Road to the Mongol Derby part 1

Training has officially started! After two frustrating months of not even being able to dress myself, let alone do any sports, I'm finally back in the game. Most of you know I can't sit still and hate feeling useless so those two months of recovery were really hard. Thankfully I felt good enough to get back on a horse after five weeks (although I couldn't ride my own pony yet) and after six weeks I started running again. And since a few weeks I also took up dancing again and I work with a personal trainer twice a week to improve my (shoulder) muscles and get stronger. My arm is still weak but it's slowly getting better.


I told MaeCile that if I would end up needing surgery, I would cancel the Derby. That was in the first week after my fall, after that it got a lot worse and I actually had to have surgery. So I lied, I wasn't really able to quit. The more I thought and read about the race, the more excited I got. And I still am. Some moments it feels really scary to enter this thing, especially after my fall. My doctor told me that if I end up falling on my shoulder again, the collarbone might break again. Not because the break hasn't  healed but because of the screws in the bone. They weaken the bone and it could easily snap in those spots. So I try really hard to tell myself I could break something either way, even without this pre-existing injury.

Other times I want to quit because training is just so hard. Running doesn't come easily to me so at times I feel like I'll never get there. My goal is to be able to run 10K before the Derby starts. Today I ran a 5K for the first time though and it felt great! It's so hard to drag myself out of bed in the morning to go for a run but I am improving and that makes it worth it. The personal training has once again reaffirmed for me how much I hate the gym. I can hardly force myself to walk in there for the warm-up, let alone the entire training. I'm so self conscious and always feel like everyone else is better than me. We have to decided to train outside instead, which is a lot nicer anyway since I already spend all day inside at work. Even if I fall off on the first day of the Derby, I will be fitter than ever before!


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Barrels and broken bones

I know, this one is long overdue. The summer just flew by and despite a bit of bad luck, the last month was great! Being back home is extra hard this year, I had to have surgery for my collar bone fracture. I had hoped it would have healed enough by now that I could still go to Kenya. Instead it has to heal all over again and I can't do anything other than watch tv and read, believe me, it gets boring fast. It does make me more determined to go back to Horseworks soon, as I didn´t get to do everything I wanted. I will ride in a rodeo! ;)

The best thing about this summer, I got to ride Missy! I started training her last year when she was two, we did a lot of ground work, which I continued doing this year. I was able to put my foot in the stirrup and lean over the saddle but I felt like if she would take a step, she would explode. I had tried a lot of different things and didn't really know what else to do. MaeCile took her and me to a local trainer. He worked with her from his horse and really focussed on getting her to move her feet. I was super nervous when I first got on but after her initial confusion she was so good! I rode her three times and the second time we were already trotting around the arena, I was very proud. The next step was going to be a trail ride but unfortunately we didn't get to do that due to my fall.

I really thought I would be fine after Tina did an unplanned sliding stop while I had lost my stirrups. I even got back on and did the barrel pattern again, even though I didn't have any strength in my left arm. But after cooling my shoulder for hours it still didn't get any better. We were planning on going into Cody anyway so I decided to stop by the clinic. The doctor didn't even need X-rays to see my collar bone was broken. The X-rays showed the elbow was fractured too. I had the best people to help me though, I am so grateful to everyone who was there but especially to Alissa who helped me with everything that seems so normal but is impossible with one arm, like doing my hair, to Caitlin and Janet for leading the trails like pro's and Janet being my left hand in every imaginable way my last week. I tried to make myself useful by doing lots of riding lessons, with one arm in a sling and a lunge whip in the other.

On the weekends, MaeCile's husband Jim joined us at the ranch to make life easier for us by making gates and fixing pumps. He also taught us to shoot his guns, I was so proud I managed to hit a moving target! (Don't worry, I'm not going into hunting, still a vegetarian). Another highlight was the camping trip we did in the Bighorn mountains. We found the most beautiful camping spot and went on a gorgeous hike through the woods to a crystal clear lake. The last two groups of this summer were great, both quite diverse but it worked out well and everyone fit in at the ranch. We had so much fun, from putting electrical wire up to eartagging calves and from cowcamp to cook-outs by the lake. The best thing about the ranch is always the people, they make Horseworks feel like home.

I can't wait to see my ranch family again next year!








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New friends, frustration and fireworks

When I was younger, I loved the tv-show 'McLeod's daughters'. It was about a group of woman who were running a cattle ranch in the outback of Australia. That show is pretty much the reason I wanted to come to Wyoming the first time, to do that myself! This week I was reminded of my ranch dreams. Hector and Ned, two photographers from Kentucky, came to stay at the ranch. They told us they were very impressed and inspired by how we followed our passion and dreams to work with horses and how we handled the ranch work together, with a group of women. 

When you live something, you start to take things for granted so it was a good reminder of how things you daydream about can actually become a reality. Even though they are not always as romantic and idyllic as you'd pictured... I love fixing fences, it's very satisfying and it makes me feel pretty badass to be able to do it but this week we almost got beat by a fencepost. We had to replace a broken post but it was almost impossible to get it out of the ground. We tried all the tools in the garage and came up with some pretty creative ways. It was great teambuilding and I lauged so much and guess what, we got it done! Girlpower!

Of course it wasn't all work, like proper Americans, we celebrated the 4th of July last week! We did a cook-out in the park, listened to live music and of course we watched the fireworks. I'm not a big fan of fireworks but I must say it was pretty impressive! We also got some smaller fireworks for the ranch. Vanessa and I went to get it in Cody, both of us had never bought fireworks before so we were overwhelmed by all the options. The store clerks must have been laughing at us browsing the kids section for ages. We got a nice selection though. The funniest things was everyone's reactions when we set off the fireworks. One of them kind of moved in our direction and we all ran away screaming... 

We had a week off between sessions so we had time to do some more training. A few of our horses had been out of the string for years due to injuries or other causes. We wanted to see which of them we could use for the guests, which we can sell and how much training they needed. Between the three of us, Linda, Vanessa and I managed to get on five horses that hadn't been ridden in years. Two of them  are a bit older but they turned out to be really nice and relaxed trail horses. Another one has a small injury but will be a nice pasture buddy for someone. The other two we want to work with a bit more. The big grey in the photo, Fern, is a really sweet horse but she's still a bit insecure and prefers to follow another horse instead of walking by herself. Hopefully we can build her confidence and eventually use her for our own guests. Vanessa has been working with Speck, a big Appaloosa who is a bit skittish but with a bit of work he will hopefully be a great riding horse. It was great to have a week to fully focus on those horses. During a session there is always so much going on and so many things to worry about that we don't really have the time.

And a lot of mud...

Yesterday, we wrapped up another session. It was an interesting session, a bit different from what we've been doing the past few years. Usually, our guests are young women on gap year breaks but this time we had two moms with their kids and two other ladies travelling alone. We had some struggles but we also had a lot of fun and I learned a lot from it. I think everyone challenged themselves and did a lot of new stuff. It was fun to see how people changed over the course of a week (or two). Unfortunately the weather in the first week wasn't too great, it rained a lot and the corrals turned into mudpools that rivalled the ones in Yellowstone. We still managed to do a lot though and planned our activities around the weather. One morning we were doing lessons in the arena when a terrible hailstorm almost washed us down the hill. It's crazy how quickly streams can appear where previously the ground had been as dry as a desert. We decided to spend the afternoon at the Hotsprings to warm up and had a lovely cook-out in the park, one of my favorite places. Heleen and I spotted some baby turtles in the river and we went to see the nearby herd of bison, riding in the bed of Paul's truck. Those bison looked huge when we were driving right next to them, without car windows to protect us! 

Unfortunately Heleen left at the end of that week, her four weeks at Horseworks have flown by! We had a lot of fun adventures. My favorite was the dayride we went on together, exploring a path through the hills I had never been on before. It was a beautiful route with amazing views and I felt so relaxed after it (that lasted for about five minutes). It was just very nice to spend some time together. Paul also left that day, he had been here for a week to help me out with the group. Before he drove back to Washington, he tried to teach me poker in a sushi restaurant, even the waitress joined in the game! I couldn't stop laughing when he told the cook his Japanese was wrong and the sushi wasn't prepared in the proper Japanese way. 

In the second week, the weather cleared up and it dried up enough to go to Cowcamp! It's always one of the highlights of the session so I was glad we could go. This time I actually slept outside, next to the campfire, all night. No rain and nobody screaming 'snake' in the middle of the night (looking at you Kaylyn :P). There was also a beautiful full moon that night. 

We did a lot of work with the cows this week as well. One of the calves hadn't been nursing so we had to milk the cow a few times a day to get the milk going and help him drink. I brought another cow in all by myself on one of our recently retrained horses Curly. Laura started riding her again this spring and I've been taking her on short rides to get some miles on her. She is doing great, still a bit insecure but very calm, and she did great with the cow. The cow certainly didn't make it easy so I'm really proud we managed to get her and the calve to the ranch by ourselves (with a little help of Alissa who opened the gates). Both moms and babies are doing well now! 

I've also been working with Missy a lot, with the help of Heleen and Stephanie. Remember I started training her last year? She has made so much progress. Last year I had to keep her in a corral with a long rope on her halter to be able to catch her, now she comes up to me when they are all out on the property. She is a lot calmer and really good with most of the groundwork we do. At the moment we are working on putting weight on her back while she is walking. She is perfectly fine when I lean over her back while she is standing still but when I try to make her walk like that she freaks out. It's certainly a challenge to back her but she is a quick study and I'm convinced we'll get there. She definitely teaches me a lot about training!

Like a Country Song

Happy birthday to me! This year I got to celebrate my birthday in Wyoming, cowgirl style. Yesterday Steph, Heleen, Alissa, Linda and I went out to Cody for a lovely dinner (with a giant desert, Steph's face when she saw it was priceless). This morning I had the best surprise ever. I came back from my run and heard something in the lodge. I went in but there was nobody around. Suddenly I hear crying coming from the kitchen so I walk in to see Steph and Heleen sitting behind the counter. I thought something was wrong but they were actually trying to surprise me, except they were laughing so much they didn't hear me come in. It was the funniest surprise ever.

Today is the start of a new session. We are at the airport to pick up the new group, I'm very excited to meet them! We had a great first session with some amazing people. I was very sad to see them leave but we had a lot of fun in their last week. We went to Shoshone National Forest, always one of the highlights of the session. I drove up the mountain with the horses in the giant trailer. Thankfully they just fixed up the (gravel) road and it was pretty good, although compared to African roads, it was like a highway. We discovered a new trail on the mountain, rode on some really narrow trails with low hanging branches and crossed the river a few times.

One morning, we got up at 4am to do a sunrise ride, a beautiful ride as always. We also went to Reed's place to get the rest of our horses. We wrangled them into a corral on our horses. Wrangling horses is one of my favorite things, it makes for some fast riding and quick turns, especially since these horses weren't too keen to go where we wanted them to and the field they were in is huge and even has a creek running through it. MaeCile and I went back with the trailer to get all the gates and the feeder out. Unfortunately the feeder didn't fit in the trailer. We tried a few different things but nothing really worked until we tried to put the feeder on top of the trailer. By some miracle we managed to get that giant feeder on top of the huge trailer, just the two of us! We tied it with some halterropes and made it all the way home over the gravel road without it moving an inch! I was very proud of us. The funniest thing was that it took eight of the interns to get the feeder off again.

Between the two sessions we had a week without interns. We had a busy week training horses and catching up on some projects but also managed to go on a trip to Yellowstone National Park. Linda, Heleen, Alissa, Steph and I spent two days exploring. We went on a few nice hikes, I saw some new places and the best thing: we saw a grizzly bear! I really wanted to see a bear and since the last group saw so many I was very hopeful. Unfortunately we didn't see anything other than bison and elk. Right before we left the park though, there were a lot of people standing around looking at something so we decided to pull over. The Grizzly was about 80m away from us and she strolled around the area for almost an hour. It was so beautiful to watch her and amazing to be so close to such an amazing animal. Best part of the trip for sure!

Country Roads

After four busy weeks at home I’m back in Wyoming, enjoying my cowgirl life. And this time I get to share it with Heleen! We’d been looking forward to coming out here together for so long but it still feels a bit surreal to have her here. Everytime I see her walk by I think ‘O yeah, Heleen is here!’. It is so good to be able to show her everything I always talk about, going on adventures together and making more memories. We came here halfway through a session, which I think can be a bit challenging as the rest of the group already knows each other, but they are all great and we have lots of fun! And of course Stephanie and Linda are back! One of my favorite things about the ranch is meeting up with old friends and making new ones from all over the world.

We’ve had a busy first week: we went to cow camp, soaked in the hotsprings, visited two rodeos, trained young horses, took four horses to the vet and did lots of riding. I had never been here during this time of year before. It is the rainy season which means everything is super green and beautiful. But it also meant we got rained on when we tried to sleep outside at cowcamp. I was so cozy and warm sleeping next to the fire when Stephanie woke me up. We moved into the little cabin that is there, which was a lot less comfortable but at least dry. Unfortunately Kaylyn woke us all up in the middle of the night screaming ‘snake’. She was convinced there was a snake crawling over Cara. We tried to look for it but didn’t see anything and since I was pretty exhausted I just fell asleep again. I’m still not sure if it was actually there or if it was a dream but I know I dreamed of snakes after that.

On Friday, we took three lame horses and one colt to the vet. I got to drive the big truck and giant trailer again! It always makes me feel super badass to be driving around with that. We went to get the colt castrated, I had never seen that so it was very interesting to witness. Heleen said it looked just like dr. Pol does it. The vet also took X-rays of one of the horses’ legs. He turned out to have arthritis so unfortunately he won’t be able to work anymore, but at least we know what is wrong now. Dr. Gould always explains everything really clearly and loves answering our questions so it was great for the interns as well. And he said we could start riding Pirouette again (she was lame too) so I’m really excited to take her out again.

In other great news, we have a cook this year! Remember last year when Hannah and I just reheated leftovers or put pizza in the oven somedays? This year we walk in the house and amazing food is just there waiting for us. Besides being a great cook, Alissa is also a great person. She is always interested in people’s stories, always has a smile on her face and is super organised and on top of things. She has only been here for a few weeks but it feels like she has been here for years and it takes a lot of stress off MaeCile, who finally has time to sort out other things, and me as well. It’s going to be a great summer!

Ponies, Puffins and Planes

Of the things I thought I would never see in life, snow in May is definitely one of them. Although technically it was the 30th of April. Anyway, in typical Icelandic fashion, my last day had about three different types of weather. When we brought the horses in from the field in the morning, it was snowing. On my morning ride it was almost sunny and in the afternoon I rode in the rain for two hours. And so my last view of Iceland was the same as the first: a dreary landscape from behind a bus window. But somehow Iceland manages to still be beautiful, even on a rainy day.

On one of the rare sunny days, Mary and I went to one of the Westman Islands, just off the south coast. We took a ferry that made us feel seasick after about five minutes but it was definitely worth it. Again, there were not a lot of tourists here. We took a walk around the island (it's only 5x7km) and didn't see anyone else on the trail. It was a beautiful walk, we hiked along the east coast with its steep cliffs and amazing view of the other islands. The trail went through fields with sheep and horses and we ended up at a bird hide. This was apparantly a good place to spot puffins, the bird this island is famous for and the reason we came. You guessed it, there were no puffins in sight. The only one we saw that day was made of wood...



We had a lovely day though, with 7 degrees and sun it was a summer day in Iceland! We had lunch at a cute little black beach and walked back to the harbour following a path through the fields. Unfortunately it didn't say anywhere that the path was a dead end, we ended up at an airstrip that we weren't allowed to cross. As we had to be back in time to get on the ferry we decided to try and go around the airstrip by climbing a few fences and walking through a lava field. At one point I honestly thought we would get lost on this tiny island, but we made it to the ferry in time.

After a nice dinner with the girls and a walk along the beach where a random dog and a cat joined us, my time in Iceland was almost over. I guided a few more tours. Least favorite tour guide moment: one of the horses bolted because a guest started screaming. Then it was time to go to the airport, where I had to spent the night because my flight was at six, no point in getting a hotel for those few hours. It wasn't too bad though, I managed to sleep a little on the plane. It's good to be home again, see everyone and ride my own horse. Although I must say she looks a bit strange, after only having seen Icelandic horses for two months ;)