Busy Busy Busy

This week has been insanely busy. Just when i thought things would start to slow down around here, life seems to have notched up a gear and be churning along at warp speed. Top riders horse arrived, and low and behold he did leave it here after all. But before that we had floods (again), movie work, a boyfriend to see off overseas, and a whole farm to scrub clean, as well as all the other day to day chores of caring and riding horses. Oh and a poultry show to go to.... Chaos everywhere.





So the horse I'm to ride was to arrive on Friday or the weekend, the time was pretty vague. With all there was to do around the farm, i thought this was going to be just enough time to get everything 'ship shape' in time for the arrival. As well as that the boyfriend was to come up on Tuesday, it being his one week in the country before he was off overseas for the next regatta, he would add some much needed manpower to the jobs that needed doing around the farm, as well as getting to spend some time with him while he was here.....this is when things all started to fall apart....





The boyfriend arrived on Tuesday at midday as planned, he'd been here an hour, before the phone rang. When i answered the lady on the end of the line answered with " hey the job on the movie set has been moved forward to tomorrow are you still available?" SH$T!!!!! okay this job was a good one $500 for a days work, and a few of these jobs each year defiantly help supplement my income, plus there fun as you us uslly get to put on a costume get you hair and makeup done, and get taken a world away from life on the farm. But this week was not exactly ideal time to go down to the big city. could i fit it in?? after a brief discussion with the boyfriend, we decided i should do it, and come back to the farm Friday morning in time to finish putting sawdust in the stables...





This was a good plan until i found out i had to be at location at 5.15am, on location being 4 hour dive away. Meaning a drive down that night and a 4am wake up when i got down there. But somehow i managed, finishing riding, teaching my afternoon lessons, preparing the horses for my absence, packing my bags and getting in the car for the city by 6.00pm. The long suffering and much loved boyfriend drove us down, having just caught the bus that morning he spent 6 hours on the farm with me only to drive all the way back down to the city.

Movie job was easy, the early start was not, but by 9am id finished work, as the second half of the days shooting had been cancelled. All id done was run screaming through smoke and rubble, while the 'baddies' chased me. Not bad for 3 hours of work, and a nice little booster to my bank balance. It also meant that id get to spend the whole day with the boyfriend, bonus as time with him is precious and very hard to co-ordinate as we are both extremyl busy people with unusal schedules.

Later that night, while having dinner with his family, the phone rang again. "hey look i can drop that horse at your house tomorrow, I've got friends coming up your way, is this OK?" sh$t!!! i thought, but the words that came out of my mouth we "okay that's no problem, i look forward to seeing the horse". You don't complain about schedule changes, when you have world champions asking you to ride their horses, even their second string horses that apparently buck occasionally. Now i just had to figure out how to get home before the horse arrived..

So the next morning found me again driving home, along the winding state highway from the big smoke to my little farm. This time in pouring rain, and i mean pouring, to the point you can barely see out the wind screen. Halfway there i got the text from mum.
Place flooded, cant get in or out, stuck at home.
Excellent. So i had a horse on the way up, that i wouldn't be able to actually get to my property, this was not going to be a good look. I continued driving, with the miraculous hope that maybe it would stop, and the water would drop in time for the horses arrival...

No such luck, by the time i got home the road was almost closed, and our driveway was completely impassable, with as much as 10ft of water flowing over it in places, and the flat paddocks of the neighbors, completely under water. There was just no way i could get a car, let alone horse in, and besides the horse couldn't be dropped off because the truck would come to a dead end at the flood waters and be unable to turn around. I made the call, admitting that i couldn't actually receive the horse today, because unless it was a seahorse, i didn't have anywhere to put it. Luckily the guy understood, he had somewhere to keep it and the people would drop it off, flood waters allowing, the next morning. Then cursing my stupidity for wearing my city clothes home, i procedded to tramp my way in the rain,through a high bush track that wound alongthe back of the neighbors property, to a smaller a creek, that i jumped, and then make across the wet paddock to the house for the night.

Well it all ended pretty well, the horse got dropped off, the riders partner came along to show off the horse and give instructions for what they wanted done with it, he ended up riding the horse in, while i carried his two little toy dogs through the creek. ( i hate impractical dogs, although these were cute). I had to laugh though, after i had a ride on the horse, i turned the hose on to wash the animal down, and typical to my farm, not even a trickle came out, we were completely out of water. mud and floods and not a drop of water in the tank. Embarrassed i apologozed, mumbling a lame excuse about having to pump water and wash the horse later. Why this has to happen, when i try to make it look I'm running a professional stable, I'll never know. It was bad enough having to take the horse to the least muddiest patch of grass to ride, after slogging through need deep mud just to get in the gateway.

But they left the horse here, so i must have done something right. Its a gorgeous big buckskin, and expressive moving handsome fellow, who has become inseparable from the Shetland and the sheep in his first 24 hours on the property. Matai has tried desperately to meet him, putting on his most welcoming voice ( different from his 'stallion' voice he now uses to try and seduce mares). But big buckskin just ignores the little brown stallion across the fence, staying right behind the Shetland and the sheep.

Today i whizzed through the chores, rode horses, then packed me and the dog in the car by noon, and head to the annual poultry show. This is something we go to every year, usually with mum, but she happened to be away, so i took the dog instead. It is truly amazing to see how many shapes sizes and colours, chickens, ducks and pigeons come in. compared to horse showing poultry is much more affordable, some of the supreme champion birds would have little for sale signs on their cages. how much did they sell for? the lofty price of around $20 dollars, a horse would have about 3- 5 more zeros on the end of that sum, if they were that successful. I wouldn't help myself, even though i need more animals like a hole in the head, i cam home with a beautiful pair of Rhode Island Red chickens, and two little white ducks to add to our flock of birds already at home.

So i have neglected the wild horses, having done no more with them this week than throw hay over the fence. Sometimes it feels like I'm never going to get around to furthering there training, but hopefully with the chaos of the show season and this particurlarly busy week over, i will be able to do something more exciting than feed them.ill keep you posted....