Let’s go BLUE!
Hi everybody! Wow, what an exciting morning! After an admittedly horrible wake-up call at 5 am, Sabine and I went to see Victor Muscat, “the horse whisperer” of Gozo, and his beautiful horses. I call him like that because his heart really belongs to his horses, and he is able to make them do a lot of funny things! 
So we loaded Ghalib and Blue into the van and made our way to Ramla Bay, one of the must-see places on the island. Ramla Bay is a very romantic spot with red sand and very clear water, a perfect place to sunbathe, relax, swim – and in our case, for a little horse racing! After getting out of the van and smelling the sea, Ghalib and Blue started to get excited, and so did I! We quickly put the saddles on the horsebacks and were off for one hour of pure joy!
What an amazing feeling to race down the beach, feel the wind in your hair and the power of Ghalib under the saddle – a pure adrenaline rush! In that moment I had to think about the German saying “Das Glück der Erde liegt auf dem Rücken der Pferde” (which means that the “joy of the world” lies on the back of a horse ). Which is totally true!
After having lost some races, Victor was so kind to let Ghalib and me win one by holding back Blue. What a gentleman. And definitely not nice for Blue, the most famous horse of the island: he had never lost a race since destiny brought him from Tunisia to Gozo, and to Victor when he was only 6 month old! At the time Blue was on his way to be shipped to France to be butchered, but due to a lucky twist of fate the ship had problems and had to stop over in Malta, where Victor was able to buy him off for peanuts. And Blue turned out to be a star!
All the excitement of racing called for some cooling down, and we took a bath in the sea. The water temperature is still lovely (around 20°C) and the horses enjoyed themselves a lot and started playing around with the water. Ghalib didn’t have any mercy with me and only stopped when I was wet all over!
We walked the horses (while trying to dry up a little!) and enjoyed the fabulous view from the rocks around the bay. What a great start in the weekend to relieve from stress and work and BLUE your mind!
By the way, for the ones who do not feel so comfortable on the back of a horse, there is another way of enjoying Gozo and horses: Victor also organizes carriage tours and has done a lot of romantic weddings with his beautiful white horses. Impressions of a tour on one of Victor’s various carriages are coming soon, promise… but not in a wedding dress!
Thank you for a fantastic morning Victor, Ghalib & Blue! 
For accuracy’s sake we must add that riding on the beach is only possible during winter, but for obvious reasons not in the busy summer months!
Victor Muscat can be contacted by e-mail to mamuscat[at]maltanet[dot]net or on mobile number +356 9985 8194, and if you stay at the Kempinski Hotel San Lawrenz, you may call at the Front Desk who will be happy to assist you in making a booking for you!
