What goes up must come down

I just got back from another two day ride and it was an amazing, amusing, hellish, fantastic two days.  It was a relaxing morning at the stable because we only had five guests on the ride and three staff, so Steph and I could take our time getting the horses ready. It is interesting learning about how to properly pad all of the horses.  We use a combination of saddle pads with areas cut out in them to relieve pressure and gel, or riser pads to keep each horse from getting rubs from their saddles. For this ride, two of the riders worked in the horse racing industry who came with their little sister who also had quite a bit of riding experience. The other two people on the ride were a pair of ladies in their late thirties who had a good bit of riding experience though they were a bit snobbish.

 I was riding Query for this two day.  He is a twenty-something year old big dark gelding (I know… it is shocking that I am not riding a gray).  He has amazingly high withers and a short stride at the walk.  He was a great change compared to Snowy and he gave me some good time to relax while riding.  He would leap into his canter and loved to go, but I could ride him on a loose rein and he followed nicely.  Of course I didn’t end up riding him the whole time. 

He isn't the best in pictues...

The first day started out uneventfully.  We made it over the two hour ride hill and to the Dungeon (a hut in the woods where we go for our lunch break) with only a shoe coming loose on one horse and a bit of a backup on a canter (someone was worried about other horses running up on her horse, so she held her horse back more... I still can’t understand the logic behind this, but we worked it out for the rest of the ride but having me ride behind this guest and keeping my horse quite far behind her so the rest of the guests could still get a good canter in).  Lunch break was the typical lunch break with less banter than normal.  Both Steph and I had headaches. 

At some point after lunch, Steph’s horse, Lawson, threw a shoe and Dolly, a chestnut mare with a guest on her came down on a rock and was walking slightly off.  So, I had the guest who was on Dollie get on my horse, Query.  Michael (our boss) had Steph get on his horse, Raff, and he got on the slightly lame mare, and somehow I ended up on the horse who was missing his shoe.  Lawson does not do well in the back, he thinks he needs to lead every ride, so I am in the front on a horse who is walking full speed ahead while limping. When we got onto a hard road, I got off Lawson and led him to save his foot.  I still have no idea how I ended up walking Steph’s horse while she rode Michael’s.  I found it highly amusing. 

Luckily when we got to Camp Howqua and we left Lawson there and Michael walked over to Riverhouse to meet us.  I rode Dolly to Riverhouse with Steph and the guests and on the short ride Steph and I glared at each other and were quite grumpy.  At the RiverHouse, we got to relax with nibblies (quite yummy ones), wine and beer.  Sarah talked with us a bit while we were taking a dip in the pool and she was her typical spunky self.  it was our job to cook dinner again.  Steph decided that she needs to improve her cooking skills, so I get to put salads into bowls and set the table while she cooks the meet out on the barbie.  I really like this division of labor, I get to snack and stay cool while she gets critiqued by guests about her cooking skills.  Of course our feast was amazing and our snobby guests were complaining… “didn’t you know that the wine glass should go just above the knife on the dinner table”… umm, no… we never do wine with dinner… Near ten at night after we had dinner and desert and we already cleaned  we heard a “could I have a clean wine glass”… they were all dirty (including the one you have been drinking out of and I am unsure why it is no longer up to your standard) so we offered them Champaign glasses because we were exhausted and had to get up early the next morning… but they replied, “that is a Champaign glass… I need a wine glass.  Could you wash this one then doll…” uuuugh.  Snobs. Don’t call me Doll… I don’t make enough money for people like you to call me doll.  Bite me, but of course I washed the glass and plotted about sticking a burr under their saddle blanket or letting a snake loose in their room.  

Luckily this morning I woke up in a much better mood than I went to sleep in.  Entertainingly we got assigned a room that just had one large bed in it.  Sally was quite entertained when she told Steph and I about our room, “I know we always joke about you two being a couple, but would you mind sharing a bed?”  (don’t worry mom, Steph and I are not a couple.. I like men, but we spend way too much time together due to working and living together… living in the middle of nowhere without a car… I really hope I meet some men over my trip to Sydney this week). Of course I don’t care, it is better than sharing a tent. So despite sharing a bed and dreaming of being attacked by ants and despite snobby guests, I woke up in a great mood. Breakfast was a breeze and other than the snobs, all of the guests were great! For breakfast Steph made great bacon, burn sausage, eggs (that neither one of us know if they were good or bad because we avoided them),  fried tomatos toast (not burnt), jam, butter, cereal, yogurt, and fruit.

While Steph cleaned up in the kitchen, I caught and fed the horses and started saddling.  When I opened my saddle bag, there was a small gecko peering out at me. The adorable, silly little thing wanted to come along with me. The guests were kind enough to come out and critique while I was grooming and saddling, but they were hesitant to help.  Over the night, another horse lost a shoe (poor Raff)… so we need to trade him in for another. As we are almost ready to ride out, one guest asked if we could put a fleece seat saver on her saddle for her… sure… fine… no problem (we are only already a little bit late and your horse needs his saddle put on perfectly or it will rub him). Steph attempted to help her, but lost her patience so I took over.  The rider started waving the fleece thing and the horse of course spooked quite dramatically, set back, and broke the twine he was tied to.  So, I was chasing the horse around, had to take ten minutes to desensitize the horse to the sight of this thing, then attach it.  Of course the saddle moved and had to be reset on the horse…  grrrr.

Jump!

 In the end we got to Camp Howqua with everyone in one piece.  I took everyone for a long, jarring trot to get rid of my grumpiness.  Nothing like a trot to make me feel better.  When we got to the camp, Steph jumped on Mr. T and I switched to Snowy who Michael caught and saddle for us to replace the shoeless horses.  I have no idea how I always get on Snowy, but I am most certainly not complaining… I love my little gelding. For the rest of the ride, things were less stressful.  I was riding my little hotrod of a horse and loving every moment of it. Who cares how snobby guests can be when I am cantering little Snowy.  His stride is short, but extendable and collectable and he reins on a dime.  His training is still coming along.  The one race rider dropped a pair of goggles that live on his helmet and I stopped Snowy from a strong canter and picked them up.  When I got back on, he circled rather than jumping around like normal.  Fantastic change! Poor Steph still hasn’t had a chance to ride my little horse… and he has already been deemed my project. 

I am mildly obsessed with this horse

We had lunch at the winery and it was my first time there, so I got to do the wine tasting.  It was actually fun and I learned that I like white wines a lot better than reds.  I found that I enjoy wine and I really like watered chardonnay (yummy oak flavor; yummy tree and grapes).  So after lunch and a glass of wine, we relaxed riders rode our horses back to the stable.  It was an uneventful (let me say relaxed yet again) ride back to the barn. 

Tonight I am planning our trip to Sydney.  I am super excited to go explore Sydney for a few days.  Our amazing landlord left us snacks for the trip and told us not to pay rent for next week and instead use it for vacation fun.  He really is an amazing man.  All of our adopted families here are amazing.  I love it here so much. 

If any of you want to visit while I am here, please feel free to.  We have a lovely place to stay and there are a number of awesome outdoor activities around here. 

Snowy has an adorable face!

Jump

Today was a rather uneventful day, but a very satisfying day.  I was at Camp Howqua (yes, I just realized that I had been misspelling it up through this point) again today.  We had both a morning session and afternoon session of rides.  In the morning we had a decent group of kids and we got them all cantering.  I was on lovely Snowy again.  I think he has pretty much become my project horse.  He was rather good throughout the ride, but we are still working on quite a few things.  He is not great about being left behind or going out on his own, so I try to take him away from the group as much as possible.  Near the beginning of the ride, there is a nice log about one and a half feet tall on the trail.  Typically the horses go around it and of course I hold my horse back and I jump it.  Snowy did much better at the jump today than yesterday.  Whenever the horse in front of him would break into a trot, he wanted to, so I would hold him back and make him walk.  As soon as he walked he would get released.  I led the group of slower horses on a few canters and some of those ponies wanted to go past us, so Snowy and I had to canter sideways to keep them from passing us.  At one point I had to ride back for a dropped water bottle, and when I went to get back on him after picking it up, he was a bit cheeky about letting me get back on (spinning and prancing), but once I got on, I picked up my stirrups right away and I made him stand for a second before I let him walk back to the group. Of course he fought me all the way, but I wouldn’t expect any less of him… he wanted to run back. He is a handy little horse.  For the second ride of the day, I actually stayed back to do work around the stable while Shaynee and another worker took out the ride.  Getting the other ride ready to go was a bit chaotic.  One horse was mildly colicing, one horse that was sound this morning was off this afternoon, one horse lost a shoe.  I ended up having to go into the pasture and catching another horse to use for one of the girls. 

Staying back was actually rather fun.  I untacked and washed the extra horses down.  After we wash them down, we put dilute bleach on their backs to cut down on spread of fungi or bacteria on saddle blankets and we put a solution on their backs that is supposed to toughen their skin up. Of course, before I untacked Snowy, I jumped on him and worked on his halt, consistent trot, bending, and of course a little canter.  He is super sensitive and responsive.  By the end of our little ride he was stopping off my seat and bending wonderfully. 

I can’t believe I have been here for almost a month already.  The time has flown by.  It seems like just a few days ago that I was stressing about getting tickets and worrying if the job would be fun… I now know the answer.   I love the herd here, I love my coworkers and bosses, I love the area.  I don’t think there is much here I don’t love.  I am impressed that Steph and I aren’t at each other’s throats, both living and working together, but somehow we are still getting along at this point (thank goodness). 

Misty morning

Today was a slow day, but it had a beautiful start.  When I left the house this morning there was mist covering most everything.  The call of the magpie was haunting from a tree in the yard where I couldn’t even hope to see it. Of course, with the mist, I was soaked by the time I got to work.  I was at camp Haqua again and we only had a camp ride in the morning, then an hour ride in the afternoon for a family.   I got to ride my lovely Snowy boy again.  I think he is pretty much assigned to me as my project.  He is getting better almost every day.  He did not want to stand still as I mounted, but he did.  He was a bit go-ie when I got on and a bit prancy and his back was humped, but he didn’t do anything.  I started out with him in the back and he settled pretty quickly.  I jumped him over a nice little log and he has a beautiful jump, not that I would expect any less from him.  Before we took some of the kids for a canter, I switched with Shaynee and I led the canter group for a couple of nice canters.  Snowy came back to me rather well after the canter.  Again he was a bit prancy, but nothing bad.  I think he will be ready for guests in no time at all. 



I love this yard



Winter Sports

Today I went water skiing for the first time in my life!  Steph and Shaynee had a tough day at work, so afterwards they decided to take the boat out on the lake.  They picked me up, then we met  Sandy and Gray at the lake with the boat.  We went out on Lake Eidon which has more water this year than it has had in quite a while, so quite a few trees are underwater. 

Underwater Trees... poor guys

I thought it was unbelievably beautiful out there.  Shaynee got on the water first and showed us how to water ski.  Apparently you had to start with your knees to your chest, and your skis sticking out of the water a small distance apart… and we should never cross the skis.  Then, as the boat speeds up, the water pulls your skis under you and with strait arms your pull yourself up… it sounded easy and looked easy when Shaynee did it.  After her turn, I got to give it a go.  In my first attempt, my legs were a bit wide so I did a bit of bum skiing before I attempted to stand up and promptly fell.  After  few more tries, I was up and I (perhaps stupidly) stayed up for a while and rode in and out of the wake.  It was really really really fun!  It was quite like skiing on snow, I had to bend my knees and balance the same way as on the snow, but it hurt a lot less to fall.  Falling on a hot day was actually fun!

Steph took a turn after me and I think the skis were a bit big on her.  She did quite well and had some splendid falls, but also had a ton of fun and got up on the skis.  After all of us kids had a go on water skis, Sandy and Gray took a turn on the fun raft like thing, then we found a place to pull the boat over and we grilled sausages for dinner.  We were ravenous and the food was amazing. 

Kangaroo

Today I had another day off.  I was lazy most of the day just reading and whatnot, but this evening I went for a nice long walk.  It was rather entertaining because I had a Kelly S. moment with a kangaroo.  I stopped on the trail to take a few pictures and a kangaroo haphazardly bounced onto the trail.  It stopped when it saw me and the two of us just looked at each other.  I luckily had my ipod up and took a quick picture of it.  After a bit, it slowly sidestepped into the bush where I heard cracking and lots of other noises.  It was quite amusing. 

I also found an awesome spider while I was out on my walk. 

Family and chicken

Steph and I both had the day off.  Thank goodness for that; we needed it.  Michael went into town in the afternoon and offered to drop us off for the day, so we took him up on his offer.  I found a used clothing shop in town (a church shop) and I got some used books.  I think that will end up being one of my favorite stores.  I love used books.  I needed more books!  Next we explored town.  There are actually some great shops in this town.  There is a cool little health food store and two tack shops!  Those tack shops may be my downfall.  They have so many interesting kinds of bridles and saddles in them. 

We went to a little coffee shop and had tea and read for a while, then after a bit more wandering we went out to dinner.  The restaurant we went to was amazing!  I ordered chicken and noodles and it was the best dish I have had to use chopsticks to eat in a long time.  The veggies in it were crisp and the noodles were well seasoned.  The chicken was tender.  With it, I had a nice raspberry beer.  YUM!  I am finding that I actually enjoy a good beer now! 

When Michael brought us back, he invited us in for a drink and we had an awesome night hanging out with their family.  I got to meet Becky’s horses and play with the dogs.  I love it and I feel completely adopted by their family. 

This weekend was another wild one.  We had a two day ride yesterday and today. Yesterday was a bit of a mess because two of the riders were over an hour late for the ride, so the rest of the ride went out and I waited for them and was to meet up with the rest of the group later. When the couple came they turned out to be great!  I was left with Fly, for whoever turned out to be more experienced, Peter, for the less experienced, and Snowy for ME!!!  The couple was from Canada and Ann was a quite experienced rider and her husband had only ridden a few times, but he was very capable.  For us to meet up with everyone we had to do quite a bit of cantering, but we made it there in one piece and happy!  We met the rest of the group at the lunch stop.  Yet again it was a great lunch of roll ups with tons of veggies and cheese and meat with yoyos for desert.  YUM!  Snowy was a complete different horse than the first time I took him on the two day ride.  He didn’t jump over the creeks, he calmly walked through.  He only jumped logs when I asked him to.  He is very responsive and has a great neck rein.  The only time I had trouble with him was when I got off to open gates.  When I went to get back on he was a prancing spinning mess.  Luckily I am used to getting on a moving horse.  After I got on I tried to make him stand so he was bucking and half rearing a bit.  When we got to Sarra’s riverhouse we untacked the horses and washed them down.  Then we got drinks and nibblies to everyone and Michael and Sally left Steph and I to cook and take care of everyone for the night.

We had some free time so we went for an amazing swim.  The newly engaged couple was there, the English cousins came out, and the Canadian couple also came out to the pool.  Everyone was highly amusing and very pleasant and the cool swim was awesome after a long ride.  Everyone helped out with most everything.  After the swim we showered then got ready to cook dinner.  Steph cooked the meat while I set up the tables, set the table, and prepared the salads and drinks.  Dinner was a great success and we had great conversations. 

The next morning I had to head back to the stable to lead out other rides while Steph went on with the two day ride.  In the morning I brought the herd in by going out with a feed bag and shaking it until the herd followed me in at a trot. I tacked up Snowy and led Jaffa and the new gelding.  Snowy was great and Jaffa ponied right next to me.  The new horse really hung back, but by the end he was alright.  Once I got those three horses back to Camp Haqua I had to drive back to the stable.  It was a bit tricky to drive on the left side of the road, but easily doable.  The biggest difference is the turning signal is on the right rather than the left and the gearshift is on the left rather than the right. 

I got back to the stable just in time to jump on my horse and leave on the ride.  I rode Raff for the day, he is a big annoying gray gelding.  He is slow going out and needs a ton of leg, he gets prancy heading home and pulls like a freight train.  I did not like him at all.   His gaits were long, but nothing special.  We had a two hour ride in the morning and the people on it were great, but we couldn’t do much with them because they had a seven year old who had never ridden before.  So we took it slow and only did a small bit of trotting and we were unable to go up the big hill like we usually did.  The ladies on this ride were great and told me that I am really good at my job.  This made me rather happy because I am still getting used to being a horseback guide.  After ten minutes to grab lunch we had an hour ride.  It was another group of four and this time none of them had ridden before.  So again, we only did a little trotting and overall it was a boring ride, but the kids and the mom seemed to have fun.

After this ride Nina and I had a small bit of time to untack the horses and wash them down, then Sally came to pick me up and take me to the winery.  I joined the group for a glass of wine, then we had to ride and pony horses back to the stable.  This time I rode Bert… my third horse of the day.  Bert is an adorable little chestnut arab gelding.  He has a bit of spunk and sometimes gets a little wound up.  I was ponying Fly, the bitchy chestnut mare.  As we left the winery Bert was bouncing up and down as Fly was pinning her ears.  Michael of course was urging Bert on… taunting him with are you excited Bertie… do you want to go Bertie.  At this point Bert’s front end was bouncing off the ground non-stop in harmless half rears.  As we kept riding he settled first into a frantic jig then finally into a nice walk.  Near the end of the trail we decided to go on a canter.  Michael was first on Lawson and ponying two horses and he went great.  Next one of our guests was on Jordie and did great, then a guest on Nelly ponying Ox.  I was next and rather than cantering Bert started bouncing up and down while Fly pinned her ears at him and attempted to attack him.  I couldn’t stop laughing… I was attempting to get Bert to stretch his stride out and actually canter while trying to yell at and correct Fly.  It was rather entertaining.  Steph was behind me on TC leading Pete.  TC really wanted to move out, but Pete wouldn’t break into a canter so she ended up almost laying completely back on TC trying to drag Pete.  It was a great end to a great day. 

horses can swim...

Yesterday we had a ride in the morning at the camp and we decided to take the kids swimming with their horses, but the trails have washed out quite a bit with all the rain.  So, a place where the horses normally cross the river without swimming, they had to swim this time.  One girl fell off of her horse in the water, but she was alright.  A second girl fell off of her horse and her horse decided he couldn’t swim and gave up.  It was quite an entertaining fiasco.  I got my horse, Katie, out of the water, got both of the girls to the bank of the water, then jumped in to save poor Star, the horse who didn’t think he could swim.  He was floating on his side, with just his eyes and nose above the water and a mournful look on his face. Of course I was fully clothed with riding boots, jeans, and my western shirt on.  I also had my camera with me and a walkie talkie in a harness on my chest.  So I held my camera up over my head, and jumped into the water.  I swam out (with my new camera still over my head) and grabbed Star’s reins.  I towed him in (so now I had the reins in one hand and the camera over my head in the other hand (thank goodness for legs) and I dragged him to the edge of the river.  I could stand up at this point, but poor Star thought it was all over and it took him a bit to realize that he could easily stand up.  In the end everyone was fine, but we now have a ton of things to laugh about! 

Today was also a great day.  I got to try out Mitch, one of the ponies that I love, before the kids came for their ride.  I got to ride a different horse, Woodman, for the first session of kids.  I got to ride Andy, a nice thoroughbred who really tries hard, to bring some horses in.  Then I got to ride Combo, a wonderful horse with great gaits for the last session where I got to walk, trot, canter, and jump him.  Shaynee told me that whenever I find anything that looks like fun to jump, that I should feel free to just go for it.  I love it. I get to ride fun horses, pick what horses I want, and really work them how I see fit. I am really getting back into riding shape and my confidence is back completely with horses.

Herding from horseback

Today we had to be at the barn at 7:15 am. To tack up two horses for us to move to camp Haqua, Mr. T and Andy. When we got there I rode Andy through the river and Steph took Mr. T. We rounded up the herd from horseback.  It was amazing cantering behind the herd and keeping them in line as we ran them in.  We had a group of kids who weren’t the best riders, but by far weren’t the worst riders I have seen. Of course a few of them panicked, but overall it turned out all right.  I rode Katie again on the ride and she was a fantastic little mare. 

When we got home I had a relaxing night of eating and reading.  I went out after dark into the most glorious night of bright stars and a full moon.  I love it here.

Snail!

Today is a day off for us.  It is another dreary rainy day.  The fourth in a row I think.  Other than being rainy, it is rather nice to have a day off.  Yesterday I found the most adorable terrestrial snail.  He was rather large, about the size of a quarter, and had a snail like a Chinese mystery snail.  He wasn’t shy at all and didn’t go back in his shell even when I picked him up.  Today Sally is going to take us grocery shopping and we are going to do our laundry at their house.  She is amazing for taking care of us like this.  I really enjoy having this place to ourselves during the week.  I like putting together meals and snacks from almost nothing.  I am rather excited about going back to Yellowstone next summer.  I love it there.  I love the horses and the mountains and the town. 

Summer Camp

Today we had a day ride at the summer camp and it rained most of the time.  We wore nice oilskin dusters, but were still soaked through before we got the horses tacked up.  There was a nice group of ponies in this lot and Steph got to ride an adorable little appy mare.  I was on a gray mare, Katie, who was a lovely ride, though she was a bit forward.  We took a group of kids who were at camp for the week out for three hours and most of the kids had no idea what they were doing.  It was quite chaotic to try to keep everyone in line out on the ride and we had to use ourselves and our horses as blocks a lot of the time to keep ponies and kids from trotting in every direction.  It was beautiful out on the ride though.  There were wallabies jumping all over , mist rising out of the hills, birds singing, while we were riding up the road at a lovely smooth trot.  I love it here!

living in a guest house

Today we got out of work rather early.  It was a fantastic day at work again, a bit overcast and rainy (thank goodness… it gave me another day I could worry less about getting sunburnt) but still plenty warm.  Today I had a rather unexciting ride on a nice chestnut mare named Avoca (or something like that).  She was a perfectly fine ride, but there is no real spunk in here.  She has absolutely no buck, no real motivation to do anything other than what the horse in front of her is doing.  A bit dull, but a safe ride.  Today we just had a 2 hour ride, and then we oiled some saddles.  Easy day!

When we got home from work today the guests had left so we had the place to ourselves again.  I should clarify here.  Steph (my coworker from Yellowstone) and I are staying at a guest house lodge like place not very far from the stable.  It is amazing and our landlord is great.  He had six guests this weekend and they were great fun.  They actually ended up going on a winery ride with us yesterday.  But anyway, with the guests leaving, our lovely landlord left us all of the food he had left from them.  It is probably about a week’s worth of food for the two of us.  Everyone here really seems to be looking out for us, making sure we get enough to eat and whatnot. 

I just realized that I left out two big days that we were here.  On the second and third day of work, I went on a two day luxury ride!  Our coworker who actually brought me out here, Shaynee, was sick so both Steph and I had to work this trip.  The ride was outstanding.  I rode Snowy both days.  Wow, I love that gelding.  The first day we rode out, then stopped a few hours into the ride for lunch.  Sally, one of the owners of the business, brought lunch out to us.  It was a splendid variety of veggies, meats, and cheese to make wraps.  Then we got back in the saddle for the second half of the ride.   As we left there, I was told that my horse may have never crossed streams before.  Of course, we then crossed the stream about 20 times.  Snowy jumped it wonderfully every time.  At one point the stream was rather wide followed by a good bit of brush, so Snowy of course went over it in one large leap.  I was laughing my head off after that one.  We also had to cross the river a number of times.  It was rather fun to have the horses almost take us swimming.  When we got to the accomidation for the night, it turned out to be the guest house of one of my friends from a packtrip this summer.  It was great to see Sara again and her place was amazing!  There was a nice large paddock for the horses and plenty of rooms for all of us.  Of course she also had a swimming pool for us to play in.  On this trip Steph and I also had to make dinner, so we had to grill marinated steak and chicken.  It was outstanding!  We actually didn’t screw it up!  Everyone loved dinner and everyone pitched in to get everything done. 

The next morning Steph had to leave to lead day rides, so I got to cook breakfast of eggs, bacon, toast, and fried tomatoes.  It was a great breakfast (at least I think so).  On the ride back I worked on my horseback gate opening skills.  Sometimes Snowy got a little riled up from it, but he was overall great.  We had the most amazing canter on the way back.  We were going uphill and I was in charge of the second group, so we did a rather fast canter up a rocky hill.  The wind was lovely in my face and the sound of horses hooves surrounded all of us.  Dirt was flying and the horses were snorting.  Snowy has the most amazing stride, so when I needed to slow down to motivate one of my riders to get back into the canter when the broke into the trot, Snowy would slow and collect his canter to a beautiful comfortable gait.

Wine, horses, and adopted family

Tonight I am just getting back from dinner at our boss’s house.  They are really really great people.  We had a long day at work today where we led a winery ride, then the herd was driven home and we rode and ponied a few horses back.  Of course we had to do a bit of a canter while riding back.  It was awesome.  I rode my lovely little Snowy again (I love this little gelding) He is an Australian stock horse.  He has a great neck rein on him and his gaits are shockingly smooth.  The bosses hooked us up with internet and a cell phone so we can keep in touch while we are here.  Of course we were offered a few beers while at their house and we had to stay for dinner.  We rode home for the night in the blue machine, a gator like device, we bumped through the dark with the weak headlights hardly lighting the way, but attracting bugs in the warm evening.  I love it, we are adopted here!

First Day of Work: January 5, 2011

Today was our first day of work and work we did.  We had our first ride this morning; a two hour ride with 18 people on it then in the afternoon a one hour ride with less people on it.  It was a different routine than before, but horses are horses.  No matter what they are somewhat the same.  The feed over here is quite different compared to our heavy sweet grains.  They seem to feed hay chaff sweetened with a tiny bit of molasses.  I don’t think I would want to taste this horse feed.  Our herd seems to have some of the same problems as the Yellowstone bunch, but overall they seem rather great.  One thing that took me by surprise here is the no worries attitude.  Small mistakes that would have driven any of my American employers crazy were just shrugged off.  Another different thing over here is that we aren’t going to be completely in charge of any of the rides on our own.  We will always have someone else out there with us.  Today I rode Jeffer (turns out it is actually spelled Jaffa… just with the accent we completely misheard his name) in the morning.  He is a nice little chestnut quarter horse gelding.  He has had a rider that let him get away with a lot, so he will try to barge through my hand, but he isn’t bad to ride at all.  He needs to be told what to do quite a bit, but still overall he was rather fun.  The other horse I rode today was a green chestnut mare named Delight.  She is green, but willing.  She gets a bit upset at times, but she is not at all dangerous.  The other horses I can remember right now are Nelly, a tall rangy strangely brown mare; Mitch, a little jolly paint gelding; Woodman, a big appy gelding with a silly troublemaking personality;

These rides are a ton of fun because not only is the scenery amazing, but we get to trot and canter a bit as well.  We split the group up into groups depending on their experience, and then have some of the group canter and the rest trot or if some people want to walk, one of us will hang back to let them walk.