December 12th, Margaret River

It’s been a while, sorry! I’ve been very busy at the farm and had a bit of a writer’s block, but I’m back!
Today I finally got to do some practicing on hoof trimming. I get to practice on a piece of wood until Sam teaches me everything and then I move onto the real horses. I get the feeling that Sam is a very good teacher as he is good at explaining and lets his students reenact what he shows them, and he gives positive comments on your progress. I can’t wait for him to teach me about horsemanship.

A few days ago I bumped into my friend the Huntsman spider again – I have decided to call him Spiderpig. Because he’s big and a bit pinkish. I was cleaning up some stuff in the kitchen and my colleague Martina – A.K.A. Sweden – called me and said:”Celestine! This is why we shake the rain coats before we put them on or give them to the tourists.” And she pointed out Spiderpig on the wall. I absolutely did not expect that and she almost gave me a heart attack. My sweat glands started pouring sweat and I had to calm myself down because I was still waking up as it was only 8AM. Thanks for waking me up Sweden…

Then today, I was driving the quadbike up to the paddock where I would go to split some more wood, and all of a sudden I saw two alpaca’s in the middle of the gravel road looking at me. I had to look twice because I honestly didn’t know that our farm had alpaca’s, and was wondering where they’d escaped from. I drove back and asked Sam what to do, and he told me to drive them back into their paddock. All said and done and as I was driving through the paddock to check whether all the gates were shut, I saw a group of three wild kangaroos hopping by at about 20 meters distance! It was so cool to finally see some real wild kangaroos! We have our little rescue kangaroo Poppy Roo here at the farm but this was the real deal!

I haven’t told you yet about Poppy Roo! Sadly, her mom was killed in a car accident, but people from the farm rescued her and raised her at the farm. She is now three or four years old but still looks like a little kid kangaroo. Apparantly kangaroos grow very slowly and only get bigger at an older age. Poppy now lives a very happy life in a paddock she shares with some horses and fools around with the dogs every now and then, and even has her own little house. It’s my responsibility to feed her some cereal every night so I get to cuddle her every single day!

Okido, I think that’s it for now. Over the next couple days I hope to learn some more about hoof trimming and go on another trail ride, and while I’m waiting for the courses in January, I’m observing the other people working with their horses and colts, in order to learn as much as possible even before the courses start. How’s that for a learning attitude?

I’ll upload some pictures of Spiderpig and Poppy Roo very soon.

Author: Celestine

Just a random girl that quit college to chase her dreams. View all posts by Celestine