RDA, Riding for the Disabled Association!

Gday mates!

At first I have to ask you a big favour! Because writing about this association will lead to more readers (I hope) and that's why I want to ask my new readers to also read my previous story as that is a preface of this story. But also important; as you will notice my far from perfect English, it is necessary to also read my featured post at the beginning of my blog, then you will understand!


OK having said that, LETS START!!!

This story is all about the RDA of Bendigo. They provide horse riding and carriages driving to people with disabilities. Their programs have therapeutic, developmental and social value for riders and drivers of all ages.

The RDA is mostly run by volunteers and I must say that both, my hubby Fred and I, were very touched by all the effort these people put in this non-profit organisation.

It's not only the riding on the 1 rst and 2nd Wednesdays but also the care of the horses they give the day before. Jan has to brush and clean the horses who are being taken the next day and put a sheet on to avoid them from rolling in the dirt again. When Jan can't do it, volunteers come and do it.

Spider gets her special breakfast...

Then it's time to get them into the trailers and that's not always easy.

If you have seen my previous blog, you must recognise some names I also going to use in this story.

There are 4 horses/ponies picked up today for the riding so that means that one is staying on his own and that's Zip. He knows it and is the rest of the day very restless.

At the house sitting address, owned by Tony and Jan, 3 of the 5 horses/ponies are from the RDA and because Jan is President and Coach of the RDA a few horses are home at their property.

Arrived at the RDA site the horses are being stalled all in a separate area were they are being fed and cared for...

But not all horses present are from the RDA as there are clients who have their own horses but there are also volunteers who have horses they take with them.

Brushing, hugging, cuddling ......

and even some horseshoe care....

then it's time to start.....

The second Wednesday a month it's carriage day..... 

The volunteers of the RDA are amazing, they care very much for the disabled but they also give all their love to the horses!

Jack was nearly asleep ....

Is this all??? No it isn't!

Like my previous story, the most important pictures and films are gathered in a significant movie;

So here is for your pleasure;

Movie time;

 

Cheers!

See ya,

 Next time we jump to "The Netherlands" 

Farmers Life

G day mates!

What did I say?? It’s raining so here I am, finely back! In the mean time I showed you we are in the Netherlands and the people here are very happy as we brought the sun with us. Not all of course as we cannot imagine an Australia without sun, but at least we had nice weather till now and we are about two weeks here already.

Of course the stories of our adventures in the Netherlands will come later as I'm not finished yet with our last weeks before the big travel overseas.

As I said we had a fantastic house sitting again in Bendigo. It had something really special and that I will tell later in the next blog, for now I just want to show you our daily routine.

First, meet Farmer Fred;

We had to look after 2 ponies......., may I introduce; Jack and Spider....

Jack

Spider

3 horses, Badger, Zip and Jackson.........

Badger a Chestnut Horse

Zip a Strawberry Roan Horse

Jackson a Bay Horse

.....and 7 chooks (sorry, no names) who provided us with enough eggs daily to start a Bed and Breakfast haha!

At first we opened the little gate for the chooks to extend their area during the day. (At night they are locked inn to an area in which the foxes cannot come). Then we give them our leftovers out of the kitchen and we check their food and water and look for eggs.

One of the two ponies, Spider, had a special diet of which we had to mix all the ingredients and give it to her in the morning.

So our round was mix the food for the pony and give it to her, we had to watch the other pony, Jack, as he also liked that food very much so Spider had to be locked up in a special area that Jack couldn't reach her. We gave Jack the nearly empty bucket to lick the left overs out of it.  As soon as Spider was finished, Jack jumped at the empty trough and had special tricks to get the last bit out of it.

Then we check the food and water for the horses, checked some points which were tricky for leaks, as we said that area is very dry and after that we had our breakfast.

You must be wondering why there are not much pictures about that ritual; that's because I made a film for you to enjoy, so don't skip the MOVIE........

Movie time!

On regular base we had to collect the poo from the horses with a special machine and put it in one big heap. There we could put the poo in bags and place them outside the driveway near the road to sell for a good purpose which is the RDA (Riding for the Disabled Association)
We are not asked to do that but we thought it is such a good charity, we should continue that!

Fred is preparing the quad

Nearly empty;

Also for this "shit job" (haha, just joking) and providing the hay bales, I made a funny film;

Enjoy, MOVIE time;

After these jobs we had a well deserved beer at our favourite spot;

We had marvellous weather all 3 weeks, with sunshine mostly very day, approx. 25 degrees and at night nice and cool so we could enjoy the fireplace and have a good sleep.

Jan and Tony also gave us the opportunity to leave our caravan at their place during our overseas "family visit/ holidays", of which we are very thankful.
The original place we could leave our caravan was at Wally and Kay's place, in Barjarg our previous house sitting address, but leaving it in Bendigo saved us an extra trip and day before we left.

This house sitting life gives us a lot adventures and experiences about all sorts of animals and situations but the main thing is that we meet so much nice people of which a certain amount become real friends, and that's what life is for!

Jan, thanks for sharing your horse knowledge with us!

My next blog is about RDA from Bendigo, an incredible story in which you can see how important volunteers are!

Till then,

 Cheers!

Help!

Help!! I'm so busy, still haven't time to create a new story!

In the mean time we are in Holland and just to let you know I'm still around, I herewith put some typical Dutch pictures on the blog to warm you up for new adventures.

But my next two ones will still be of Australia, so please be patient, I'm back as soon as I can......

Sorry Aussies, I took some sun with us to Holland, hope you still have enough over there!

I'm going to set up our caravan......

Cheers and till soon!