Emily was a student at our Dookie Campus from 2012-2016. We caught up with Emily to ask her a few questions and see how she’s doing now.
What do you love doing?
My favourite thing to do is spend time with my two horses Matilda and Billy. If I’m not riding them I’m grooming them, doing groundwork with them, cleaning their gear, mixing feeds for them… the list goes on! Aside from being around horses, I also enjoy reading, drawing, and occasionally sewing and cooking.
How do you spend your time during the week?
I work full time, Monday to Friday. I start work at 8.30 and finish at 5pm. Sometimes I leave home earlier so I have time to go riding before work, but this time of year it’s usually too dark to ride. I miss daylight savings! I work at a harness racing stud in Kialla. I started doing work experience out there while I was still attending Dookie, and ended up staying there! I have been there for around 7 years now. My main jobs are gearing horses up for work, ungearing and hosing them down, swimming horses during the warmer months, manure pickup in the yards and stables, bringing the racehorses in from the paddocks and yards in the afternoon and bandaging legs for the night, applying liniments and giving any medications. I also feed all the horses in the yards and stables, and sometimes I feed grain to the rest of the horses out in the paddocks. I am also in charge of supervising the work experience girls that are out there at the moment
Can you tell us something that you are most proud of?
One thing I’m really proud of myself for is retraining four ex-racehorses, two of which are my own, from being used to pacing really fast in a sulky to being ridden in dressage, on trails, and on adult riding club days. I am also particularly proud of myself for going through the process of selling one of them. When I advertised him I was completely unprepared for the amount of phone calls I was going to receive from people I didn’t know enquiring about him… Considering that a few years prior to that it would be no exaggeration to say I was terrified of speaking on the phone, this was quite an overwhelming experience for me! What was even more nerve wracking was when potential buyers came to look at him, I was extremely anxious over what the outcome would be, but I’m pleased to say that the first people that came to look at him ended up buying him, and I still keep contact with the new owner over a year after selling him, and they absolutely adore him. I am also proud of myself for getting my car license. I used to be very frightened at the thought of driving a car, but with the help of everyone out at work and a fantastic and patient driving instructor, I am now on my full licence and can even tow the horse float to riding club days and competitions.