Donna Quixote and the Mt House Windmill.

“See that pony over there?” say they,

“Where?” ask I,

“Way over there!” they reply pointing to the middle distance. “Catch it and teach it some manners! We want the children to learn to ride it!”

“Righty oh,” I gulp, responding in Australian slang.

Well I caught the little ripper (who is called Rip) saddled him and went trotting off.

I thought by having a name similar to my Hash tag we would get along fine! To say I have not ridden a pony for 30 years would be an understatement.

Pony riding is quite different to horse riding. And this one had some tricks up his hind leg. First time out I was thrown and then he cantered off into the whoop whoop. I had to trudge back home as I had no Sancho to dispatch for help.

Commandeering a vehicle and co-driver and set out on my first sortie. Rip was easily found and easily tempted back when a bucket full of horse cubes are rattled. “What a slut,” I thought. I accuse him of being a whore except that he is the wrong sex. The ride home was very similar to a charging windmills! Rip decide every contour on-route and every fluttering leaf was something so terrifying that he would stop and drop his head. Was he going to charge? Were these the windmills of La Mancha. But Donna Quixote aka Ripper is no delusional Don Quixote, the age of chivalry is dead, I knew what was going on. The little tyke was trying to flip me over his head. So holding his head high we gallantly trotted off home, well not really it was stop start all the way.

Second sortie Rip and Ripper aka Donna Quixote: Rip has decided that he will show me a thing or two. So the ride is a constant battle of wills because Ripper is valiantly trying to avoid using the riding crop. In fact she has left it home in La Mancha. We go to the airstrip and we just canter up and down, up and down, up and down because there are no windmills here just an windsock and the little bugger still tries to tip me over.

Round three, Rip refuses to cross the creek and I am nearly in the water head first. I pick up a stick and wave it, in lance like fashion just as Don Quixote. I had forgotten that horses espying a whip out of the corner of their eyes generally step back into line. Also I had pocketful of cut apples and Rip likes his apple treats.

Bribery is what makes Rip behave and we have a pleasant outing. Hope I get a fat Rocinante soon?

Don Quixote fully titled The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha , is a Spanish novel by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra It follows the adventures of Alonso Quixano, an hidalgo who reads so many chivalric novels that he decides to set out to revive chivalry, under the name Don Quixote. He recruits a simple farmer, Sancho Panza, as his squire and names his skinny horse Rocinante.

Published in two volumes, in 1605 and 1615, Don Quixote is considered the most influential work of literature from the Spanish Golden Age and the entire Spanish literary canon. As a founding work of modern Western literature, and one of the earliest canonical novels, it regularly appears high on lists of the greatest works of fiction ever published. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Quixote).