So for the last 11 days I've been helping taking care of almost 30 horses for the Pentathlon World Cup in Pomona near Los Angeles.

Me and another workawayer left the ranch at the 22nd of April with 6 horses to go to the barn where the Pentathlon would take place. We were staying at a hotel near by and Tammy would drive us to the barn every morning and back every evening. The rest of the day we were staying at the barn to take care of the horses. It was a lot of work to take care of so many horses, especially the first day because there weren't many people there yet. The second day the kids from the pony club arrived to help. They would stay in the trailer at the barn. The main chores we had to do were mucking the stalls in the morning and evening and quick picking the stalls during the day, put new shavings in the stalls, watering the horses twice a day, feeding the horses three times a day,walk all the horses at least twice a day and clean tack. We were busy the whole day because the horses needed to be in top shape for the competition.

We could take breaks in between though and we had a whole table of food and drinks. I honestly never ate so inconsequently during the day.The food was just there staring at me all the time. Eat meeee eat meee.I couldn't resist grabbing a little snack every time I walked passed that table. And believe me, I walk passed that table many many times. Also we had pizza for 4 days in a row. And no not even different flavors of pizza. Pepperoni and cheese pizza for four days in a row :0 I am a pizza lover for sure but this.... this was too much :')

Anyways, we didn't have personally designated chores to do. It was just a list of things and we had to jump in for whatever had to be done. We worked with a nice group of people and I got to meet more new people too. It wasn't all work work work. We had lots of fun in the meantime and I generally enjoy being around the horses.

We also got to ride a bit but it was just a relaxed short trailride to give the horses time to see the area. At the days of the competition the workawayers from the ranch came to visit in the afternoon too to help us with the chores and walking the horses to the arena. For the competition we had to tack up all the horses and walk them to the arena where the athletes would warm up their horses. It was very nice to see all the athletes and to be part of this event. Pentathlon will probably be part of the Olympics so it was quite a big deal. It was just a bummer that the Netherlands didn't participate in the competition.

I don't know a lot about showjumping myself but I heard that the Pentathlon riders aren't really good at horse riding. Pentathlon includes fencing, swimming, running and shooting and showjumping. Showjumping is the last part of the pentathlon and it's considered less important than the other parts. That's why many of the athletes aren't trained enough to be an actual showjumper. Some are good riders but some are just really bad. Anyways, the way the athletes probably think about it is; as long as we don't knock over any obstacles, don't fall off the horse and have the fastest time, we're good. No matter what it looks like how we ride. Anyways, it was very interesting and fun to watch the showjumping and the horses did so well. Most of them though. One athlete fell off of Soldier and he ran out of the arena almost all the way to the road because no one shut the gates.... yeah. It could have ended pretty badly but luckily he was caught before anything disastrous could happen.

The end of the three day competition was a great weight off our shoulders. Everything went pretty smoothly and the horses were all okay. Crystal and Kiersti took us to the Drive in Cinema to say thanks to everyone. I had only seen those in movies and TV shows before. I absolutely loved the drive in movies. It's so cozy, simply so... gezellig (no translation for that haha). There we were with all the workawayers in the back of the truck with blankets and food. I definitely need this in The Netherlands, loved the experience.

Yesterday we went back to the ranch again. I did miss the ranch. It feels more like home and there's more to do here. At the Pentathlon barn I could get pretty bored, especially without wifi. It feels good to be back at the ranch. I had to say goodbye to some workawayers already and more will leave in the upcoming days :( I'll miss these people. I'm going to bed now though. I really need some more sleep after these busy days.

Goodnight!