DAY
1
Today
I spent the day cleaning the whole apartment. Scrubbing the walls, moving stuff
around, adding my own touches, mopping the floors and getting stuff put away.
It is really beautiful out here. The farm is 80 some acres, family owned,
rolling hills, and just wonderful. Robin has a house in the front and her
parents live on the backside of the farm. There is a main barn, stallion barn
and mare barn connected to the indoor arena. There are lots of pastures and
jumping arena outside. My apartment is connected to another workers apartment.
Her name is Amanda. She has a large dog named Marley. Nice girl/lady! I will be
starting my first day of work tomorrow (Monday) at 7am. I am looking forward to
seeing how the days work goes. Will let you know!
DAY 2
Today was my first day
of work and it went very well. I walked to the barn at 7am and met up with Val
and Amanda. Val is a young part time worker who has worked at Acorn Hill Farms
for about 2 months now. We started by feeding grain and hay to all the horses
and then bring in and turning out horses. Today (Monday) was cleaning day, so
we cleaned the stalls, swept all the rooms, swept all the cob webs, mopped all
the rooms, cleaned all the buckets, gave a few baths, clipped a few and pretty
much did whatever the girls told me to do. Today was a great day to start
because I was able to learn the horses, where they went and feeding. Tomorrow I
will be working in the stallion barn, so it will be all new learning. I also
get to ride a mare named Whistling Star. I am so excited…. Well until tomorrow!
DAY 3
Well, what a long, but
great day. Today I started in the breeding barn for the first time. I took a
short drive up to the barn, fed, turned out, and learned a little about how to
work the breeding barn and the horses. After Heather and I were done up there
we went down to the show barn to work. Oh Heather is another full-time worker,
who has been here for about 3 years now. She is the head worker. Today at the
show barn I groomed horses and got to ride my first horse here. Whistling Star
is a young bay mare. Robin rode one of her geldings and watched me ride. She
gave me some pointers and ways that she would like her horses ridden. With a
few fixes I will get there. After riding I gave Whistling a bath and did some
more grooming and cleaning. After feeding lunch I went on a short lunch myself.
After lunch we clean and handle horses some more. At about 3:30pm we start
feeding dinner. Again it’s feeding, turning out, watering and cleaning. Finally
the day was done at 4:30pm. Tomorrow is going to be even better I hope.
DAY 4
Today we had four of us working, so things went smooth. The day started as usual and I am getting more and more comfortable with the routine. Today I rode Cruise Town and Just Cruising. Town in a 17.2 hand gelding that is just a pleasure to ride. Justine is a young mare that has just been broke this past summer. I had two great rides with Robin. I am still working on using my seat and legs more than my hands, but it is hard. Robin says that we will be working on my flat work for about another week and then we will start doing some jumping. With getting to ride I don’t get as much time doing barn work, which is really fine with me because riding is what I love to do and is where I am learning the most. The day ended and I came home, ate and waited to do night watch. Night watch is where we go check on the horses, feed, water and blanket if needed. It is really easy, but Robin likes it to be done, so if the weather changes or something is wrong with one of the horses, we know. It is time for sleep. Until tomorrow…
Today we had four of us working, so things went smooth. The day started as usual and I am getting more and more comfortable with the routine. Today I rode Cruise Town and Just Cruising. Town in a 17.2 hand gelding that is just a pleasure to ride. Justine is a young mare that has just been broke this past summer. I had two great rides with Robin. I am still working on using my seat and legs more than my hands, but it is hard. Robin says that we will be working on my flat work for about another week and then we will start doing some jumping. With getting to ride I don’t get as much time doing barn work, which is really fine with me because riding is what I love to do and is where I am learning the most. The day ended and I came home, ate and waited to do night watch. Night watch is where we go check on the horses, feed, water and blanket if needed. It is really easy, but Robin likes it to be done, so if the weather changes or something is wrong with one of the horses, we know. It is time for sleep. Until tomorrow…
DAY 5
Here are some pictures! Will write more later. I am going to bed!
