15th - 20th May

On Saturday, I had school (online). The exam (29.05.) is approaching and I have hardly studied so far. That has changed now, but with our 6-day weeks, time is limited and in the evening I am not always fit enough to study. Well, it will work out somehow....

Jenny worked with the young stallions and as far as I can tell, everything went well. Towards evening, Jenny sat and rode on a mare for the first time. The mare felt for the first time in her life the weight of a rider on her back. She was quite tense and a bit wobbly on her legs due to the lack of balance, but everything went well/according to plan. Unfortunately, there are no photos of this moment, as it requires concentration and caution, and I was leading the horse while Jenny was on it. But there will surely be some in the future.

Otherwise, there was little extraordinary. We have gotten used to the daily routine and the Spanish interpretation of 'punctuality'.

By now, we obviously also have the trust of the other employees and the owner. We are now getting more and more 'difficult' horses to work with. Although most of them are not really difficult from our point of view. Some have had bad experiences, which we now have to 'overwrite' with many positive experiences, others are simply fearful, and still others are just cheeky, etc. We really enjoy the work, even though it is tiring.

On Monday, there was a change in weather and the temperatures rose by 10 degrees to around 25 degrees during the day. That is quite unusual and feels very hot. Besides sunburn, drinking a lot and cooling down in between is now necessary.

Jenny sat on 'our' first horse for the first time. It went very unspectacular, which is great! We were very satisfied! - We take more time for the preparation to sit on the horse than is generally usual here. We hope that this will prevent problems/rearing when sitting on the horse for the first time. The first horse confirmed that. Let's hope it is the same with the others.

As for infrastructure, it is as bad as usual. We have gotten used to it and simply help ourselves when something is important to us or bothers us. For example, they hardly ever have a cart/wheelbarrow here that works correctly: handles fall off, flat tires, handles are slanted/not at the same height, etc. Since we clean the paddock of 7 horses (2 our own and 5 stud horses) every day, it was important for us to have a decent 'vehicle'. We don't want to hurt our backs or wrists, etc. Our new 'cart' (of course tilt-able) has finally arrived and I naturally had to take a test drive with Jenny as the load! - Works perfectly! We also installed a branch in the water pipe to the well for our horses, and connected a garden hose there. So now we can fill our non-drinking water directly from the hose instead of always going to fetch water with barrels. This saves time and energy!

We also received additional support: Markus, a German from the fashion industry, was fed up with working from home and is here to help for 10 days. He has hardly any experience with horses, but is very helpful for various support work for us. (Opening gates, feeding, grazing with horses, etc.) But we also involve him in the training so that he can learn something as well. It seems that he really enjoys being with us.

The riding lessons are exhausting but very good and valuable for us, even if we will probably never become dressage riders.

Unfortunately, one foal is dehydrated. It is being pampered with infusions several times a day. If no one has time, Jenny sometimes takes on this task. We hope that the foal will be fit again soon!