In the month that I have been living in the middle of the bush in the high country I have not seen any of the thousands of deadly snakes that are in this area until stepping out the kitchen door of the bed and breakfast we stay at on our two day luxury rides. It was what Sarah simply called a black snake and of course it is highly venomous. He was right beside the door mat and disappeared almost immediately into the bushes next to the door. Finally, after all my running, hiking, and riding on the trails way up in the bush I almost step on a deadly snake right outside the kitchen door. I notified Sarah the innkeeper who promptly arrived at the scene clad in garden clogs, shorts, a baseball cap and her ever present cheerful smile. She was armed with two shovels and was spunky as ever but I knew she meant business. I smiled back and pointed to the hideout of the unwelcome guest and went on with my business, which that night included cooking, yes that is right- me- cooking.

    Out of a recent determination to improve upon my cooking skills, and at the expense of our last few groups of guests, I have insisted on taking over cooking on our over night rides. I have learned that it is almost impossible to screw up anything cooked Aussie style on the barbie while drinking a few glasses of wine and being surrounded by guests who keep a watchful eye on my progress, perhaps sneaking in a flip or two or accidentally turning a burner off while my attention is focused elsewhere. Miraculously, all my meals have been quite edible and are improving every week.

    We end our two day luxury ride at Kinloch Winery, and after some refreshing wine tasting and some very welcome lunch we finish the ride back to the stables rosy cheeked and in good spirits. After saying our good byes to the guests we untack the horses, wash them down, and head home. After two days riding through the muggy heat I get back to the lodge, open the fridge, grab a beer and plop on the couch and reflect on my day. I am cooking just about all my meals on the barbie with a beer in hand, greeting people with ‘g’day’ or ‘how ya goin,’’ thanking people with ‘ta’ or ‘cheers’ and grabbing a much needed beer at the end of the day and realize I am turning into an Aussie.

A Day of Firsts

    Yesterday was a sad day. As we were returning from our ride at Camp Howqua with about 10 kids we noticed Rex, our old appaloosa was lying down on his side in the pasture quite a ways away from the rest of the herd. Shaynee whistled and waited for some response. He remained motionless on the ground. I stayed with the kids as Shaynee went to check on him. As soon as she reached him she looked like she was going to be sick at what she saw. I got the kids off the horses and out of there as quickly as possible. As soon as they were gone Shaynee radioed me to tell me Rex had severely broken his leg and that we couldn’t wait for a vet. She called Warren and asked him to come with a rifle. I brought a bucket of cold water and we sponged him down and kept him cool until they got there. An agonizing and emotional 10 minutes later they arrived with a gun and a selection of bullet sizes. Shaynee asked that they just use the biggest one to be sure. With a 303 bullet, big enough to take down an elephant, they asked us to move away quickly so he could get a clean shot before Rex had a chance to move and try and get up and mess up the aim. We were probably not even a meter away when he pulled the trigger. I couldn’t hear out of my right ear for the rest of the day. The image I saw when I looked back at Rex after the rifle shot is a sight I won't soon forget.
    Luckily, this sad day happened to fall on a very sunny Australia Day, January 26^th. In honor of the occasion, Sandy, Gray, and Shaynee took us out on the boat and we got to make our first attempts at water skiing. Emily of course managed to pretty much stand up on her first attempt and on her second looked like she could already be winning awards for her expertise. I managed to get up and stay up for 1 second the first time and 2.5 seconds the second time and then proceeded to get dragged like a torpedo with a trail of first one ski and then the other being shed in my wake. I was laughing so hard I almost drowned. I’ll be better next time- you are goin’ down Em.
  
 Somehow, my first Australia Day turned out to be both the saddest and one of the most fun days since our arrival.
　

Floating Star

　
　
    Between my rides both here in Australia and in Yellowstone I have guided a fair few rides that I will never forget- one that we took out last week quite possibly takes the cake. Shaynee, Em, and I were all working at Camp Howqua that day and on our first ride that morning we had about eighteen 10-12 year old girls. I was riding drag with some of the more nervous kids and Em had just been called to the front to help Shaynee start our river swim. The horses are all used to this and will typically swim in the deeper parts of the river. Sometimes the kids will start screaming- either with unneccessary terror or out of excitement when they are knee deep in the water with the horse swimming under them. Many times the screaming sounds the same as it did this day.
    Since I was at the very back I could not see the first riders make their way into the river. I was at the back talking to Rachel, a little girl with a tendency to panic as a default whenever trying something new. The screams we heard a few seconds after the kids started making their way into the river did nothing to help the poor kid’s nerves. As I made my way to the side of the river closest to me to find out what category these screams fell under, I was greeted with the sight of poor Star, one of our little chestnut Arabians, belly up in the water and no Lori (his rider). At the sight, and without further consideration, I instinctively flew off of Combo my bay Andalusian mount of the day, and dove into the water- fully clad in boots, jeans, helmet, radio, belt, and leatherman . I was 10-15 meters down river from them and by the time I made it into the deep end of the river and into the current I was really wishing I had thought that course of action through. I proceeded to fight from sinking like a rock to the bottom with all my gear on and made it to a little island in the middle of the river and took off the radio and helmet, then dove back in and what felt like 10 minutes later I finally made it to the horse who by that time of course, Emily was already grabbing for his reigns. There were still kids in the water so as Emily got a hold of Star’s reigns and drug him to the bank (where he finally realized he wasn’t dead and could stand again) I worked on getting a very excited group of kids out of the water. My group, who had been at the back of the line with me were making their way up to me when they were supposed to stay put because they couldn’t control their horses. I went and got a hold of their horses and lead all of them out of the river and then once we were all on dry land I immediately was looking for Rachel. When I asked where she was I was told she was still frozen back on the bank where I had left her. I made my way back there and found her white and trembling. “I don’t want to go swimming, I really really don’t want to go swimming” was all she could say. I told her I had had enough swimming for one day and lead her and Combo back to the rest of the group. It was then I remembered by radio was still on the island in the middle of the river. What a day.