Most important in our preparations, our pet/house sitter is here & getting familiar with all my special animals, their feeding regimes & comfort requirements. Big sigh of relief although I’m going to find it very hard not to have my daily animal “fix”.

Permits to transit Aboriginal Lands applied for. Long range Fuel Tank installed on vehichle, extra spare installed & lots of other vehicle stuff seen to. Emergency beacon ordered – Spot Connect, hope it gets here on time, although our travelling companions are also carrying a Emergency Beacon.  I have learnt how to load photos onto new computer (many thanks to guests with IT skills). Trayon Camper on ute. So much to get ready.

Hopefully I’m going to keep a irregular but frequent BLOG happenning of our adventures so feel free if you are interested to follow along. There is a RSS feed button on the website to keep you up to date.

Big Nellie showing Zara how to walk through water.

Big Nellie astounds me!!!

Grandaughter Izzy has problems with her pony Zara when it comes to water jumps, so today Gary rides Nellie to show Zara that it’s OK to walk through water.

I have owned Nellie (Australian Draught Mare),  about 2 years and havn’t achieved much with her. 2 weeks ago Gary decided to see what would happen if he rode her! – Absolutley nothing – amazing. Nellie is probably about 12 yrs old, would have been ridden briefly as part of being “broken in”, as perhaps a 2 year old and has done nothing to speak of since, except to have some major fright that makes her very nervous & jittery whilst pulling a implement. Problem is – she is toooo high for me to get up into the saddle – 17.5 hands!!

Last week I spent 5 magic days at Leconfield Cattle Drives in the hills above Tamworth. I took Wirraway along as I was having a few challenges in handling her & figured that if I was going to ride a horse for 5 days it may as well be mine so we could get the best out of one another.

Beauty in the hills

Mustering cattle

Wirraway and Elaine on top of a hill - 3300feet!

Jillian Sullivan runs these 5 day “cattle drives” along with her husband Steve, & her daughter Sarah was our cook & sometimes “Tail End Charlie” on our rides.

Jillian trained our awesome Barcoo, and I bought him from her around 7 years ago. I have always said I wanted to go back there & learn some more “Natural Horsemanship Skills”.

A 500klm drive to get there, camping overnight at Coolah & arriving at 10am Monday. After lunch it was saddle up & head off for the hills for a 3 hour ride for Jillian to observe our riding skills. Wirraway started out wanting to be at the front & being impatient, took just 2 brief lessons from Jillian for Wirraway to decide life was far more peaceful to just walk along peacefully.

Over the next few days we did a bit of cattle & sheep mustering, took a awesome 4 hour ride to the top of the local mountain, wonderful views & phone reception! Learnt a range of “ground games” to do with our horses which teaches them to trust us & be happy to around us, not to be threatened or to be feared. Wirraway was chosen as the demonstration horse for “join up” So lots of learing for her & I, and yes I have been on her since coming home & she is just such a different horse to ride, very gentle & responsive.

She was such a willing, quick learner that Jillian wants to have first offer if I ever should decide to sell her!