Rainy day at the horse farm

2nd August 2009, National Stud Farm, Tg. Rambutan - The Buddies Annual Family Day.

We had some of the children of our PLHIV families asking their parents why we were having our family day at Tg. Rambutan. One boy even asked his mother, "Kita pergi sana buat apa mak? Gi tengok orang gila ke?"

I guess the town is more known for its mental hospital... some don't even know of the existence of the National Stud Farm there.

Oh well, it rained rather heavily in the morning...

... so we were stuck under the tents eating up our breakfast of nasi lemak, while one of the vets explained to us about the farm and the horses.

When the sky cleared, the scenery was beautiful...

We were then allowed to touch and feed the horses at the nearby stables...

Here... you can eat all you want. I don't eat this vege...

Then came the demo on how they replace the horse shoe. The horses get new pairs of shoes every 4 weeks.

First, take off the old shoe...

Then, adjust the new shoe so it will fit nicely...

Then fix the new shoe...

There... all done! Imported shoes some more... jealous or not??

Then group by group, we were allowed to take pictures with the horse(yep, the one with the new shoe). Here's a group of our volunteers with their pose...

We were then brought for a tour around the farm in an Executive Coach.

Errrmm... I mean this executive coach. Classy don't you think?The executive coach with some happy pelarians on board...

It rained on and off during the tour, so we brought along our umbrellas on the executive coach.

We were lucky as there were some newborns at the farm... during the tour, we saw at close range some colts and fillies less than a week old... a few just 1 or 2 days old.

Sorry, can't remember if this one's a colt or a filly.

And this baby here was sleeping and didn't even realise there were some kaypoh visitors around.

This proud stallion here is the father to many of the horses born in this farm.

And oh, we were even shown where these horses mate!

The honeymoon suite...

After the tour, we were brought back to the tent for lunch. We were entertained by the balloon man during lunch.

This guy also did some magic tricks much to the amusement of the kids and adults alike.

After filling up our tummies with food glorious food, it was game time! (right timing, huh?) Sorry folks, no pics here ok? Suffice to say, all the children got some gifts and prizes to bring home.

After the games, came the moment most were looking forward to... the horse ride! Two horses were made available, one white horse meant only for the younger and smaller kids, while the other horse for the bigger children and the adults. I was busy going left and right making sure I got pictures of every single person who got onto the horses.

I can't show you pics of the PLHIVs and their families, so here's all I can show you...

The horse dung, freshly delivered while someone was taking his/her turn for the horse ride!

It then rained again right before tea time. Ngam ngam just in time for everybody to get the experience of getting onto a horse (which wasn't easy I tell you... tertonggeng-tonggeng!).

The rain subsided a bit after tea, so yep, we did manage to take a group photo before we headed home. And oh, we also got a souvenir each from the National Stud Farm.

Okay people, that's all I've got to share with you... Opah Pi the koboi tua wants to go home now... giddy-up horsey...