No spare time!! Anyone else feel the same?

[NaeNae87]

So here is another update from West Aus

The last 2 weeks have been insanely busy! I have had 3 horses in work, my two and my friends little show hunter while she was on her honeymoon. Meet Leo... Isn't he a little spunk?

I have also been studying madly for my final exam for my Diploma of Equine Bowen Therapy which was on Sunday... I passed my prac with flying colours and I am feeling pretty good about the theory exam. So now all that's left to do is a few case studies, some massage units and anatomy and physiology and I will have a funky new certificate! I can't wait although I am a bit sad it is almost finished. I met heaps of fantastic people and thier horsesI also was privilaged to travelling over to the east coast and sat in on a fascinating lecture on equine biomechanics.

Now all that is over I can start concentrating on the show season! First cab off the rank is Bo. We are doing an unofficial hack show on Sat evening. It should be nice and relaxed. Plaiting is not allowed and jackets are optional, due to the heat. Even though I don't have to plait, Bo will still be having his socks clipped out, ears and whiskers trimmed and makeup applied. I think he looks pretty good fresh out the paddock...

This is also after GK & I's first jumping lesson since October, which is on Sat morning. We shall see if a 6 week spell, all the flatwork schooling and my new improved position can transform him from Harrier Jump Jet to Show Jumper.

(yes I know my hands need to come up and he needs to work into the bridle more, but it is a work in progress )
Add a Bowen Treatment to my friends 2* eventer and that is my weekend gone.

Next weekend is GK's first show of the year, Serpentine ODE. We will be doing pony club D grade (EvA 65/Intro 2) to start off with and will hopefully be moving up a grade by the middle of the year. It is only the second year of competing for the pair of us, so needless to say last year was a HUGE learning curve. I will be aiming to improve our accuracy in dressage, decrease the speed in SJ and learning to relax in xc and just let GK do his thing. Hopefully this will allow us to improve our scores.

We have a weeks break, then GK and I are off to our first ever EFA (aussie version of BE) ODE, it will be another EvA65/Intro 2 run to see how we go. Its down in Capel, which for anyone interested is this far from my home.

It's a reasonably long trip, but GK travels well and my friend will take him down for me at about lunch time Friday. Which will allow him to settle in before it gets dark and I will follow on down once I finish work.

The very next weekend is Peel Showman, which is a Dressage/In Hand/Show Jumping competition which Bo will be doing. He is doing the Prelim 1C test and jumping 45cm. Luckily this is just down the road from where I keep GK and Bo, so it wont be an epic marathon to get him there and should be finished by lunch time.

Add this to working full time, studying part time, taking the float in for a service... I doubt I will be sleeping much!! Hopefully there will be time for beach trips though...

Thanks for having a read through my essay lol, I honestly didn't intend for it to be so long! Wine and Tim Tams for getting this far.

 

[Enfys]

Oh I am really ready for some warm sunshine about now, very jealous of yours.
This is what it looked like in my backyard this morning, wet, sheet ice and windy, all white again now as it has been snowing for hours.

Congratulations on passing your practical, is this something you will be doing as a career, part of your job?

Your distances are like ours, no one really thinks anything of driving a horse three or four hours and then competing, we do it frequently in the summer. I also envy you your beach trips, we are landlocked, no sea for hundreds of miles, lots of huge lakes though.

Lovely to see all the photos, thankyou

I am constantly just chasing my tail, at this time of year I don't have the time (or incination if truth be told) for much at all. I have a new horse that I have only ridden twice in three weeks, time and winter are against me. I have 20 or so horses out, plus it is kidding season and right now I have 67 (to be precise) baby goats under 3 weeks old in my barn that require feeding three times a day.

 

[NaeNae87]

Wow Enfys, your yard looks so pretty! I bet you can tell that I have never seen snow in my life huh? lol The closest I have gotten to snow is defrosting the freezer.
The sun is nice, but it's not warm - it's pretty hot. You walk outside into an oven and it is too hot to ride unless you ride before 8am or after 7pm. Not that I am complaining, but a happy medium between super hot and super cold would be nice.

Yes, I want to do Bowen Therapy as a career. I got interested in it after seeing how much it helped my mum with her lymphoedema when she was undergoing chemotherapy, and have used it on my horses and myself with positive results. My therapist has offered me a job once I am qualified to treat people too. That will be fantastic as her business is already set up and successful. She has a good client base and she also treats people, horses and small animals so there is a nice variety. I would really like to help cancer patients and Parkinsons sufferers, however having lost mum to cancer it may hit a bit close to home. I will see how I feel once I am qualified though, at the moment the positives far outweigh the negatives

The distances are insane over here, most of the national competitions are on the East Coast so us WA people have a roughly 6900kms (4300 miles) round trip. I am assuming you are in North America somewhere?? The distances would be just as bad if not worse for shows!

Thankyou I am lucky both my horses enjoy the beach. Bo was trained and raced up in Broome and they did a lot of gallop work on the beach for fitness so he enjoys swimming for fun. GK on the other hand prefers to hoon up the sand and only likes a quick dip to cool off.

Oh I am glad it is not just me who is wishing I could be in 5 different places at once! The baby goats must be so cute, but 67 of them is insane. I cannot imagine how you manage to do that! Do you farm goats or have a goat stud??

 

[Enfys]

Wow Enfys, your yard looks so pretty! Noooooo, it is a mess, a lethal slippery mess today. Yesterday it looked pretty, tomorrow it may look pretty, if the sun shines

A couple of days ago:

Today:

I bet you can tell that I have never seen snow in my life huh? lol The closest I have gotten to snow is defrosting the freezer. Really? You aren't missing much, pretty when it is on the ground, horrid at all other times
The sun is nice, but it's not warm - it's pretty hot. You walk outside into an oven and it is too hot to ride unless you ride before 8am or after 7pm. We get days like that here too, although not consistently like you do, but mid-high 20'sC is normal and comfortable summer heat, when it hits the 30's I stay indoors

Yes, I want to do Bowen Therapy as a career. I got interested in it after seeing how much it helped my mum with her lymphoedema when she was undergoing chemotherapy, and have used it on my horses and myself with positive results. My therapist has offered me a job once I am qualified to treat people too. That will be fantastic as her business is already set up and successful. She has a good client base and she also treats people, horses and small animals so there is a nice variety. I would really like to help cancer patients and Parkinsons sufferers, however having lost mum to cancer it may hit a bit close to home. I will see how I feel once I am qualified though, at the moment the positives far outweigh the negatives I am sorry to hear about losing your Mum, a horrid horrid disease, but if you can help those who need it you will probably find it very worthwhile. A job is a job a career is something you do because you want to as far as I see it.

The distances are insane over here, most of the national competitions are on the East Coast so us WA people have a roughly 6900kms (4300 miles) round trip. That is a heck of a journey! Do people fly horses or ship by road?

The baby goats must be so cute, but 67 of them is insane. I cannot imagine how you manage to do that! Do you farm goats or have a goat stud??

Goats are cute, but the novelty wears off I can assure you! I get very young babies in from the dairy farms, all the bucks that they have no use for, I bring them on until weaning and then sell them on to finishers, sometimes I sell at a couple of weeks old, depends how busy I am.

 

[stencilface]

Lovely pics from both of you (although less so the slushy muddy one enfys!) love the little grey horse

I used to live in Bunbury, for 18 months at least, there is a great little farm shop on the main road near capel worth stopping for one veggies if you need any! I miss the heat of WA sometimes, but didn't enjoy riding or dealing with horses there. The heat, ticks and flies, oh god the flies! Enough to make me remember that the sea of mud isn't all bad, sometimes at least......

I will go back someday, but it's a long trip and there's so many other places I haven't been yet!

 

[NaeNae87]

Enfys - we were up around 40 degrees for a week around xmas time! It was horrible

And yes that is why I want to work with people. I want to give back and do something that provides relief - however small to someone going through something tough. That's also why I want to work with animals, they give so much to us that I feel fullfilled when I can give them something in return.

Umm most of the time people take them by road. Flights are super expensive. There are a few good transport companies that cost about $2000 one way. Of course if you have a truck or a float you can drive accorss the Nullabour... but it's a long trip that the averageperson wouldn't do by themself, you need another driver or at least someone to help with the horses.

Aww the goats as so cute and little

Stencilface - If I have time I will take a look. It's a lot quicker to get to Bunno now that they have extended the freeway! And because of the heat, the flies have all pretty much died off although they were shocking at the start of summer. I swallowed so many accidently not nice!!
GK is a bit of a spunk, haha. He is a cheeky sod too. I wouldn't change him for anything though.
It is a long trip, but worth it! I love living here, the beaches are great as is the climate. You can drive for 12 hours and still be in the same state... and fly for 4 hours and only reach the other side of the country. lol

 

[stencilface]

Stencilface - If I have time I will take a look. It's a lot quicker to get to Bunno now that they have extended the freeway! And because of the heat, the flies have all pretty much died off although they were shocking at the start of summer. I swallowed so many accidently not nice!!
GK is a bit of a spunk, haha. He is a cheeky sod too. I wouldn't change him for anything though.
It is a long trip, but worth it! I love living here, the beaches are great as is the climate. You can drive for 12 hours and still be in the same state... and fly for 4 hours and only reach the other side of the country. lol

I did lots of the ecological surves for that freeway, lots of rare orchids in WA! It was 45 degrees when I was there over Xmas, we went camping down in esperance and it was v sweaty!!

The bit about travelling that long and still being in the same place wound me up, within a 2 hour flight I can be in Paris, Rome, Barcelona, that said I did love the driving there, drove from Bunno to Darwin before went back, gibb river road is recommended!

 

[NaeNae87]

I did lots of the ecological surves for that freeway, lots of rare orchids in WA! It was 45 degrees when I was there over Xmas, we went camping down in esperance and it was v sweaty!!

The bit about travelling that long and still being in the same place wound me up, within a 2 hour flight I can be in Paris, Rome, Barcelona, that said I did love the driving there, drove from Bunno to Darwin before went back, gibb river road is recommended!

Ugh, I think I remember that xmas. I am pretty sure I spent it all at the beach haha

Esperence is worth it though, I would gladly put up with heat down there. Especially in the national park!

It was such a novelty when I was in Europe... Like you said, within 2 hours you are in another country. You can't even get to Adelaide that quickly from here and that's the next state over. The nice cab driver that took me from Russel Square to Victoria Station almost had a heart attack when I told him it was a 20 hour flight to get to Paris. lol He was like, oh stuff that I can just go to Spain. It's heaps closer.