What a Summer

This summer was defiantly one to remember! We had lots of fantastic memories with some awesome camps, new riders, new ponies and lots of our riders meeting and exceeding the goals they set for themselves!

We had lot of fun riding in our big hilly paddock, swimming in the dam and playing with our ponies and horses.

This summer also had some scary moments as Tasmania (particularly the Huon Valley close by) was hit by multiple bush fires. The summer skies were filled with smoke and the constant stream of helicopters transporting water back and forwards. This not only bought us all closer together as a community but enabled us to think about what really mattered to us all and what our horses mean to us. We had a Bush fire plan in place for the best way for us to not only protect ourselves but our horses, dogs, cat, chooks, rabbits etc etc. Thankfully the fire did not come close enough to us for us to need to implement the plan but many of our friends and family had to evacuate their homes and we all waited anxiously for news on their homes.

During camp the kids all made a massive batch of cookies and decorated them which we then delivered to the evacuation point in Huonville. We also said our thanks by writing "thanks" with trot poles in the arena which we hoped the helicopters could see.

We would all like to say a massive thank you to the firefighters and all the volunteers who came both from locally and far and wide and put so much of their time into helping Tasmania to fight the fires and protect peoples homes and lives. Without you all I dread to think how much worse the fires could have been and we are all very thankful that our friends and family (including our beautiful horses) are all ok. THANK YOU!

The words below written by Kirsten Kuns a local to Lower Longley perfectly summed up our time during the fires

I thought I’d share to help people imagine our experience.

It’s exhausting and we aren’t even directly under “fire” at the moment. Exhausted from preparation. Too much sustained adrenalin and background anxiety. Friends evacuating. Sharing or being with them as they make those decisions about what to take and what to let go. Acknowledgement that there will be real losses. That it may be them who lose. It could be us before the end. The waiting. Omg the waiting. There is no quick fix here. More weeks like this. Your imagination wondering when and how it will end. What will be standing? The incredible connection we share with the people around us whom we’ve come to know and love over the years. A deep ache when you truly feel that The Valley has become your home. That you really care for this little part of the world. The tiring addiction of continually monitoring various media for updates. The need to feel like you are doing something whilst being drained. Hoping like hell that it doesn’t get over the river whilst imagining the blocking by the river will just concentrate the destruction on the other side. The incredible wonder and respect you feel for the prioritising, strategising, tactics, coordination, deployment of the services fighting fire and supporting people. The science and modelling feeding these efforts (I’m still me). And another day comes and the monster eats some more. Never satiated