Today we finally had enough free time to catch up with writing again. The last few days have been rather amazing, but chaotic. Shaynee ran out of petro last night and her tank at home was empty, so we were rather late for work this morning. We got the horses in, caught, and got them tacked up in just over a half hour of scrambling in thick mud. I forgot to mention, of course it was steadily raining all morning. Our rides at the camp typically cross the river or go up a steep hill. The trail through the river is easier on the horses and riders, so we wanted to go that way today, but we were worried about the crossings with all the rain. So Steph and I went for a fast paced ride to see how muddy an alternate track was. We did a bit of a muddy race on two of the well behaved sports car of ponies and I made sure the river was crossable on ponyback. I was worried about getting my feet wet while crossing, so I put my legs up behind the saddle, but it started pouring down rain as soon as I got away from the stable, so the effort was redundant.
After the kid’s ride, we did a staff ride to get horses back for long rides over the weekend. We had to get quite a few horses back, so we each rode one and led two. I was on Babe (a sweet standardbred with a head like a dinosaur… she has a great trot, pace, and canter) and I led Optus and Will. Once we got into paddocks we let the led horses go and the herd continued to go in a single file line. At points riderless horses were leading the ride. I felt unneeded in the mix, the horses could have easily gotten home without us. They probably would have done a better job without us. It was moderately unnerving when I would look up as we rode through a cloud and just see a string of riderless horses. It was an uneventful, but frustrating ride home because I always had to urge one of my horses forward because they were holding back, or Babe would pin her ears and try to kick one of the boys, or one of the boys would rush forward and I would have to hold him back… horses.
Tonight we went to pick up our laundry from Sally who is a legend after we picked up lunch stuff from the Dugan, and we stayed at the house for a few hours. Max was running around dancing without any pants with his singing Spiderman, we were watching Australian football which is much more amazing than American, and relaxing and looking through pictures with Becky. I feel like part of the family. Because it was late and we had laundry with us, Michael let us drive his Ute back home… awesome boss! I love it here… I love it here… I love it here.
Yesterday, Thursday, we had a long day at camp. We had to bring the horses in by 7am and then had four sessions of rides. The rides on the same trails that many times a day should be monotonous and frustrating, but rather those rides make me realize just rewarding the job is. We do a riding demonstration, a short lesson, and then a short trail ride where almost all of the kids trot and a few canter. Our horses for camp are complete saints and put up with most anything. We have kids come in who don’t want to ride at all and are afraid of the horses. We have them get on just for the lesson and they figure out how to control the horses. They usually get excited to go out for the ride. After the trail ride most of them don’t want to get off of their horses. Once they get off they hug their horses and are more than happy to wash them down or feed them for us. It is so rewarding to see this change in the kids.
After the long day Steph and I were exhausted and just wanted to go home and sleep, but we had to stop by the River House first to meet up with the two day ride guests. We stopped at Michael and Sally’s house to pick up the blue machine to get home, but of course Sally kept us for dinner. Then we had to drive out to pick up Michael from the River House. I got to drive the car at night! Both Steph and I survived. It was a dark, cloudy night and Michael, Steph and I did a bit of a walk in a pasture to close a gate… thank goodness I am blind or I would have fallen a few times. It was lovely out there… overcast, with the sound of the river, the sound of horses, and the wind in the grass. A great ending to a day.
I seem to have very little recollection of Wednesday other than being hung over and moderately grumpy at work and having a yummy lunch with the camp staff. (See next two paragraphs to understand why).
Tuesday was our last day of vacation before heading back to work. Shaynee took us out to her friend Charlie’s place for a ride and it was amazing to go for a ride for fun. He does a lot of training and works mostly with quarter horses. He was amazingly patient with his horses and he had an amazing seat. His horses were responsive and quiet. I was on a bay gelding named Bazzle who was a complete sweetheart. It was nice being on a horse that picks up leads when you ask him to for a change. We went on a nice trail ride and did a good bit of trotting and cantering. For the first time in a long time I didn’t have to look behind me to make sure my riders were doing alright. I could just relax on my horse, enjoy his gaits, and marvel at the flocks of butterflies that were coming off of every surface. After our trail ride, Charlie taught us how to crack a stock whip on a cantering horse. I put a video on facebook… and it was awesome to learn to do. I feel bad for whatever horse I get next. It will be rather abused I am afraid; I will teach it to have a whip cracked off of its back. I did not hit more than my horse’s tail while learning to do this, but when I was on the ground practicing I somehow ended up with the whip wrapped around my face. Also, I think I was covered in welts from hitting myself with it.
Charlie made us yummy hamburgers for lunch (with a ton of veggies on them… I love how they make them here) then we headed out to the local pub. It was 4 in the afternoon, but we took a beer along because we could all use the refreshment. A few pubs and quite a few new friends later, we made it back to our nice house on the hill.
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