A few weeks ago, we introduced Mikaela as a junior guest blogger, while she spends her summer as a working student for Jan Byyny at Surefire Farm. Hard days, long hours, pulling weeds, busy lessons…sounds like the typical life of a working student! Thanks to Mikaela for writing, and thank you for reading.
Hey everyone here at EN!!! My trip went smoothly and we pulled into the farm around 5. It took around 7 and half hours by the time all was said and done. I was pleased with the way Text traveled and he settled right in. Jan was at Bromont for the weekend so I got to ease in a little bit if that’s possible, haha. The girls were all super nice and I met Kendyl Tracey, Kelty O’Donoghue, and Sunny Greene and they helped Text and me get into the swing of things the first day. I also met Kaylin Dines who rides here and she is super nice as well.
The first day was a bit easier because a lot of the horses had the day off and Kelty, Sunny and I just took ours for a light hack and did some dressage after. Text was pretty well behaved, if not a little hyper. When I got here it was kind of crazy in terms of turn out and who goes where and when, but he went out during the day and got attached quickly to his pasture neighbors. What a silly pony! He is very much a pack animal and doesn’t like to leave his friends unless he is going to work.
Text in turnout
The first weekend we usually started at 7am and got done at 6pm, so not terrible hours, but I’ve been told this is the easy side, which I can believe. Jan has a worker, Adalfo, and he is helpful but unfortunately gets Sundays off so it takes a little longer on those days to do the barn. Some of the main jobs have just been grooming and bathing horses for everyone to ride and of course cleaning tack and whatnot. We also have to deadhead ALL of Jan’s flowers, which is pretty much a full time job within itself and now when I see a dead flower I can’t help but really want to pull it. Also, everyone has been running around getting ready for Surefire Horse Trials and our days usually involve staining XC jumps or doing something that involves the event. “Staining” entails covering a whole wood jump ranging from the small BN fences to the large Intermediate fences with paint stain using small paint brushes and yes, this takes a while but it will all be worth it when we get the chance to jump ‘em. You feel very accomplished when you can take a step back and look at your work!!
The second day I just hacked and flatted with the other girls. One main thing I have noticed is that you almost always hack. Even if you are only flatting the horses they go on a hack before hand, whereas I am used to just flatting for the whole ride or doing some jumping and hacking on separate days. The horses always get bathed as well which is a change for me since I only bathe on rare occasions but they all are so soft and shiny I can tell it’s a good method.
Text doing flatwork
Text was excited to get back into jumping as he hasn’t jumped in over a week. I have to say I was a little nervous about having my first lesson with Jan, but I got some good tips on what to do and what not to do when getting a lesson. My first lesson was a jump school, turned in to a flat lesson, in a group and it was pretty helpful. In the beginning he was low in his frame and I was having a hard time getting him to respond either way to my leg, but by the end he was really up and was quite good when it came to being rideable to my aids.
I still feel as If we haven’t quite yet gotten into the swing of a routine but I feel as if we are slowly getting there. It’s getting hard now to resist the urge to pull every weed I see, and unfortunately I experienced my first day in the rain. It wasn’t too terrible but Text was not satisfied being out working.
The Surefire barn is pretty full right now as we have some visitors from KY here, but there are now 7 sets of hands to help around the barn which makes things easier to get done and more odd jobs possible. McKenzie Dey just arrived as well, and it’s awesome having another roommate as we now have three (me, Sunny, and McKenzie).
There is sooooo much to do and so little time. Wednesday I had my first real jump school and Text was great. We did some lines with boxes and adjusting the striding. We did the line in 4, 5, and 6 strides and it was a bit harder for us to do the six because he is so big. I also tend to do too much and then frazzle him which isn’t good either, but by the time he was jumping larger stuff he was great. I really tried to work on my position as well. Keeping my hands together can get difficult for me. He jumped the Liverpool great on the first go woohoo! I think the lesson tested me more than him, he got to jump and I just tried to keep up with him.
The plan is still the same to run at Surefire Horse Trials and I am so excited! I still can’t believe it is so soon but I’m looking forward to seeing my mom! Thanks for reading and I’m really enjoying my experience as a working student so far.
