We come from a land down under....

The much awaited blog post finally arrives! After a few weeks of settling in and starting to find somewhat of a routine, we come to you with greetings from Bolinda, Victoria, Australia! If you were to look us up on a map you would most likely see a bunch of green and maybe a few horses running around but probably little else. Thats because the map represents exactly where we are....the middle of green fields, rolling hills, and gaping canyons. I would say it is a throwback to Snowy River but I know Jim Craig fans would most likely stone me...or perhaps taking a bull-whip to my legs would be more appropriate. Either way you look at it, the surroundings we have found ourselves embedded in are just breathtaking! The fields are lined with huge-normous gum trees and speckled with sheep and other livestock and every once in awhile, either early in the morning or later at night, you can see the kangaroos hanging out under the huge canopies, just kind of chillin' from all that jumping around.

The schedule has been extremely rigorous for Afton as she works pretty much every day, having had only 3 days off since she has been here. However, I know she finds so much pleasure in what she does and is surely soaking in every second she gets to learn something new. I even get to steal a few moments by working a couple days a week and experience the thrills of working with Arabians and derivatives who seem to have quite a bit of energy wrapped in there muscular little bodies. We have only been to one show so far, a tiny one out in the countryside, but it was exciting nonetheless to see Afton's horses and hard work in action. We can't wait for the big ones and for the National Championships where apparently we pretty much camp out for three weeks in Sydney. I know we are both looking forward to working all day and then falling asleep in a horse trailer! HA!

Well, now for the good part, the pictures! There are still more to come, but the pictures are the best part of a blog so here it goes...ENJOY!!!

The sky from outside our window after a crazy storm..

The Flat!!! Its teeny tiny but the cutest little space ever! Here be the kitchen when i first moved in, complete with bread and hot cocoa mix, all you really need to survive in aussieland apparently.. jess and I can testify of that lol

Our living room, we get two couches! How lucky is that, and a tv that works!!

Had to take a pic of the miniature oven! It cooks well but I feel like a giant using it, obviously

The bathroom, also tiny and as usual the sink is pretty low, must have made this place with short people in mind.. love the shower though, waterfall head and its for tall people AND it stays hot FOREVER!!! always a plus when I come in frozen and dirty from head to toe and beyond

The master bedroom! ITs actually a really comfy bed, super snuggly with all the comforters. Jess laughs cause horse people outfit their beds like their horses, a silkish sheet, a cotton flannel, and a thick comforter... lol

The guest bedroom, now that jess is here has become his closet and our laundry room.

When i first got here I was sooo very suprised at how very cold it was! I had planned hot weather and I barely brought any warm clothes to survive... Therefore this heater has been a lifesaver! It heats up our little flat beautifully!! Took me 2 weeks to figure out how to keep it at a constant warm temp, for days i went between too cold to burning hot.. finally got it down though! Jess was impressed and I felt quite accomplished!

More pics of the masterbed lol

My first day in Australia!

The 360 view from my front door.. From right to left! The white fences of the paddocks where we turn out the horses that arent working that day. The round pen in the right corner, and the left is the back door of the main barn where I go to work everyday at 8am! YAY This was when for the first month it rained and the mud was totally awful!

The indoorish arena, our trailers where we transport the horseys. and the gorgeous gladdies that grow like crazy in front of our place! Jess has since weeded the whole garden and our trees are in bloom, so i guess i better takes pics of that too... Show you the seasons, now thats its sunny more often thank goodness!

More turn out yards, mostly where the stallions go cause the yards theirselves are actually seperated and electrified lol

And more of those paddocks ( oh they dont say pastures here they call them paddocks. Jess and I are adopting this word and many more into our vocab, just sounds cooler doesnt it!)

Sooooo.... I was super excited to go shopping for the first time, and while sitting in the check out lane I saw this! It always looked soo freaking good in the movie The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, you know when Edmond takes it fromt he queen... Well I bought some all excited, unwrapped it, took a bite to savor it... and spit it out! It was awful, and it was filled with a hard jelly fruit filled covered in lame chocolate... I took a pic to document and to warn others... dont eat turkish delight... very bad idea

Getting hay to feed the ponies.. and my little kitten friend.. Its actually a twin to another identical orange kitty. These two always follow Jess and I around the farm.. all day.. Its really cute!

The other twin the the background, and Jack the black cat as well. This is where the grain is housed. I fill up a wheelbarrow with grain from that trailer and get a bag of balance which is like there vitamins that they get every morning and a bag of barley. Then off to feed the 26 horses in the main barn!

The main barn! So pretty and we keep it pretty clean, this is at feeding time

Picture of the top barn where another 12 horses live! Behind there are 5 paddocks that are quite a bit larger than our turn out yards where some of the younger foals live and mares that are to be in foal soon...

The seemingly endless line of turn out paddocks.. at least it feels like it somedays

Me!!!

Here is the dreaded board. On these four whiteboards lies my life and the fate of the day, week, sometimes months. Top left is chores that can be done if you have nothing to do, cleaning waterers, pulling weeds, painting fences, that type of funness.... bottom left is list of numbers if needed... and can be a list of memos and such.. bottom right is where we put what show is coming up soon and what horses are going as well as the show prep we need to do durning the week to get them ready, such as body clipping, sanding feet, face clip, wash... etc. Top right is the most important to me. It is the list of horses that we have and what work gets down each day for the week....

Left side list is the lunge horses that scott and I work, right are usual ridden horses, but lately we are extending our list over there too. Lg= lunge with gear (whatever that might be), L= lunge, TO= turn out, and R= ride obviously lol. On the side is stuff that Kate and Doyle want us to do extra.. goodie lol

Bliss... is not blissful.. She is a pony arab mix who will get no bigger than this. And she has a huge bad atittude that i get to deal with daily. Lots of fights have been had.. tehe

See she is little! and feisty, like aunt mena! lol

Audrey, their prized Arabain purebreed mare.. who is so lazy and awful to lunge. You have to case her around for a fun 30 mins at the end of a whip.. its been great, she is sweet though

Czar giving me a dirty look. He is a 3 yr old arabian stallion. I lunge on ocassion but his feet have been breaking open and bleeding so its not long.. he is real nice in his stall, for a sec, but he attacks people in the wash racks, when your turning him out, and when trying to be taught how to breed... kicked Doyle (owner of future farms) and scott (secind in command)... yeah real nice stud

Czar giving me kisses through the bars lol, or trying to bite me, not sure...

Crave FF, the lead, nationally winning, stallion at the barn. He is the money maker, getting his sperm sent not only all over Australia but the world. He is gorgeous and pretty well tempered for a stud!

This is me driving to church BY MYSELF on THE LEFT SIDE OF THE ROAD!!! Oh yeah, I did awesome and am now a total pro... ;)

This is Whisper, and if she looks like she is embarassed because i am taking a picture of her, its probably cause she is. She is in the process of getting body clipped, by me, my first time doing any such thing. I suck..... As you can tell she has lines now... I vow to get better.. Sorry whisper...

Oh man, sad thing was I could only do her alittle at a time so she looked ridiculous for days...

Scott and Jared twitching Sinderella so they can give her a face clip for the show.. Oh PETA mourn for her.. lol they can actually fall asleep doing this, it releases some endorphin to make them sleepy and or happy ish... Without this method I would have been killed mulitple times by horses, Jess knows....

A gorgeous Australia sunset at the end of another loooong hard day on the farm

Me and someone... I cant remeber who this is.. there are quite a few bays... lol

Lunging a horsey!!! This is what I do all day.. Watch a horse trot around in a circle for hours... not the same horse of course.. oh that and get drug around the arena too.. breaks up the monotany.

All of us hard at work! This is Shamon to my left, he is one of my favorites to work!!

Scott with the other little show horse Superman.. Isnt he freaking cute! thats as big as he will get too!!!! tehe

After a really hard rain storm I looked outside at the cool clouds with sunlight streaming in.. Caught this awesome picture! Grandma Queenie would aprrove I think!

Me and Whisper I believe, once again doesnt look to happy to be there

The horse trucks on our way to the first show of the season!!

Other trainers warming their horses up

Not only do the horses need to be make up and styled... Scott is getting gelled up for his trip into the show ring as well... He hates people touching his hair.. lol Notice how the horse is left standing there while we all work on Scott...

After each horse finishes I drug them back into the 'float' to be taken home.. Nice outfit, it was freaking cold then too!

Scrapping the excess water off after working then rinsing them off... lovely outfit as usual..

Jess going to bring in FoxFire, one of the most beautiful and spunky stallions on the property. Easily my favorite stallion and i usually dont like gray horses!

Jess waiting for the moment when Fox will undoubtably rear up onto his back legs, its his favorite move when being brought in from the paddocks... Unfortunately, he didnt do it!! I wanted to get a pic of Jess holding him when he did... We will get that shot dont you worry!! Doesnt he look pro with that stallion though!!

Jess got his hair done!! I think its great and when would he have the chance to get highlight and grow out his manny beard! I love it!!! Gives him a hot rugged edgy look

processing... lol

Oh my Gosh... Fish and Chips, a new total fav for us!!! We are now on the search for the perfect fish and chippery shop... so many to choose from, results to come out soon...

A walk through a park in Sunbury, the closest town to the barn... It was cold..still...

Tehe

So hot! New hair, new country, new attitude!!

We found this awesome tree and wanted to climb and get pictures!!

That, is that!!! Sorry that it took so freaking loong! promise to keep it updated now since show season is to be in full swing next week! Lots to look forward to! We love you all and hope you enjoy taking this journey with us!!