This past week I've been on the trainingfarm. It was so different than what I'm used to! I'm used to pretty dressage and show jumping horses and people riding pretty and stuff. This is like the complete opposite. I've been riding for 9 years and it felt like I was riding for the first time when I rode for the first time here.
Day 1: We arrived in the afternoon. The people here really struggled with pronouncing my name, so they changed it to Guy, lol. So from no on till I come home I'll probably be Guy. We didn't do a lot of hard work since we had just arrived. First we got a little show around the farm. I also learned how to drive a tractor which was quite cool! For the rest we didn't do anything special, mainly work with cattle. In the evening I called someone who had offered me a job to take care off and ride Arabian horses. It all sounded very nice so I'd probably call them back tomorrow and take the job :).
Day 2: Today we had to get up at 7:30. But ever since I arrived here I've woken up at like 5/6am so that wasn't that much of a problem. I learned how to drive a quad and a off road motorbike. Both we're so cool, and I really thought I would be harder! After lunch we got to ride horses and I was so excited but it was such a disappointment for me. It was mainly my fault. I was too focused on still sitting "dressage-y" as they call it here. I just needed to relax, they said (which is easier said than done). I hope that at my job next week I can ride with English saddles and more dressage and show jumpy things.
Day 3: Today we woke up at 4:30am. We drove for about 2 hours to a different farm to go mustering. I was kinda nervous because we had to ride for several hours and yesterday it went so bad. But for some reason, maybe I was more relaxed, maybe I got a nicer horse, maybe both, it went so much better! I wasn't that got at the whole mustering stuff but I definitely had fun and enjoyed it. After that I got to work with calvs. At first my main job was to switch a gate so that the cows and calvs were led to the right field. That was a great job, it was easy, it was in the shade. Just perfect. Unfortunately that came to an end and I had to help getting the calvs and this little cage thing, where they're lined up. And I got to witness them being numbered in their ear, having their balls & horns chopped off and getting brand marked. It didn't mind seeing the brand mark & the ears getting pierced and numbered, but watching the balls and horns getting chopped off was so gross. There was blood all over their heads. Not a very pleasant view. After working for about 10 hours straight we were finally done, got to shower, have dinner and go to sleep.
Day 4: Today we did similar things as yesterday. We got up at 5am and got mustering at 6am. When we got back the guys from the other trainingsfarm arrived to get the experience of mustering. It was a bit more chill and relaxed the yesterday because there were more people to help around so the was nice.
At around 7pm we went home and we got McDonalds on the way home! I don't think I've ever enjoyed McDonalds more. I've been craving it since the day I got here.
Day 5: Today we had a bit of heat wave. At the highest it was 37°C! We got a bit of a chill day because of the heat and because we had two days of hard work. We went fencing so I learned a lot about that. For the rest the main thing i did was pack because tomorrow we are leaving for our actually jobs!
I had so much fun at this farm and learned so so much. I am actually very excited for my job! I'll keep you updated :).
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| Just a little indication of how dirty you get from mustering... |
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| Doing a little mustering |
