Our time at Highfields...

Hi everyone, sorry it has been a while but believe it or not we have been working hard and long days have meant that blogging has been difficult. But, we have finished for a while and now have time to update and reflect on all the fun we had at the equestrian centre. Part of working with horses has meant that we were able to go along to competetitions and watch as the horses competeted. Not always though....sometimes the weather meant that we were horsebox bound as you can see in the picture of us the day after the big storm. People...check....dogs...check ...horses...check(well almost at the horse box before we had a call saying the cross country was cancelled)Bear in mind that we have been up at 5.30am to feed the horses in order to be ready to leave on time!
We also gained a new friend along the way....a hound puppy called Saucy!! She came on loan from the local hunt club to grow up before she starts her career as a fox hound. She is super cute but very grumpy and for that reason will always be remembered as the reason that we didn't get any sleep and affectionately termed 'our beautiful grumpy puppy'. Here are some pictures of her first couple of days at highfields...

During my stay I developed the energy to start "project beautification". In short this meant lots of painting!! I set about painting all the jump poles and got everyone involved, we also painted all the fence posts (Mum you would have been proud of me!)I even managed to inspire an easter working bee.

Check out my beautiful poles!!!


While we were there we also got to be involved in the dressage and jumping clinic for the Melbourne Eventing Team lead by head coach, Megan Jones (Olympic silver medalist at the Bejing games) We got to see lots of riders and horses being put through their paces with a difficult jumping exercise. Nigel became honourary "pole bitch" and camera man. It was a beautiful weekend of weather and we had a great evening getting to know Megan better, she is very down to earth and has a great attitude towards what she is doing. As I write this she has just flown back from New Zealand where she won the 4* event on her horse Jester by 21 points!


We also managed to find time to go into the city and explore the sights. We checked out the Melbourne Museum and had a walk along the river bank before heading back for evening feeding.



Most of the work we did with the horses was very structured as they were young horses in training, but every now and then we were able just to have a little bit of silly time with a few favourites. Here you can see Nigel's horse....well, pony, Thomas., He was a lovely little shetland pony who loved to be dirty. This was only his second bath in his life! He was very good and between the three of us we managed to hold him down long enough to scrub away the layers of dirt! I would like to say that it was a worth while exercise but after some love and attention and grass he went back to his paddock and rolled in the biggest pile of dirt. What can I say yet another boy that is striving for the scruffy look! Oh well at least we managed to get pictures!

Nigel also managed to get an afternoon off to go to the Melbourne Grand Prix with some friends. I on the other hand have no interest in cars going round in circles so stayed with the horses! He had a great day and couldn't believe how loud the car engines were up close. It was also quite convient that a brit won this year and he had plenty to cheer while he was there.