11 | January | 2014 | Across the Ditch

With all the long hours and physical work we do here, our day off each week is always well appreciated. I spent the first few lounging around in bed watching movies, but now that I’m well settled in and used to the workload, I’ve begun to venture out and explore a bit on my days off. One of my workmates kindly lets me borrow her car so I can go out and catch up on all the important things like shopping, as well as checking out a few of the local sights.

I had Wednesday off this week, and after a lovely long sleep in I set out for a bit of a girly pamper day. I started off with some shopping and found myself lots of bargains… I really can’t believe the difference in price between things here and back home! After a sneaky ice cream stop I decided to treat myself to a massage… It was definitely a very welcome indulgence for my tired muscles!

When I got home, it was time to head off to the Philadelphia Flyers v Montreal Canadiens ice hockey game with a few friends from the barn. It was my first taste of live American sport and it was soo much fun – the place was packed out and the atmosphere was amazing – definitely one of the highlights of my trip so far! I befriended a few Flyers fans and bought myself a Philadelphia hoodie.. The Flyers ended up winning 3-1 which was pretty exciting. I’m practically a local now!

I don’t think any of us will end up having a day off next week because we’ll be so busy preparing for the big move south, so it was great to have such a fun day off this week. I can’t wait to get settled in in Aiken – I’m sure there are lots of other great places to explore down there!

As many of you would know, the US has been experiencing some pretty extreme winter weather lately. Here in Pennsylvania, there has been unseasonably early and heavy snowfalls, coupled with seriously low temperatures. On Tuesday we experienced a 20 year low, with the temperature dropping to near 0F, or -16C, but the wind chill brought that down to -34C. Very hard to convince yourself to get out of bed at dawn when you know you have to head out and work in that!

Freezing!!!

Obviously all the horses stayed indoors on those super freezing days… While we do try to get them turned out as much as possible for their mental and physical wellbeing, it’s just far too unpleasant to have them out in that kind of weather. The cold literally knocks the breath out of you when you walk out of a warm building – definitely not good for performance horse lungs!

The workload was adjusted as well, as even the indoor arena was well below freezing. All horses were worked in quarter sheets, and generally just jogged or flatted, avoiding doing anything too strenuous. One of my rides that day was 40 minutes of just walking on a horse who had tied up badly in the previous couple of days… By the end of that ride my legs and feet were so frozen solid, they felt like they were going to shatter when I jumped off at the end. Really not the most pleasant ride I’ve had here so far!

Tacking up for a ride in sub-freezing temps

While the main barn is well insulated and remains quite warm, the back barn is older and doesn’t retain heat particularly well. All the automatic waterers completely froze over, so we spent a lot of time over those days lugging buckets of warm water from the main barn in order to keep them well hydrated. All feeds were also dampened with warm water in order to get more fluids into their systems. Most horses were in at least a few layers of heavy blankets, depending on the state of their coats. It’s hard to imagine how Australian horses would manage in this kind of weather!!

So coooold….

Knee deep in snow.. Great workout for the thighs

While the super cold temperatures have passed, it still hasn’t really made it above freezing since, though thankfully the waterers in the back barn started working again today. We’ve been able to turn the horses out during the last couple of days, though not for long because the paddock troughs are all frozen solid, even with water heaters. The next few days are forecast to be rainy, but slightly warmer, so hopefully a lot of the snow and ice will disappear and make life a bit easier… We’re all definitely very excited to go South next week!