April 21-23, mare & boss away, water

As mentioned before, the areas here cannot be compared to Switzerland. The land belonging to the stud farm is owned by 2 parties. They are talking about a total of approximately 1000 hectares. I don't know if that's true, and sometimes I think they themselves don't know... - In any case, on Wednesday it almost turned out to be our downfall: we were supposed to catch 2 mares in the pasture and bring them in to treat injuries. We were able to halter and line one of them. While Jenny tried to halter the other one, the 24-head mare herd went into a complete panic due to two mares fighting/hitting each other and galloped away. I had no chance of holding onto the mare on the 10m line! - All gone. Chasing after them was pointless: horses are fast, there are many trees, shrubs, thorns, etc. 'She'll come back' we reassured ourselves. 'Nothing will happen!'... - 1 hour later, all the mares were back. Except the one! - So we set off to search for her. The pasture is approximately 2 square kilometers and is mostly densely forested... - After a 3-hour hike, Jenny and I gave up tired: no idea where the mare is, whether she has hung herself somewhere on the line, or whether she is well. She is definitely not with the herd! - After confessing to the boss: All the employees gathered, search for the mare. We on our horses, as we are faster and already exhausted. When we all arrived at the pasture, about 4 hours after the incident, the little mare was grazing with the others...

However, even though there were eight of us, we still couldn't catch her. She then ran through two barbed wire fences, injuring her legs in the process, and was finally captured after another hour in a small pasture... - Although slightly injured, we were relieved that she was still there and alive!

Other than that, there has been a lot of rain in the past 2 days. Rubber boots would have been helpful...

Yesterday and today, in the evening, we were back in the bullfighting arena with our horses. By the way, the arena is no longer used for bullfights, but sometimes for sorting out cattle or for riding. It's still a bit unusual, as it is much larger (40m) than a usual round pen (18m) and there is an echo because the steel walls echo. Our horses were also a bit unsettled, but they quickly got used to it. Only the llamas, Sarina found them extremely fascinating when we walked past them. And the donkey was love at first sight! (Sarina loves all donkeys...)

Since yesterday, our boss and stud farm owner has been away on business and will be absent until Monday. Therefore, her tasks have been distributed among the team (currently 3 interns, 2 riders, Jenny & myself). During these days, we take care of most of the injured horses. Jenny, who is already familiar with such things professionally, and I provide assistance and hold the horses. It's not exactly our favorite job, as the horses are never happy when they receive another injection or when a substance is applied to their mouth or a wound is treated... - By the way, Picasso, the horse with the peeled nose, is doing quite well again and the nose looks almost like new! ;-)

Yes, a lot of work! And in the evenings, we still have to clean & exercise our own horses, wash, cook, etc. We're never bored here!