SLCC.ePortfolio

Below are Photos that I took last winter (2010) while volunteering at the Brandenburg British Pony Club. I love working with, riding, and just being around horses. They are amazing creatures. I stumbled upon BBPC's website before I left the states and emailed what seemed to be an old contact, and therefore was never contacted back. However, I didn't know that at the time. After arriving to Berlin, I started searching again for somewhere to go riding and possibly volunteer my services. Most of the places I had found wouldn't even agree to give me riding lessons because my poor German speaking skills. I again tried contacting someone at BBPC and finally got in touch with Nicola who runs the place. Luckily, she had no problems with the fact that I spoke little German and said to come down to the pony club to meet with her and chat. I realized after speaking with her, the club was a one women show, ran by just her. She has some help from the parents and the older kids who took lessons there, but not nearly enough. She agreed to give me riding lessons for free in exchange for a bit of hard labor. At the time I had nothing going on so it worked out perfectly. I spent about 4 days a weeks at the club for 5-6 hrs a day. I would let them in out of the hay, muck out the yard where the horses where kept, shovel paths for the horses and people to walk on during the winter, clean old hay out of the pastures, clean up the barn, make up the feed, help the kids tack up and untack, groom the manes on the pony’s, and lunge them when needed. I would also watch and assist whenever the Vet would come, which was a great learning experience for me. I know that I will take a lot away from my experience working at the pony club and hope to incorporate that knowledge into my own life someday when I own my own horse.