11th-20th July: Travel preparations & new boys

It has been a long time since the last blog entry... - The departure date (July 26th) is approaching rapidly, which also means a lot of additional work for us: organizing papers, arranging overnight accommodations, clearing/cleaning around the caravan, dismantling the awning, handing over work with the horses, etc.

The weather here is currently rather boring: sunny every day & between 30 and 35 degrees hot. We usually take a long lunch break and work in the morning and evenings. In Switzerland and Germany, they probably wished for this weather in the past few days... - Here it is quite sweaty!

I have done some research on the plants that grow here and are also in the hay. Thanks to the Equigarde course, I now have a basic knowledge that simplifies the search a bit. Result: a load of hay that was fed to our horses contained a plant that is toxic to horses. The plant damages the liver... - It has been fed here for years. We hope now that our horses haven't consumed too much of it. But it once again shows that they don't take such topics very seriously here... :-(

Of the 3-year-old colts on the huge pastures, the largest/strongest ones are brought in piece by piece to start working with them. We suspect that this is quite a shock for these boys: from huge pastures and eating all day and doing nothing - a change within a day to: 21 hours in a 3 x 5 meter box with moderate light and moderate air, 2 hours alone in a dusty paddock, and 1 hour of work with us, where they also have to behave properly... - They probably feel like their life is over now. And I can understand them well!

Anyway: Currently, 3 'new' of these boys have arrived, with whom we are working. They are still quite raw and can hardly be touched. We have now haltered 2 of the 3 outside of the 'Manga' for the first time. But the halter is still on all of them at the moment, as long as we don't know 100% if we can put it back on. Considering their adjustment, they are doing very well! However, the third one is still very skeptical, and we practice for quite a while until we can hang only a rope in his halter to lead him to the paddock. Our goal is that each of the interns can lead him by the end of the week. Let's see if that works...

Here in the stables, young birds sometimes fall out of the rafters. We don't know exactly if they fall out or are thrown out. Most of the time, they are dead. However, yesterday it seemed that one had survived the fall relatively well, so we put it in a yogurt cup, Jenny gave it some water, and we hung the yogurt cup on the rafter where we suspected its nest. Unfortunately, we had no success: the next day it was no longer alive. 

When we arrived here, both the stud management and the other employees were quite skeptical about our work. They were not familiar with this and seemed to feel that we don't have much knowledge about horses... - Yesterday, the stud management asked us to give the employees as much instruction as possible and show them how we work so that they can still do something with it after we leave. We are also supposed to film everything so that she can see it...

The remaining days, we are busy with handovers, last teaching hours (receiving and giving), last work with the horses as well as handover of 'our' horses to the stud management (where the horses stand, what we have done, etc.), cleaning up, COVID test, preparing vehicles, packing our things, etc. On Saturday, we will take a trip to Madrid, on Sunday, prepare everything and have a farewell dinner with the people here so that we can leave early on Monday.

Fly's nose doesn't look as good as desired. Our cat Mia also sneezes constantly while eating. Jenny has had enough of the Spanish vets. Therefore, both will be presented at the animal clinic in Switzerland 1 day after the return journey.