We did lots of
fun things while we were in Solonyeshnoye. One of those things was
riding horses. My second cousin Anya works at a horse farm. They
raise and train mostly Orlov trotters but also have a couple of work
horses and one of some American breed. Anya rides Orlov trotters
during races but she also takes care of them all. She invited us to
come over and tour the stables. Those were some nicest stables I
have ever seen. Anya showed us around and told a story of each horse
that was in the stable (a few of them were out at a Federal
championship race in another city), and then gave girls a ride. The
only horse we could ride that day was the work horse (other good
mannered horses were at the race), and they didn’t have a saddle
for him, so Anya just led him with the girls on top. They had fun
nonetheless. And since I mostly rode bareback when I was a kid, she
trusted me to ride him on my own. :)
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| In the stable |
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| The girls are in love with horses |
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| Yep, totally in love! |
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| Almost ready to be mounted |
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| Lina is in heaven! |
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| Sophie |
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| Lexa |
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| Nika |
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| And me! |
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| This is the cart that Anya rides in during the races |
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| A mother horse with her baby in the pasture |
And while we are on the horse subject, every day we would have this little herd of horses walk by our house. I just love horses!
One of the days my
cousin Galya, Nika, and I went up in the mountains to gather some tea called
badan. This is a famous herbal tea from Altai and it grows up in the
mountains around the village. Our family loves this tea, and Nika was
very excited to gather her own. My cousin also taught her which wild
mushrooms are good, and Nika was very good at finding them. It was a
great day!
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| Solonyeshnoye in a beautiful valley |
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| Badan leaves. These are new leaves. The ones that are gathered for tea are 2nd or 3rd year leaves (they are dark brown) |
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| Nika gathering tea. |
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| Sharik (translated as "balloon") was our loyal companion |
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| Nika |
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| After the tea is gathered, it needs to be washed and then dried. Here is my mom washing badan leaves. |
We went down to the
mountain river Anui a couple of times while we were there. The kids
wanted to swim in it, but because it has rained for three weeks
straight, the water was very cold and somewhat muddy. They were
disappointed that they didn't get to swim but were happy to at least
wade in it and skip rocks. Summer is fun!
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| Anui with some cows coming to drink |
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| Playing on the river is always fun! |
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