I’m trying to get into the habit of living with my camera in my back pocket for opportune shots – already missed some beauties of the babies out in the paddock cavorting around!

We have four foals on the ground at the moment, 3 fillies.The first born is the first foal from my boss’ stallion, Tsigane.She’s an absolute dude – loves hooning around the paddock, bucking and rearing. Her poor mum has a job keeping an eye on her!

The second day in I was greeted in the morning with a fog, the sun struggling to peek through the strong mist as I went out on the feed run.Looked absolutely gorgeous across the paddocks and driveway!

 

The whole farm is just so gorgeous with hills rising up on either side and sometimes I get distracted just looking at it all rather than getting on with feeding the horses!My boss and I were both awed into stopping and looking out over the property next door as one strip was lit up with sunlight while the rest was covered in the dark shadow of clouds.

Was on foal watch on the first Saturday night and was surprised the foaling alarm didn’t go off once – by the end of the week we had our third and fourth foal. One is very over at teh knee and upright – walking around on the tips of her hooves… if she’s not straightened up by Monday it’ll be interesting to see what the vet can do to change things.

Well, two weeks in and I’ve seen two echidnas, heaps of kookaburras and my first koala for the season! Yet to see some kangaroos or wombats but sure I’ll see plenty before the season’s out!

“As the wind swept over the saddle, it turned to a mixture of bright colours and painted the world.” – Ronan Warriors

tag: australia, horse stud, thoroughbred stud season

I spent a week in July in Sydney at the Hillsong Conference, heading up there four days after I got back from South Africa. It was an enlightening time!I’m a Christian who’s passionate about horses.

Initially, I argued that I got into horses because they infuriated me much less than humans.I still get worked up about people, but realise it’s my problem with something said or done, not that particular person’s problem.

Over the past couple of years the desire has really become focused and go figure – it involves horses and people. My mum introduced me to the book Hope Rising about 18 months ago and suddenly I realised people were already doing that which I was just being awakened to the idea of.

And why not?It’s God’s passion after all, He’s just sharing the idea and if I don’t follow through – He’ll whisper in someone else’s ear who will!

My dream? I’ll need at least $2 million to set up my property and reach out to people through it. On a wage of $30,000 a year, this isn’t feasibly possible, even without many expenses. But on a faith budget, it’s impossible not to achieve!

One of the speakers at Hillsong – Jentzen Franklin – while preaching had a line that hit home – if it’s God’s Will, it’ll be on God’s Bill.

God provides the window of opportunity, we just need to climb through.

I’m a planner – I love to know what I’m doing and it’s a test of faith when I’m not sure what I’m doing and how I’ll do something. Thankfully God blesses me through provisions that allow me to plan.

I know for the next decade I can work on the same stud for 5 or so months of the year doing a job I love and working with two men I adore working with. The blessing is for the rest of the year I have money saved to explore, experience and educate self! On the bus up to Hillsong I got a call from my boss informing me he has a job lined up for me in England for next year, if I want it.

If I want it? Oh, the idea is totally appealing! But God doesn’t always make things as easy as that. I’m very eager to learn more about the plans for Tiwi College and since coming back from South Africa and learning the Join Up method which is a fundamental focus and process of those working toward the dream of raising a community and partnering with thousands of wild horses, I can’t wait to get up there and help! (And the perfect time in my eyes appeared to be next year in the off season).

Two wonderful opportunities that each need further thought, research and prayer to determine their order in my life.

If you’ve had a desire placed on your heart, pursue it with all you have. Don’t get caught up on the impossibilities of such an extravagant goal, be inspired that the dream was shared with you and take joy in each step, however small, toward that dream! After all, if the desire’s been placed on your heart, perhaps the one who placed it there has already worked out the provisions to make it a reality.

“If I had a dime for every time that I thought of a horse’s beauty I’d have enough to buy one.”

tag: australia, job, join up, south africa

I head back up to Euroa for work early next month and cannot wait! I’m at home at the moment, generally wasting time, often bored. Unfortunately, it’s taken a couple of weeks working for mum and doing some other work – both with a rather grumpy attitude – for me to realise I could probably be using this time more effectively!

<< My home in Euroa.

I have a lot of things I’m looking forward to when I get back to work:
– Being back with horses daily, working with them and learning about them. I also love the people I work with and have an absolute ball being around them daily.
– Having more time in the evenings to read (My goal is to read 3 books a month, each month for 2007.. if you saw my Horse Library consisting of a majority of books that I haven’t yet read, you’d know why!)
– Starting up bass guitar lessons and having the peace and quiet to practice repetitively without others complaining.
– Get lessons with a nearby Level 3 Coach who can mark off subjects that are part of my NCAS Level 1 Coaching Course.
– Spend more time with, learning from and riding with my next door neighbour – she is an NCAS Level 1 and recently found out she’s on the list of the potentials for the 2008 Olympics Equestrian Team!

For those who don’t know – I work a 12 day fortnight (every second weekend off) and days are rarely shorter than 10 hours, work wise… so the above creates quite a lot for me to do! Perhaps, too much. The funny thing is, I could be working towards some of these things now, rather than focusing on when the time will be “right” and I will be motivated.

It’s very easy for us to think about things we want to do and constantly talk about them rather than just putting these thoughts into action.

A challenge for you: if you find yourself daydreaming constantly about things you’d like to do – then perhaps you have enough time to actually invest in logical ways to make this a reality. Or, if you just find yourself bored in the evenings but with things you’d like to try, improve on or learn more about, look into possibilities for training, further reading, places to gain practical hands on or whatever is needed to do what you want to be doing!

“One man’s wrong lead is another man’s counter-canter,” – S.D. Price

tag: australia, coaching, horse books, horse library, horse stud, instructing, job