G'day Ya'all. Hell, doesn't time fly! And haven't I been a slack little duck!!! Anywho....we have been crazy mad busy here at the "Trek" team. January has been a month of hard work, mis-organisation (on my behalf of course :) ) and a decision to throw making plans out the window. (three times now we have made plans to travel to Cowell to map out this damned ride and three times our plans have been foiled! So Joe put his foot down and said "No more") So now we 'wing' it!
Firstly, I'd like to welcome Miss Erin Keough to the team. Having a strong background in event organising (yay) it is needless to say she has been a exceptionally helpfull (and organised !) member of our team. She is also an absolute fire cracker who is loving being involved with these critters (well at least, we hope she does...you do doncha ya??! ;0) )
Erin @ The Tunarama Parade yesterday (28/1/2012)
Joes teaching adventures and my learning curve has continued throughout Jan with more shoes needed tacking onto horses. Hell, this is a service I will forever happily pay for forever and a day!! Needless to say all three boys, Woggie, Buck & Tripper are now proudly sporting four shoes each ( and only 1 fell off!!!) Joe introduced me to "Cut those damn clinches off AS SOON AS you get the nail in girl..." that advice came a second too late as my hand now wears the scar as said horse snatched his hoof away! And I have introduced Joe to a all new, most unimproved way of swearing. Yes, I can run an endless string of swearwords with a mouthfull of nails, be audiable and not loose a nail...a skill i'm humbly, quietly proud off.
Joe and Myself, not after a shoeing lesson LOL
The horses are working well, Woggie has stepped up to the odd 20km trott out with ease. I swear the horse is a machine! He is a very loud, demanding machine at that...hell he WILL let you know when he's hungry. And you'd better get him that tucker before he finds that second octave! He has settled into the yards and become, as we say, part of the furniture. he has 'claimed' the two small yards (which open into one big one) out the back. And when I say claimed, I mean these yards are his! Buck wandered in one afternoon and was told, with hooves and teeth - "GET OUT!". And theres no worry of the horse running away, we have many times let him out into the big yard to have a wander around for a few hours and the horse has a stroll around, checks for any food, swiftly turns on his heels and marches back into HIS yard. So we thought we'd get tricky. We shut the gate- haha Woggie, now u have to stay out. Well, Woggie was p!ssed. Proper P!ssed. He stood at that gate (judging by the pile of shit) for hours and dug until we let him in. So Joe made the executive decision to let him be. Bloody bush horses, what would we do without them!
Buck and Tripper just had their big public "debut" at the Port Lincoln Tunarama Parade yesterday. After Joe and myself prepped our team of helpers (thank you so much everyone ya'all know who you are!!!!! x) as to how silly, naughty and on their toes these horses we're going to be (we even had an escape plan - if Buck plays up, drop the tailboard and put him in the float. Joe was standing for no crap today!) We got to the oval to line up and Buck (normally 14.2 hh) grew to 16hh in seconds! and he stayed that for a good half hour, eyes boggling at all the floats. Tripper, normally 16.2hh grew to a massive 17hh, towering over the lovely ladies tending to him. Neverless, he decided it was all to hard, came back down to his 16.2hh and put his head down, ate happily and ignored the whole show. Not bad for a four year old! In the end I rode Tripper in the parade and needless to say these horses, hands down, made absolute total and utter liars of us. And you couldn't wipe the smiles of our faces!!
My lovely Mum has been visiting this week and being a paparazzi in the making, has taken some cracker pics for us! She has also been flat out running around for me which I think has not so quietly been driving her mad but shes a trooper. Thank you Mum, it';s been lovely having you :0) xoxoxox
I would like to thank our fab sponsors, Pringles Ag Plus, Dempseys saddlery, Cummins Hotel, Cummins IGA, Mystic On Eyre, EP Dogz, Hair razors, Hair reflections, Port Lincoln Hotel & Allure Beach retreat. And to anyone who has donated THANK YOU. I heard a whisper we have just passed $3000 and with 8 weeks to go, I'm hopefull we can raise $10,000 for the RFDS.
For me, It's back to battle 40+ heat, a 50km ride that Joe is (quietly a little worried for me I think) planning for next weekend, Bum blisters (wrong undies in the wrong jeans - hope to never make THAT mistake again) and of course Trains, wild life and silly silly car drivers. On a serious note, please pass on to everyone to SLOW DOWN around horses on the roads, we have been passed on a dirt road at 100kms an hour more than once and it scares the shit outta me to think that these people may be passing inexperienced kids at this speed. People and horses get hurt, or much worse just because people won't slow down. Thank you to all of those wonderfull people who do, you make the roads safer. To those who don't SLOW THE F!CK DOWN, life is TOO Precious.
have a lovely few weeks and untill next time - when in doubt ride on!
xx
Ebs
