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Published: January 19th 2010
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My friendship with a Connemara Pony
“I must stay there for a couple of days when I’m in Ireland!” I promised myself after viewing those beautiful photos of Connemara. Where there is a will, there is a way. I was there some months later.
Having taken a rental bike for the whole day going along the Connemara Loop under the typical Irish weather, sunshine and rain and sunshine and rain, I survived and was able to return to the hostel safely, even though I almost crashed into a crowd of sheep blocking the road.
There near the hostel, I enjoyed an amazing sunset at Killary Fjord, the only fjord in Ireland, with ranges of mountains surrounding the crystal blue water. Those mountains inspired my plan for the next day.
I decided to hike up to the mountains in the National Park and chose to stay in a small village called Letterfrack, where the entrance of the National Park was located. At that time, I had no idea that I would see Connemara ponies there.
All my friends, knowing how much I like horses, could imagine how excited I was
when I saw two lovely ponies, one grey and one white, in the National Park! Ignoring the sign saying “Do not interfere with ponies”, I waved and spoke to them. Not surprisingly, there was no feedback from them. Then I started my journey to Diamond Hill, a familiar name to me as there is a mountain sharing the same name in Hong Kong!
After a leisurely and enjoyable walk to the top of the hill, I walked down and kept my eyes on the ponies in the field. I observed that the grey pony was more active than the other, kept chasing the white one playfully.
I walked towards them slowly and sat on the grass, keeping some distance to make sure I would not frighten them while admiring their beautiful and peaceful movements. I whistled lightly and asked them to come near me, in English this time, hoping they would understand me. English did work better as the grey one started starring at me, before stepping closer and closer towards me!
Excited. I told myself to keep calm as any movement might scare it away. I sat quietly on the grass, slowly switched my camera to
the no-flash mode and took pictures of this playful, curious and brave colt.
The young colt finally stood in front of me and moved his head closer and closer to mine. I tried patting on his cheek but he was so arrogant, or so shy to be touched that he turned away his face.
“Okay, don’t be too ambitious.” I told myself and sat still, being more patient. A short while later, he approached me again and started smelling my hair, my back and all of a sudden, I felt painful on the right arm - he bit me!
This unexpected greeting surprised me, and to be frank, I was a bit scared at the same time. He was a big animal!
“Don’t bite me again, or not I’ll bite you back!” I pretended to be calm and told him seriously. “We’re friends, aren’t we? Friends don’t bite…” I stood up slowly to look him in the eye.
He stepped back a little bit and seemed to be sorry. I gave him a friendly pat and he did not refuse any more. That marked the start of our friendship! We wandered on the grassland together
and he even tried to follow me as I was leaving.
“I’ll be back to see you again tomorrow. I promise, okay?” I assured him before I left.
The next morning, I came back but could not see them. Wondering if they would be kept away from the visitors after someone saw me wandering with him the day before, I tried whistling again.
Hearing the whistle, my new young friend appeared from the small woodland and came towards me. He recognized me! That day, he did not bite me, but did bite my bag, seemingly asking me to stay longer.
“My little friend, I would love to stay with you, but I can’t… I’m just a traveler, passing by for a couple of days.” I did not really say that to him. “Take care my friend” was all I could say.
I am not sure if we will meet again. The only thing I know for sure is that he will always be with me as I will not stop telling this story, being bitten by a playful Connemara pony, my little friend, living in the National Park in western Ireland, with Diamond Hill as
our secret link.
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imisstravel
MissTravel,女游人
More photos in Galway~~
My pleasure to share more photos in Galway and Connemara~~ http://travel.webshots.com/album/573836357JdrKkG?start=28 cheers~~