May 05th & 06th - Crafting

Everything is a bit different here in Spain. The concept of working hours is not taken very seriously. We usually work longer in the evenings, but in between we also drink coffee or chat. If you order a handyman service and they say they'll come tomorrow, there's a good chance that they won't show up and if you call them, they might say: I said tomorrow!

The same goes for infrastructure: There are about 50 gates/fences on the entire estate, but currently I don't know any that work properly: They don't close or open correctly, you have to lift or push the gate, if you don't hold it, it slams shut, the locking mechanism is broken, etc. The different wires in the electric fences are connected with another wire by wrapping household adhesive tape (yes, those transparent ones...) around it. The same goes for machines, tools, stables, walls, riding arenas, etc. Everything is somehow improvised and crafted. It takes some getting used to. It works - but only until it doesn't anymore. And that usually doesn't take very long... - We've gotten used to it.

Things are going well with the horses. We are currently focusing on the 5 horses that will leave next Monday or recently on Tuesday: trailer training, halter training, leading training, hoof handling, etc. The horses are mostly doing very well with it now. One mare is always very nervous. She's probably the most challenging one.

Since we have been trimming our horses' hooves ourselves for a long time, we were asked if we could do that with these horses as well. It's a lot of work to get the horses to give up their hooves long enough and voluntarily, and then to trim them. But it's mostly working well.

Until now, we haven't received the agreed upon number of riding lessons (3 per week) for various reasons. However, this week we started to "catch up" and had 5 lessons. Groundwork, lunge work, and for the first time riding lessons with our horses. It was very educational and we learned a lot!