New Skills- Part 1: Horses

Traveling for an extended period of time can make you feel like you aren’t being a useful member of society and are just off having fun all the time while everyone you know is working a real job and being productive. One of the easiest ways to combat this feeling is by volunteering along the way. This not only helps the locals, but also keeps your days busy and lets you continue to learn new skills. 

From June 2013-January 2014 we had been going around just traveling. We had stayed mostly in typical hostel/hotel accommodations and filled our days with regular tourist site-seeing activities and with the occasional relaxed, lazy day. I was definitely starting to get tired of this and I really wanted to be using my travel time more productively. I’d attempted to do online courses, but internet is rarely reliable enough to follow any set schedules. Also, constantly being on the go gets pretty tiring. We decided that the best thing to do would be to start volunteering. 

The next few posts will help bring my blog up-to-date and will provide a glimpse into some of our average days over the past months. 

Experience 1

 

Our first host was an English couple living in Turkey. Their home was in a beautiful little area a short drive from Fethiye where they lived with their 5 horses, 2 cats, and dog. We arrived one morning and were welcomed into a nice home where we were presented with our own bedroom/bathroom and given time to relax while they went out to do the morning work with a few other volunteers. We were set to stay at this house and become horse experts over the next 6 or 7 weeks as we helped the couple care for their horses. Unfortunately, this did not happen and we left after only two weeks. I won’t be going into much detail on our actual experience here because those of you who know me have probably already heard the story. I will however, focus on the tasks and skills acquired through the experience.

View of the main horse yard

Our days began by waking up at 6:45. We threw on some junk clothes (typically a couple layers of pants and shirts with the outer layer being the dirty one) and our boots and went out to the horse yard. A few days in we added masks to our attire.

Masks for mucking out the stables

Once we got outside the first step was to take the horses out of their stables and tie them up next to the doors. Their blankets would be taken off and then they would wait for their breakfast.

Most days I would start off by feeding the horses and preparing their next meal. They all had slightly different recipes for their meals, but luckily there was a chart on the wall so I couldn’t forget the exact ratios for each horse. 

Once the food was finished, I’d go help Jim with mucking out the stables. Mucking out stables is not a very fun job. Luckily I grew up in a house with litter boxes, so I’ve found ways over the years to make it seem slightly better than it is. Just imagine you are starting each morning off with a treasure hunt. These stables used wood shavings as bedding. We’d comb through the wood shavings using a broom and try to find the wet spots after picking up the dropping with gloved hands and tossing them in buckets. From there we would push away all the dry bedding and gather up the wet shavings and scoop it in a bag. 

Jim would then go throw all of the droppings and wet shavings onto the big pile while I’d dust the windows and other walls off. We’d then make up the stables again, meaning we would straighten out all the shavings and make sure to leave about 0.5 m of space between the front door and the start of the bedding. This step was  frustrating because right after we finished, it was time to put the horses back inside so they could “digest their food without being tempted to run around.” Once they were put away, we would sweep the patio area outside of the stable door, clearing off the food and dirt. 

At this point it was usually 8 or 8:30 and we would go inside for breakfast. Jim and I would change into lounging clothes so we wouldn’t be sitting on the couches with our dirty work clothes; however, the homeowners did not share this same view. They preferred to wear their work clothes all day long. 

View from our room

Around 10 or so we would head back outside after changing back into dirty clothes. Now it was time to let the horses out of their stables for the day. Prior to releasing them we would hang up a haynet for each. The girls would be placed in a smaller yard area and the boys would get their haynets on the patio in front of their stables. We would once again remove any dropping or wet spots from the stables and toss them in the big pile. This concluded our work until the afternoon.

During this gap we would often watch tv, relax, or explore the area a bit. A lot of our time was also spent hanging out with the cats or playing with the dog. Some days we would help tidy up the house. We would also have lunch.

One of our new best friends

Around 4 it was time to head back outside. We would remove the haynets and they would be refilled. The horses would be fed their afternoon food and I would prepare the horse food for dinner time. As I prepared the food, Jim would go around the yard and pick up droppings. We would also resweep the patios in front of the stables. Some of the horses would also receive one blanket layer.

We then went back in the house. We had time to relax and would eat dinner. During our stay we had a 24 (season 1) marathon so often our evenings were spent watching that. 

9:00pm comes around and while most people would be preparing to go to bed since they have to be up at 6:45 the next morning, we were lucky enough to be preparing to go back outside one last time for the day. We’d get dressed and head on out. First we would turn the lights on and bring the horses to their stables. Jim would pick up droppings once again while I would take care of food preparation. The food would be placed in their stables with a haynet. We would then put the horses’ nighttime blankets on. This consisted of 1-3 layers depending on the horse. Some nights we would help clean out their hoofs since they were barefoot horses. The windows of their stables would be shut and the horses would be put to bed for the night. All lights would then be turned off. 

At this point we would be free to retire to our room for the evening and after a quick shower, we would pass out and sleep as much as we could before the early alarm the next morning. 

This was the basic routine that we followed each day of our stay. We did have one day in which we only worked for the morning shift and we each took off one random shift one other time. 

As I'd mentioned above, we only stayed at this location for two weeks. We definitely both learned a lot during that time. It was a very interesting experience. My only regret is that I did not take more pictures of the horses! Below you will see the only picture with a horse I did manage to take and it was right as we were packing up to leave. 

Bye!

We departed their home and based ourselves in Fethiye for a while so we could figure out our next move. We were very happy to be staying at a hotel where we could be nice and dry as those at the horse ranch worked away in the rain that day. This was our first volunteering experience abroad and luckily it did not stop us from trying more.

Ridiculously rainy day in Fethiye

(January 10-24, 2014) -Near Fethiye, Turkey