysterics at some of the drama occurring with horses running off and generally pretending they were in the rodeo - it was very entertaining!
One evening, Melissa and Emily invited me to go with them to the Loudoun County Fair - so of course I jumped at the opportunity as I really wanted to experience some true American culture. When we arrived, the first thing that struck me was the sheer amount of food stalls that were splattered across the fair. Some of these couldn't have been louder and more stereotypically American!
One day Kaitlin, Melissa, Sarah and I decided to go for a day out to a historic old house that looked like a fun place to visit. I love going to stately homes and gardens in England so I was excited to visit the estate. When we arrived we were the only people on the tour which meant it was very personal and our tour guide wa s really good and let us ask loads of questions. The interior was very basic compared to what you would see in England - a lot of the furniture had been claimed during various changes of ownership. The house had actually been altered architecturally to look less English after the war in the 1800s - English style was somewhat out of fashion at the time for obvious reasons! What really struck me about the place was its history of slavery. The estate had been a plantation which was home to the largest number of slaves in the whole of Virginia - a total of 128. |
It really struck home with me that a house is relatively newly built (1804) in comparison to many old English homes (even my farm house is dated back further than this house!) was home to slaves so recently. In fact, most of the building and stone masonry at the house was built by slaves. It is hard to imagine that in recent history people were treated so unjustly, but then it is hard to imagine that this kind of thing and worse is still going on in the world as I write this. In fact, the tour guide told us how just 30 years ago in the Southern States of America there were still separate toilets in a lot of places for black and white people and different drinking wells. I actually found it really shocking and I guess I have been naive to think that such extreme racism is a thing of the past in the Westernised world. Please don't think I am segregating the states as a racist country - I have met a lot of racist people in the UK too that would probably act like this if they had the chance! |
The estate was also home to some very pretty gardens - they weren't the grandest or most showy gardens, but were really charming with lots of hidden enclosures. The gardens were just overgrown enough to have a magical and mysterious feel and were different to other gardens I have visited. I decided I would like a garden in this style one day!
Ever since I first arrived at the MARE center, the girls have been planning to go 'tubing', which is basically floating down a river on a big floating ring. We have planned to go tubing pretty much every weekend since I arrived, but for various reasons we haven't been able to go and something has always come up! However, this was the last weekend we would all be together so we were determined to go! One of the girls couldn't make it but we decided to go anyway as there would be no other opportunity. I was slightly nervous because I have always been a little afraid of water and although I am a much better swimmer than I used to be, I still have a fear of the unknown. However, when we were on the river it was really relaxing and fun and not frightening at all - I even began to wish we had tried the white water tubing instead of flat water! I even managed to jump off a tree swing into the river - I have never felt so brave!
The town is quaint and pretty and provides magnificent views of both the Shenandoah and the Potomac rivers. It is also situated on the Appalachian trail - one of the longest trails in the world at 2180 miles in length. It was also a stopping point for Lewis and Clark during their famous expedition across America.
I have been telling you all a lot about the adventures that I have been going on in the States but not much about what I have been learning - so I thought I would give an update on the educational side of my time here. We attended a lecture recently by Dr Kent Allen who is a very well respected lameness veterinarian in the USA and has been the vet for the Olympic team! We were lucky enough to hear him give lectures about hind suspensory injuries and the equine back at the National Sporting Library. He was a great speaker and was very informative - it is also interesting to hear the opinions of an American equine lameness specialist in comparison to British vets, as their information sometimes differs due to locational factors.
In addition to his, I have been working in the laboratory and helping to perform ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) tests and blood glucose and lactate tests, which have been very interesting. I have also been assisting with data analysis - somewhat challenging at times but I really enjoy it because I am a bit of a geek after all! For those of you that have never heard of ELISA, I won't bore you, don't worry! But in short, it is used to identify the amount of a substance within a solution by binding certain molecules to it that give the solution a colour - the more of the substance being measured within the solution, the brighter the colour will be!
We also have been involved in soil testing at a different local farm owned by Virginia Tech and got to take samples of hay for analysis - both things that I have never done before. These were really valuable experiences and very interesting, which you wouldn't really expect when thinking about soil and grass haha!
The other interns started a month earlier than me, which meant that they would leave a month earlier too. I had known this since when I first arrived but I hadn't really thought about it a great deal as I wasn't expecting it to come around so fast. But unfortunately it did. I must admit I was really sad that they were going to leave as I couldn't have asked for a lovelier set of girls - they were welcoming, fun and a good laugh and I knew I would really miss them when they left. We went out for a final meal together as a group at our favourite pub - Hunters Head (yay for British style restaurants!)
So I am now the only intern left...
It was hard to say goodbye to the other girls but I still had another month at the MARE center to learn new things and go on new adventures....
Who knows what that time will bring - I watched the the sunrise over a new chapter of my time here.
So until my next update (hopefully smaller and sooner!) - thank you for reading and take care.
Charlotte
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