I decided to articulate this post mainly through photographs, because this wasn't a day trip to Prague but an entire month of my life, and I think in this case fewer words and more pictures will say it better.
At the end of May last year, pretty much as soon as my exams were done, I took a plane to Athens to meet my best buddy Karen.
The two of us stayed the night in a hostel, had a good old fashioned Greek kebab, took a look around the Acropolis and then hopped on a bus to Kymi, and a ferry to Skyros.
You may remember that I had visited Skyros Island Horse Trust the previous year for a couple of weeks. Now I was returning for a month, and bringing horse-crazy Karen with me.
We bought the most delicious, succulent cherries I have ever eaten at the port, and ate them on the journey as the sun set over the Aegean.
This time there were new characters at the farm: Hara (above), a rescued dog, and Heidi (below) - a goat.
Some animals had been lost, too. Roughly sixteen cats come to the farm to be fed by morning and night, but they weren't exactly the same cats I had met the year before. Leon, the friendly dog, had also died. Hara looks very similar to him and was found abandoned on a beach; it's possible she is his pup.
We settled into the routine quickly enough. Mucking out, feeding, watering, three times a day (for almost 40 horses - no mean feat), and various other jobs as and when, including building a fence, clearing out the stables, and moving horses from field to field.
Taking Ifestos and Nefeli out for a bite of grass among the neighbour's grapevines became one of the highlights of our day.
As were our evening training sessions and lessons in horsemanship with Amanda.
It wasn't horses 24-7, however (well, not quite). One day we collected as many plums as we could from the orchard, boiled them up and made an exquisite crumble for dessert. In my day to day life, crumble is an unremarkable thing. In Skyros, where I can't afford to be picky with my food and snack all day and every meal is the best and most satisfying thing I've ever eaten, that crumble was heaven.
Our days and evenings off in the village were some of the best. Above is a rally against the construction of a huge wind farm on the island (see my article) for which the village turned out in full force. Karen and I ate chicken souvlaki that evening (and never looked back).
Over the month I made real progress with Orfeas, the pony I have adopted. On the final evening I led him out of the paddock where he has lived since he was weaned (again, no mean feat, and with the help of Stathis!) and walked him around in the field. I hardly recognised the pony who used to flinch from being touched when I met him in 2012.
My favourite night on the farm does require some words to articulate, because it was dark. I snapped this photo of the full moon coming up. That night, plans for a dinner on the rooftop terrace went awry, and we were all feeling fairly grumpy. But Julietta made us each a plate for dinner: olives, bread with rosemary oil, tomatoes, cheese. It was the most wonderful, simple meal I've eaten. The four of us - Karen, Amanda, Julietta, and me - talked and drank wine (except for Julietta, of course), and Amanda began telling us how amazing it is to be with horses in the dark when everything is so still and quiet. So we went out into the fields and sat down with the horses and even lay down beside some as they dozed. They came over and snuffed at us, pawed at us, eventually just chilled out with us as though we were part of the herd. It was the most extraordinary evening.
A few days before we left, a ferry tour group came to visit the farm. Karen and I put the skills we had learned to use, along with Julietta, and demonstrated natural horsemanship for the audience. It was the culmination of everything we'd learned, and a fitting end to our time at the farm. That night, I lay out in the stallions' field under the stars until about 2 o'clock while the horses chewed above me and dropped hay on my head, and knew that I would be coming back to Skyros for the rest of my life.
For more information about Skyros Island Horse Trust, visit www.skyrosislandhorsetrust.com.
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