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HORSES!
Saturday, 21 September 2013 @ 01:26
So for the past two weeks of my holidays, I had been pretty busy..taking care of horses! YEP, HORSES! :D

It's actually an attachment programme that's supposedly meant to be in Year 2 as it's related to Animal Care and Management module, but according to Dr Diana Chan, in Year 2 we don't have time, so they shifted this attachment programme to Year 1. I was there at the National Equestrian Centre for two weeks (only 8 days, actually) and let me tell you, it really IS fun! Despite having to endure the horse smell (it's bearable) and the dirty work, I was still quite happy I could get the chance to do this. I mean, who would have ever known i'd get the chance to take care of horses?! Hahaha so yeah, our 'working' timings were actually like this: work from 9am-11am, break till 2pm, then work again till 4pm. So basically it's 2 hours work, 3 hours break, 2 hours work HAHAHA. Shiok eh?! Anyw, imma try and recall what we did for each day. Almost everyday has a theory part of the lesson, but i'm not gonna include that in this post hahaha.

Day 1 - 10 September 2013, Tuesday

Basically, we learnt to put on the head collar for the horses. If i'm not wrong, it was the day that Lando nearly lifted me off the ground using its nose LOLOL . It was really stubborn (cos it was emoing according to one of the workers there) and didn't let Qianqian or I put on the head collar, so whenever we grabbed his
head to put it on, he'd lift his head! QQ managed to put it on finally though hahaha.

Day 2 - 11 September 2013, Wednesday

We had to muck out the horses' stables, which means to clear the horse shit and urine in the stable, as well as add in new bedding, aaaaand clean the water. I had a slight problem clearing the horse shit and dirty wood shavings (the bedding) though haha cos it was actually pretty heavy, and i had to lift them up w this shovel and throw it into a bin so it was pretty tiring (i'm weak, I knowwwww). But then again it was quite satisfying to see a cleaner stable for the horses after all that work :D Pei fu the workers there man hehe.

Later that afternoon, we learnt to groom the horses. Unfortunately, QQ and I were assigned to groom Flash, a horse that had lots of FUNGUS. Yeppppp and we had to scrub pretty hard while grooming just so that we could get rid of as much fungus as possible. So that kinda left a bad impression on horse grooming for me cos after that whenever I heard "groom the horses", i'd be all UGH SIANNNNN LOL.

Day 3 - 12 September 2013, Thursday

Okay honestly I don't remember what we did LOL.

Day 4 - 13 September 2013, Friday

It was proooobably the day that we learnt to identify the markings on the horses...pretty boring I guess/: Oh and there was fogging going on at the NEC so for a few minutes it stank like hell oh god. I think we did something else on that day, can't remember though..

Day 5 - 17 September, Tuesday

It was the worst day of the 8 I think? We groomed horses in the morning, and then in the afternoon we just dId a little theory and Sonja got bored and we got bored so we just had a little chitchat with her HAHAHA. We introduced her to some of Singapore's delicacies blahblah and then we went home. Yep that's about it LOL.

Day 6 - 18 September, Wednesday

We learnt to tack up the horses, which means to put on the saddle and bridle to prepare them for riding. And then....I don't remember either HAHAHA. OH we watched Erika clip Suki's fur! Haha Suki was really naughty and got scolded a couple of times for moving around too much.

In the afternoon, we went to see the farrier, the guy who changes the horses' shoes. It was pretty cool i guess, except for the bad smell when he presses the hot shoe on the hoof, causing the hoof to be burnt. Everyone says it smells like barbeque but I beg to differ - it smells worse than barbeque /:

Day 7 - 19 September, Thursday

We did the clipping this time, but on Alarich who apparently loves clipping HAHAH. Erika says most horses don't really like clipping, but Alarich likes it so he was pretty calm during the entire thing. Clipping is actually pretty tough (maybe it's cos it's our first time too), cos it's hard to shave off a straight line neatly. Halfway through, there'd be an unshaved part and you'd have to go over that part again. Anyw, we finished clipping Alarich in more than an hour, which was REALLY long cos horses that don't give so much trouble would have their clipping done in less than half an hour LOL. But Erika says it's okay, cos it's our first time :D OH YEAH and Erika clipped the Avengers' "A" sign on Alarich!! COOL ISN'T IT :D


Day 8 - 20 September, Friday

It was the last day ): Pretty sad cos i won't get to see the horses anymore, but then again I won't have to wake up at 6.30am anymore so YAY HAHAHA. Anyway, in the morning we didn't do much. But in the afternoon, we groomed the horses, tacked them up, and YES, WE WENT RIDINGGGGGG!! :D Such a once-in-a-lifetime thing to me man hahahha. The weather was pretty crazy though, i've got a sunburn on my nose and arms now ): Anyw yeah it was fun, though it was hard to kick the horses (Alarich and Winsor) to get them to keep walking, cos they were pretty lazy so we had to kick HARD non-stop. And yeah eventually my legs were tired LOL but I still had to kick, or else those lazy bums wouldn't move. Still enjoyable, nevertheless :D



So yep, that's the end of my two-week attachment. The activities I mentioned are probably not on the correct days I stated though haha. Hey, it's hard to remember everything so clearly okay!

Big thanks to Sonja (pronounced Sonia, she's from Germany hehe) for guiding us throughout these two fruitful weeks :') and thanks to Streisand, La Bomba, Alarich, Lilli, Hero, Nanno, Lando, Karinna, Winsor and Mirabell the horses too HAHA.

Made new friends too, from K2 (The other VeT class): Andy, Jeremy, Vernetta, Regina and Dakshaini :D

Ah, I do hope to have such stuff sometime soon:D how exciting hehe!