Forgetting your past: not standing of the animals you worked with when you were young

This is a very sad story that Yannis might not want me to share with you, but I would love to, and since I was there and this is my blog, I will talk about it. It is really very sad to be offended like that about your horses by people who grew with them and used them for their work and transportation when they were at your age, which means in many cases that they even slept next to them every night! You see, cars are faster and cleaner.

So, here’s the story. One night, we were escorting a pair of Australian tourists to the town centre. It is one of the services Yannis’s equestrian club offers. So, it was night and we were accompanying the tourists, who were on horseback, while we were watching and guiding them and collecting any pooh (which Ierapetra’s senior citizens have forgotten). In time, we approached the town’s historic fortress . Then an old man in his late seventies started yelling at Yannis, in front of me, the tourists we were escorting and everyone sitting in the numerous, busy seaside taverns around. “Take your animals out of here!” “What do you do with them every night here?” “This is my doorstep!” (His doorstep was a public pavement as wide as a door, so I guess he considered a public spot as his personal space). And please let me stop describing the story here.

I just feel so embarassed. How could he? That man lived and worked with horses! Like everyone else, he had probably built his stable next to his bedroom when he was at my age!

I led the horses away, far from the incident to avoid upsetting the tourists. But, of course, they weren’t stupid. They kept asking me what was going on, why there’s so much yelling, why we stopped etc. And the horses had become too nervous as well.

How easy it is to forget our own background. And how useless and pathetic seem to us our equine friends and workers when we get our first TOYOTA! This is a shame I will never forget.