“Uhggg! I wish I was back in Moscow instead of being trapped with my 8th grade classmates -- who I don’t know as I have only just arrived in Russia -- in Altai for a whole week. I hope we finally get to do something nice or at least something ok, so time will at least speed up slightly.”

“But how can this get any better my only flame of hope is now extinguished…”

Than somewhere in this wood outdoorsy cabin thing, my head sprang back to life as I heard a teacher say my advisory teacher’s name,
“And Mr Treinen’s advisory will go horseback riding.”
As my mind bounced back into the real life, my eyes looking around if I heard it right. “Horse riding. horse riding, I like horse riding! This should be all right I think…”

We all got in one of those big white touristy travel buses and took off into the clearing up fog. Driving in the fog kind of strange; one side of me thought it was scary because we don’t know what is up ahead or coming towards us. The other side feels really calm and gives the feeling of autumn and the feeling that you just want to curl up in bed with a warm cup of tea besides your favorite book. Oh I hope this will be good.

Before I knew it we were in a small village type place, there is around thirty houses and probably more hidden beneath the trees, it was not the richest of places but it was definitely more colourful than the buildings in Moscow. On the other side of the village there were horses waiting for us. The funny thing is that it looks like there are more horses than human beings around here.

The horse I was riding was brown with some burning sun gold streaks in her main that somehow seemed to illuminate by the glazing sun. “Not bad, not bad”, I thought to myself, “so far so good.” There were all types of horses in front of me and behind me, brown ones, black ones, white ones with spots, fat ones, skinny ones, normal ones, lazy ones, hungry ones, males, and females. All of the horses in a single file line organized like a band of string musicians--besides the foals trotting besides their mothers or fathers.

The area where we were all riding in was a meadow, it looked like a river of green snakes with their tails up in the air. The meadow was prosperous with all shades of green and some wild flowers popped up from beneath the high grass which created a honey colour between all the greens. Out of the shadows of the trees the sun seemed to brighten the meadow in a miraculous glow. Like the dying embers of a fire.

My eyes were already full with the incredible sight of my surroundings. The trees were swirling in the river sented wind the grass was hissing like crickets singing. But than my heart started to pound slightly. There next to my horse was a rich caramel brown foal, just like his mother, trotting next to its mother (the horse I was riding). I never saw such a thing, the sight of it seemed like it was in a child's horse film. The moment felt like for ever, just one moment seemed to be captured into a flask vile, trapped inside the same moment forever. Just like a picture gif.

My mind seemed to go in summer salts as I just gazed at the creature next to me. Than without warning my head stopped flipping and focused on the teacher in front of me who said:
“Ahhh thats so sweet.”

Yeah it was sweet but I guess the sight was sweet the feeling of it was enchanting like you just stepped out of your favorite book or movie, you just want to wait for more. For the rest of the lengthy ride Caramel (that's what I called her) was pouncing next to us like a fairy about to take flight in the blinding light of the sun.

Somehow the foal made everything better the colours of the leaves seemed brighter and the wind smelled sweeter like hot chocolate with extra cinnamon on top; every thing just lightened up a bit. And for the first time in this long week, I was disappointed to leave the horse’s sweaty smell of hard work.

My legs heavy and sore; just like a person finishing a marathon, I climbed up the steps into the bus and thought to myself… this was actually not bad, not bad at all.