|First job as a groom|

After you’ve got to know the story of Pip, the owner of the horse farm, where I worked for 6 weeks, I’ll let you know my experiences during the stay.

On Sunday the 22^nd of May I took the train from Sydney to Windsor, which is close to the farm. The two grooms Maggi and Sophia, who were already working on the farm, picked me up from the train station and brought me to the farm. These girls are from Munich and came here to Australia after finishing their school.

The grooms have their own house and live right next to the house of Pip and her husband Murray. The wooden house includes two bedrooms, a big living room and kitchen as well as a bathroom and a nice veranda. Two days later another German girl called Kathi arrived and for the first one and a half week we were four grooms. We had such a great and fun time together.

 

We were working 6 days a week, 8 hours per day and Sunday was our day off. Our daily routine started at 6 in the morning where we’ve had short breakfast together before our shift started at 7. Our first tasks were to feed the 26 horses, fill in water and start to manure the paddocks. When all of the horses were done with eating, we opened their gates so that they can walk free around on the big property. Then we had to manure all the paddocks. Every morning, Pip wrote down a list of all riding lessons of the day. So we also had to prepare the horses half an hour before the lesson started. First we had to find them on the property – some horses like to hide in the forest and this can take some time to find them – and bring them up to the stables. Then we had to get off the rugs and brush the horses hide, mane and tail as well as clean their hooves. Afterwards we snaffled and settled the horse as well and helped the people bringing the horse down to the arena and mounting on the horse. After half an hour of training we had to bring the horse back and unsaddle them, put on the rugs and bringing them back to the other horses. Between the lessons we also were gardening and helping wherever Pip needed a hand. From 12am to 3pm we had our lunch break which we mostly used to go for a ride in the arena or the forest. This was just amazing At 4:30pm we started to feed the horses again and put on the night rugs because during the night it’s getting really cold and most of the horses are sheared – so it’s important that they don’t freeze during nighttime. In the outback the temperature can be extremely varied between day and night. After feeding we had to tidy up the area and our shift was done at 6pm. Then we just chilled out in our house, had dinner, watched TV or just played some games etc. before we went early to bed.

The sundays we mostly used to have a ride if it wasn’t raining. And after I was riding some horses I found my favorite one – Jasper, my white beauty He was sometimes a bit stubborn and when we were riding through the forest he was really scared of noises but I felt totally in love with him I had always such a good time while riding him and I miss him so much!

 

I have taken part in various situations during my six weeks of farm work. A really sad moment for instance was when one of the horses – called Raddish – died because of a heart attack. It was so sad to see Pip laying next to Raddish while he had his last breaths but later she said that it’s of course always sad when this happens but she was lucky that she could spent the last minutes next to him to calm him down and be there for him in his last minutes. Radish was only 22 years so they haven’t expected his death. Before they carried Raddish to the forest to burry him, Pip was kneeling next to him and her face was laying on his face – she stayed for a couple of minutes in the same position to take leave from him – it was a sad but heartwarming moment as well. It was also nice to see how all the people on the farm supported each other – such a great community. For myself it was a new and really sad situation because I’ve never seen such a big animal dead without any reactions laying on the floor and it was one of my favorite horses because he had a nice and funny character, quite similar with mine – sometimes confused and lazy but when he likes something he made an effort and he was always a slowly eater and everybody else had to wait for him 😀

Another situation was when a new horse came to the farm. It’s actually how life works isn’t it? If someone new is coming – another one has to move…

A family gave Jake (the black one in the picture below) to Pip because they knew that she would take car of him, treat him well and work on his problem because he halted. In the beginning Jake was a very shy horse and it was so interesting to see how he reacted when he was joining the new group of horses because he had to accept a subordinate role to some others. But after a while he became more confident and found new friends He also found his best buddy or love – who knows 😉 – called Flossy as you can see in the pictures below.

In summary I had such a great time at this lovely farm and with all the great people I’ve met! Especially thanks to all the grooms who joined me during this time My funny girls Maggi and Sophia, my character twin Kathi, lovely Sophie as well as crazy Vanessa and Julia. Most of the time I spent with Kathi and Sophie. I shared a room with Kathi and over the time we’ve noticed that we have so many things in common. Sometimes it was so weird because we’re like character twins 😀 I miss her so much and hope we will see each other back in Germany! As well as Sophie, Maggi and Sophia :-* And I guess that I’ll meet Vanessa and Julia somewhere in Australia again 😀

And of course thank you to Pip, Murray and Greg for everything! I miss you all so much!

In the following you can see some more impressions about my stay