So I set off like anyone else leaving for their travels. Mum and Dad took me to the airport, my mum was very tearful although she had been, for the week running up to my departure. I on the other hand could hardly sit still with excitement. At this point I had no idea where I was going to be working or what I was going to be doing. All I knew was my flight was going to Australia.
I got a job on a polo yard and cattle farm in South Australia, it was basically in the outback and was about 45 minutes from Keith…what they called a town. Their supermarket was the size of a village shop. I arrived on a public holiday so I thought I would be eased in gently but I was asked if I could ride a motor bike (I thought I was here to ride horses?!) anyway I thought how hard can it be….very! so we went off to tag some cattle, then I was put in the land cruiser to go and check the water troughs after they had given me directions; there are no land marks what so ever apart from trees that look exactly like every other tree! I was shown where the tack room, well, an open shed, was and given a broom to sort it out for the season. There definitely wasn’t any tack in there and I didn’t even come across anything that resembled any article of a grooming kit. So the next question where were these horses that my boss played polo on?
Well, off we went to get them in from the paddock which they had been out in for 6 months, untouched. We rounded them up with motorbikes into the cattle yards so we could catch them. There were 6 he wanted to use for this polo season, one of which he was borrowing and hadn’t been near people for 2 or maybe 3 years, no one was really sure. I’m told ‘all the tack is in that barn, just get what you need, probably best to lunge them first before you get on’. So off I go. I only managed to fall off once and that was off the crazy horse that he never rode – he decided to drop it from his string for the season. The others were all pretty ‘cruisy’ and so the fitness regime to get ready for the season ahead began. The way everything was done was very different from what I was used to and practically every rule I had been taught in pony club did not seem to be relevant. However it was brilliant and made my life a lot easier. The family I worked for were absolutely lovely and were so kind. They gave me a car, a house and food while I was working there. Working both on the farm and with the horses was extremely hard work and even in the heat wave where it got to 47oc, work and polo still carried on. It was like working in an oven, even starting work at 5am it was still boiling. On a day-to-day basis my work was very varied apart from exercising and looking after the horses. I would have to check all the cattle’s waters first thing in the morning on all 3 farms. Then I would feed and exercise all the horses, clean tack etc. Usually cattle needed moving paddocks and getting into the yards to give them injections, or for weaning and this would involve me basically being a cowboy…I never thought I would be able to move 200 cattle on my own on a horse! It was absolutely amazing. One of many funny moments was when my boss was chased by one of the bulls across the field on foot, I don’t think I have ever laughed so much and then I was sent in, I wasn’t laughing so much, and the bull proceeded to chase me on one of the horses at gallop round a few of the paddocks, this was after being told that it was ‘old and docile’…yeah right!
The polo season started in January and so the shoes went on the horses, this involved my boss looking at the shoes that came off last season and matching them up the best he could and putting them on the horse himself…definitely not with the method of the shoe to fit the horse. It was so much fun, the practices were good aswell, my boss’ team were all farmers who just got together and practiced when they had time and then turned up to the tournaments. One of them used to play for Australia and he had a groom who was also from England and we got on very well. I remember the first time we went to polo, we got the cattle truck out which had no roof and we just put the polo ponies on the truck with no partitions. His polo tack was just ancient GP saddles and whatever pieces of bridles I could piece together. At the start if the season we only had 2 girths, luckily I managed to persuade him to buy a few more! The tournaments were so much fun as there was no prestige surrounding polo in South Australia like there is in England. We would leave on a Thursday or a Friday and stay there the whole weekend, all the players would stay at hotels or at someone’s house and the grooms would all stay in swags at the polo grounds. There would be bbq’s, parties or dinners at all the polo matches and everyone was always really friendly and welcoming. There was definitely always entertainment in the evenings with the Australians far ahead of us on the drinking side. It was hard work when your team were playing as there are 5 chukkas which each last 7 minutes and then there is overtime and injury time. There is a few minutes in between each chukka for you to swap ponies so I had to have the next pony ready waiting on the side so that the swap over was very quick and then I took the other one away and washed it down and got the next one ready. This was made a little more hectic for me with the lack of tack my boss seemed to own, luckily I was never late. I had always imagined that in polo they taped up all the bandages and tails but they didn’t use any, there is a special knot called the Argentinean knot (or something like that…I was too busy learning how to do it to remember any other information being told to me at the time) that you use on the tail which requires no tape or bands. I was slightly worried at first that my bandages would fall off but luckily the pony club had taught me well. The polo was incredibly fast and competitive and our team, called Penola, was in the A grade, they were very good and got into the final at quite a lot of the tournaments we went to. We had a pretty good season; none of our horses went lame or had any injuries. One of the other team members was not so lucky as he had one particular bout of bad luck at one tournament when his horse was galloping along and it broke its leg and had to shot on the pitch. We held the last polo tournament before I left at the team’s polo field. This was extremely fun as we were on home ground. I was sad to leave and say goodbye to all the people I had made friends with.
I am so glad I decided to go and work out in Australia as it was such a good experience and it taught me so much. I cannot describe to you how good it was. I loved working on the cattle farm as much as I loved the polo side of things and I think that basically being a cowboy for 6 months is a opportunity not to be missed.