Said goodbye this morning to the Dutch vet and two Scottish lads who had been staying at GH&DT. Still unable to communicate with my wife as phone can only receive texts but not send them or make calls. No internet access up river here so rather cut off from outside world here.The young vet Anna invited us to go with her on her fortnightly visit to local schools and to her clinic for horses at the nearby market. Several people all loaded into and on to the Toyota pick-up for the bumpy ride to the market first. Anna dealt with two horses first then left the local vet to carry on when we drove on to the schools. Anna took a class for an hour during which time she explained all about donkeys and how to keep them healthy. GH&DT have a policy of replacing the dreadful Senegalese bits which can cut an animals tongue with the conventional snaffle bit. A local donkey was then used as a prop as the vets showed the children how the teeth are filed and the children all seemed keen to learn. Back at the market, the vets exchanged ill-fitting or inappropriate tack for better more suitable equipment. One horse owner had used an old inner tube to stop the harness rubbing the horse. Anna took astrip of the rubber and rubbed it repeatedly over the owners arm until the friction burned him! He immediately understood why she was replacing it with on his otherwise good condition horse.
At dusk we walked down to a ridge overlooking the river to an observation point a few hundred feet above the water level. We were able to look down on the trees and see the wild monkeys swinging from tree to tree beneath us.
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