More Pictures...

Here are the pics i was going to post before... the storm passed and then internet works once again! WOO HOO













Sophie and I being knobs













Sophie and I still being knobs













Marika and I on the way to the water park















Me riding KC last night












KC going THROUGH the jump (look at the back feet sliding!)

Challenges...

OK: SO....Today was my day off again so im sitting here and its even daylight outuside (which is a rarity for me) AND the internet is working which is also a big bonus. I started my day at 5:30am and got up to go to the recognised horse show in Old Salem. I figured that it was my chance to go to Old Salem (which is an AWESOME barn... eg the actual barn looks nicer than a house.) and to see Marika and one of my campers Sophie (an 11 year old superstar) compete, and because Marika was nervous so i wanted to support her and take pics etc etc... anyways, enough with the excuses, the point was that i got up early to go to the damn thing. So anywho, we got here and bummed around and Arno gave me some money for lunch which was awesome and i wandered around the gigantic facility and parked myself by the jumper ring for the day to watch everyone compete... unfortunately Marika never got to compete in the some 8 classes originally thought because her horse Apollo hit his already sore leg in warm up and became lame and her other horse KC (who is actually her dressage horse) wasnt able to compete because there weren't enough people at the high level she competes, at to go in the class! Sophie however (who by the way is really cool) competed and did really well competing against men and women of all ages and placing reserve champion. I pretty much took pictures all day with Soph's and Marika's cameras and a few with mine which hopefully i will get up on here later on.

My week has been an interesting one to say the least, I went to the water park as a lifeguard again on wednesday which was huge fun... however this session's campers seem to have a common theme running amoungst them... that they all have some sort of learing or social disorder... i have 4 children i am currently working with teaching them the basics of horse riding, all with some sort of learning problem... its a challenge but (this will sound corny) rewarding when you finally get them to do something correctly... i actually prefer it to teaching 'normal' children.... anyways, besides my lesson i have also been teaching water skiing in the afternoon which is also really fun. Ok, im going to go now and post this because in the last ten minutes it has grown dark and there is a big storm looming overhead which may interfere with the internet... so i will leave you with this single picture of me riding KC (marikas horse that i mentioned before) last night, when she was teaching me to jump properly... hope you are all safe and sound... would love to hear from you all.
Catch you soon...

Day Off!

Today was my day off, I started it, with a sleep in until 7:30am and got up at 8am, to be at breakfast by 8:30am (today was a late breakfast due to it being "100 degrees" and being the horses day off cos everyone freaked out about the weather being 'unbearable')... so, i had breakfast and bummed around doing laundry and such until about midday, when we all (being Liz, Marieke, Brenna, Marika and the nurse, Karen) decided to go swimming. We ended up at Minnowaska... or something along those lines, which is a lake, ontop of a mountain.... we pretty much spent the day there and then went to a really nice restaurant for dinner and had a big steak each which was awesome. when i got back, i found out that one of my campers (also named Danielle) broke her arm while roller skating today and has to go home tomorrow, which is kinda sad, cos she is a cool kid. Anyways, im having heaps of fun... yet another counsellor quit... Livvy left the other day in a huff, when it was announced that Brenna and I got to go to South Hampton with the campers and not her. ps. South Hampton was friggin AWESOME... South Hampton is a town, which is about twenty times the wealth of anyone in Adelaide.. for EVERYONE. All of the houses in the Hamptons are perfect and they all have straight perfect hedges around their property and the shopping there is only for those with money with such stores as Ralph Lauren, Gucci, Ellie Tahari, Coach, Tiffany & Co. etc etc. Oh and one of my campers spent just over $800 on shopping alone over the two and a half day trip... yes you read that sentence correctly... there was and eight with two zeros behind it and the word 'over' in front of it! so anywho, Livvy left, and today, Pip left aswell (however she has the intention to come back)because she has pretty much broken her back and has to have 4 weeks off.... so we are under staffed at the moment, but still having fun nevertheless! I have been struggling to contact people over the past couple of weeks, i have no phone at the moment and the internet hasnt been working properly... dont ask how but msn seems to work but NOTHING else on the computer internet wise like hotmail or this site. The internet stuffs up at the drop of a hat here, because we are so far out in the sticks so apologies to those who i need to email back and still havent. Hope everyone is doing great back home, please keep the emails coming, although im not reading them at the moment, i would love to hear about everyone's adventures when i finally get some normal internet service! have fun and stay safe!

Me playing my barn guitar

From Left: Marika, Liz, Marieke, Me, Brenna

Marieke and I at the lake












Brenna and I in South Hampton
















Arno playing polo













South Hampton hotel, which was really in Montauk

Fun Didely Fun...

So incase you are wondering "what happened to Liz's horse" (re: the comments in my last post)... Movado had to be put down after a 12 hour struggle and unfortunately Liz was in Canada at the time, which left me in charge of the barn and her colicking horse. The Vet eventually came at 10:30 in the morning and put Movado down, and Liz asked me over the phone to go with Mov to put him down and say goodbye to him for her... so Saturday was a VERY emotional and tiring day, especially as I had to keep a brave face for the campers for the rest of the day... details are missed but you get the main idea. The last couple of days have been a struggle but i have made it through with a smile on my face and managed to spread it to the others around me. Today i had a break from the barn and was sent to the Water Park as a 'lifeguard' (because the 3 milion lifeguards at the water park werent enough) and had fun with the kids going on all of the rides and tomorrow im plaing lifeguard again at the lake all day and teaching people to water ski which shall be fun. I also got to teach tennis the other day so im happy. Camp is really really fun. All of the girls are realy swet and yes, they are really rich... infact one of the girls was telling me the other day that her dad bought her an $8000 antique rocking horse because she wanted it! But despite their wealth and some of their mannerisms/ignorance (eg. one of the girls didnt know how to catch/tack up/groom a horse because she has people do it for her and others dont say please or thank you) they are all realy cool, and willing to learn. I'm really learning alot here as well. The last three days have been birthdays here at camp, Marika, aka "little Marika" (not Marieke aka "Big Marieke") Had her birthday on the 3rd of July, Independance Day on the 4th (whihc we caled America's bday) and today was Brenna's birthday, so we have had alot of 'happy birthday singing going on.














Clockwise: Livvy (with real glasses), Claire (who was fired), Pip (who was not fired), Me and Nicola (who left/was fired-ish)















Campers (for second session) and some of the counsellors (labelled)

Wednesday...

Wednesday 27th June 06 10:52pm

Feeling a bit tired and run down today, but spirits are still high. Had a big, big day in the barn. Every Wednesday is ‘the horses day off’ so the campers are taken off the property to bowling or the movies etc and we do barn work such as gutting and airing stalls and washing saddle pads etc etc. So this morning started out just great… we got to sleep in til 8am, had breakfast at 8:30am and headed down to the barn at 9:00am. Because the horses are not being used, Liz and Marieke take every Wednesday off too and of course today had to be one of the days that other barn staff had off as well… with that background information in hand, I can continue my story: Anyways, so I headed down to the barn at 9am and began our morning routine and got things going and I got to play Barn Manager for the day… The farrier came and began his work on the ponies. We had 6 staff working in the morning and I was aware of the fact that one was leaving after lunch to go roller skating with the campers which would leave us with five workers after lunch… four working and one holding horses for the farrier. So lunchtime came around and everybody went up to lunch, except for me who stayed and held horses for the farrier. After lunch, TWO workers came down and told me that the other two were in a meeting with Arno and would be down afterwards. About an hour later, the two girls returned in casual clothes (not the usually dirty barn clothes) along with another counsellor and stated that they were leaving camp immediately. So that left us with two people (and one holding horses) running a barn with 50 horses and ponies! So that is probably why I’m a little exhausted, but it’s ok because I have a day off tomorrow so I can sleep in a little, although, now due to the fact that THREE counsellors quit this afternoon, I’m looking after three dorms of campers because we are still short staffed from the two that were fired last week, which is actually ridiculous. So maybe I will have to get up and work in the morning to help get everybody up for breakfast and then go back to sleep. I also have to move rooms tomorrow because I’m looking after the three dorms (one of them is my original dorm and one only has two girls in it) I need to be in a more central position so that they can all access me if they need. Anyways, I have no Idea what the time is but I’m going to bed. There is no internet access at the moment so im hoping that situation will change by tomorrow when I actually have time to check my emails etc. Ok, bedtime…