Returning to Normal

The Game Fair concluded on Sunday, allowing life to go back to some semblence of normal.  The Fair was fun though.  It was a lot like the summer festivals I went to in North Dakota.  There were booths and games, our stable put on a demonstration of western horsemanship.  There was a group of historical re-enactors, Picts I think.  I wish I could have seen more, but one of the horses we brought needed constatn supervision once the crowds came through.

Other than that, things are pretty good.  We are settling back into what I consider to be the normal routine: feeding and mucking and riding.  We had the farrier come out to work on a few more horses.  We also had my first set of visitors for a trek.  I stayed and kept working on the stables as the two more experienced riders of the interns, Gia and Jennifer, took them out on a several hours long trail ride.

I have also adopted a pet project.  One of the horses, Mariposa, needs some serious hands on time.  She is a two year old palimino filly who currently objects to humans. She runs away from everyone.  The few times I have gotten close, she nearly panics when I reach out to touch her.  My project is to turn her into a model prospect for when she starts properly training.  That is my goal.

A Busy Week

Well, this week kept us all hopping.  We added one more girl to our little trailer, Jennifer from Holland.  We also lost one, Skye went back to the States to start college on Monday.  We sent her off in proper Irish form, we hopped down to the local village for a pub crawl.  The village is about 10 minutes away and as far as I can tell, the only things there are a pair of pubs and a gas station.  I tried a Guinness on tap, not bad if you like beer, and the others each had cider, called hard cider in the States.  At the first pub, we just sat and had a quiet drink, it was mostly empty with a few of the locals hanging out.  The second pub was much more lively, complete with live music.  We were spotted as tourists right as we walked in.  After grabbing seats at the bar and placing our order, a man I think is the owner came over and asked if we sang.  We offered Skye up for some public humiliation and she took it all very well.  She was called up to the stage and sang and played a few songs before bowing out and rejoining us.  I think what happened after was more interesting, though she does have a nice voice.  A number of older ladies came over and told her how much they appreciated her performance, the bar tender brought her a Mini-Guinness, and a man on the far side of the bar bought a round of drinks for our group!  Talk about appreciation for an ad hoc performance!

What I would consider to be our normal daily schedule has been interrupted by more than just an adjustment of personnel, we also had to get ready for the show this weekend.  Currently, I am the only one on the farm.  Everyone else is at the show.  In preparation, we added daily grooming and training for the three potential competing horses, only two made the cut.  We also got a visit from the farrier.  He stopped by and worked on a set, four horses, giving them each a trim and a new set of shoes.  We also sat down and cleaned the tack the farm will have for sale at the show and the tack they will be using while they perform.  It is remarkable how quickly I managed to get through the normal daily work, even though I'm only one person, when I don't have to worry about all that other stuff.  Even though it means I will have to get up a fair bit earlier, I am really looking forward to attending the show tomorrow.