Leconfield Jackaroo School

There were about 15 of us ready to be picked up by Tim, founder of the Leconfield Jackaroo School. There were 3 Scots, David, Lee, and Matty, who were travelling together. Couple French girls, Pascaline and Flora. A German mom and her daughter who were from Sydney just doing the school as a holiday thing. An Aussie lady, a girl from the Netherlands, and the rest were all Germans, Colin, Anica, and Katrin. Tim came to pick us up at 9.30AM. We first went to a second hand store to buy some work clothes. I already had mine from the cattle farm so I didn't get anything. Then Tim brought us to a bottle shop to buy alcohol for the week. The boys got a box of beers each, plus some more. Me and Katrin and Anica decided to share a box since I was tight on money, and they don't drink much. The other girls mainly got wine.

DAY ONE: The farm was about an hr drive from Tamworth, and a good 30min was spent driving through the outback valley. The mom and her daughter had their own car, but it was a small fiat and it had trouble going up the steep hill. At one point the boys had to help push the car to get it going. When we finally got to Leconfield we met 4 other backpackers who were helping out on the farm, 2 Germans and 2 English. We picked out our beds in the big shed where we'll be spending our evenings. It's got the shared bathroom, couch area and the kitchen. Outside we've got the bonfire, a table tennis, as well a dining area. There were also hats hung on each bed post that everyone could pick one to wear on the farm. Some people had their own Aussie Jackaroo hats and I pulled out Mundy's old hat, everyone was asking about where I got it and they all really loved it. Anica took a look at it and told me that it's a really good brand. Once everyone's settled in Tim made tea and got us to all sit around the bonfire and introduce ourselves. He assigned each one of us a horse and Justin, the farm boy, gave us a quick grooming and saddling lesson. Mine was a white horse named Blue, he was very calm. Then we went to the arena where Tim showed us how to create a friendship with our horses. Afterwards Justin took us out on a ride to the bush and showed us the different types of trees, especially the certain kinds that the horses could eat and us to eat if we ever get lost or thirsty out in the wild, but everything looked the same to me.... We finished around 6.30PM and let our horses off to the field and the 2 backpacker girls made dinner. It was nice to eat outside with the view of the valley. Later that night everyone just had some drinks and mingled.

DAY TWO: We were woken up by very loud music at 6.30AM. Apparently that was the routine where one of the backpacker helpers would pick a song each morning as our alarm. If that didn't help, there was also a pet sheep bleating right outside our door for its morning milk. There was also a farm cat. Everyday some of us would have a daily duty such as cleaning the bathroom or doing dishes after meals. After breaky we had to catch our horses, which was basically recognizing your own horse and putting a head collar on it. All the white horses hung out with each other, but Blue had some discolouration on his fur so I was able to differentiate him. Tim first gave us another lesson on natural horsemanship, then back at the shed they had 3 sections set up: whip cracking, lassoing, and barefoot trimming of the horses. Boy English backpacker showed us how to lasso and we practiced on a tie post with 2 bull skulls. It was fun, made me feel like a cowgirl, but it was hard. Apparently there'd be a lassoing competition on the 4th day so everyone was trying hard to get it right. The Boy English even volunteered as a running bull for David to try to catch. Whip cracking was cool too, and it wasn't as hard, but you could easily whip yourself as Katrin did. The barefoot trimming required strength in keeping the horse's foot held up and filing it at the same time.

After lunch we got to muster sheep. They split us up into experienced and beginner riders as some of us have been riding for at least 2 yrs. I was with the Scots and couple other people. We took different routes as they weren't sure where the sheep were. Lee's horse was a rascal, it kept taking alternate routes! We went downhill and my girth wasn't done up properly so I was sliding forward, so Boy English had to re-do it for me. The experienced group ended up finding the sheep and they got them to the gate of the farm. We had to muster call to get them moving. Tim showed us how working dogs were much more useful than us because it rounded up the sheep within minutes! After we got the sheep in the pen we went back to the arena and practiced trotting horses for the beginners and cantering for the experienced. Blue basically knew what to do because when the other horses started trotting he started to trot without me having to do anything, but maybe because I'm too short or my stirrup wasn't done up right because I always feel like I'm gonna fall when he picks up speed. Then we were split up into 2 teams and did a barrel race where we had to do an 8 figure around 2 tires, trot to a barrel on the other side of the arena, go around it and trot back and our team won!

Afterwards we went back to the sheep pen and Tim and Justin showed us how to catch sheep. For some reason once you've caught the sheep and got them to sit upright they'd calm right down. The sheep's fur also got a lot of prickly pear seeds so a lot of people got all scratched up. Afterwards they showed us how to sheer sheep and we all got to try. I didn't realize how easy it was to nick them and cause them to bleed so I didn't enjoy doing it. Someone saw one sheep had a blind eye, so they decided to butcher it and showed us how to kill a sheep by cutting its throat and letting it bleed out and I got to carry the dead sheep back to the shed with the Scots. Then we unsaddled and brushed our horses, and cleaned their hooves before letting them off to the field. We do that every time before we let them off. Back at the shed Justin showed us how to skin and butcher a whole sheep, the boys got to use a small chainsaw to cut it up.

DAY THREE: It was a long and boring day. We first had another horsemanship lesson where we tried to steer our horses without using the rein and I was frustrated because I wasn't getting it right! Then we waited for a long while back at the shed, not really knowing what was going on until we were finally split up into 2 groups doing pasture improvement where we basically just walked across fields "painting" weeds with some kind of chemical stick, the other group however had to pull them out by hands. We packed our lunches back at the shed and jumped on the backs of the trucks and went up to eat at a hill that overlooked the valley. We were split up again and Lee, Matty, and I got to do some fencing with another guy that worked on the farm. We learned how to use a fence strainer and at first it seemed so complicated because there's a certain direction to work it but once you got it it becomes quite easy and we each had a go at it. The guy was really nice and he even offered us a nice cold pop from his travel fridge afterwards. When we got back to the shed we learned that the other group were doing yard building. Then we went back to the arena and Tim showed us tricks he could do with his horse, even riding it without a saddle and directing it just by using his body language. We also played limbo with Tim's horse.

That night after dinner the backpackers got us to play some games. The first one was "I Love My Pink Pig." Girl English got a pink pig stuffed animal and we all passed it around saying "This is my pink pig and I love my pink pig. I'm gonna kiss (whichever body part of the stuffed animal you want)." and it cannot be repeated. So some people said ear, left eye, belly, butt, etc. Second round came around and we all had to kiss whatever body part we did on the pig to the person next to us. Colin said the crotch and David was next to him so he refused, and since he didn't comply with the rules of the game he had to either run across the field naked or jump into the dirty tub. He ran naked. Boy English got us to play action observation games which took me a while to understand. Girl English also got us into pairs with our arms hooked up with strings criss crossed and we had to figure out how to untangle ourselves without taking off the strings. I was with Katrin and she figured it out right away, others tend to get more tangled.

DAY FOUR: We reviewed all the natural horsemanship we've learned so far and I still didn't do too well. Then we went out to muster the cattle, it was a very long and slow process especially under the heat. When mustering cattle you don't want them to be running or else they'd get thin. Once we got them into the cattle pen they separated the calves from the adults and we had our lasso competition. We just had to get the rope on a part of the calf, I only got to the second round getting its ear. Matty won in the end with a running calf. It was very dusty. Tim had his kids in the pen with us as well because they wanted to watch. His wife was holding the little daughter and his 3y/o son was happened to be right next to me and just asked me to hold his tiny hand. So adorable. Then they showed us how to put pink eye spray on cattle by getting them into a head gate. In the end they get a makeshift eye patch, looking like a pirate. They also showed us how to wrestle calves in order to castrate them and even the boys had a tough time, those calves were strong! Me and Anica had a go at it and we got one down pretty fast, but not before I got kicked in my thigh twice! Got a huge bruise afterwards. Once the calves were held down Tim and Justin castrated them and marked their ears by nicking them. It was pretty brutal actually. We also saw a small huntsman spider on one of the plants. First huntsman I've seen! That night we had lamb that Justin had butchered the other day. It was kind of odd eating the sheep that was seen alive...

DAY FIVE: Boy English showed us how to maintain the saddles by rubbing every part of the leather with sheep fat to keep them from cracking. Then we got to swim with our horses at the water hole. They had a water hole that we go swimming sometimes after school. I was never one to go swimming in muddy water, but I actually jumped into it a couple times and it was definitely refreshing after a long day under the sun. It was fun swimming with the horses and Blue did a pretty good job as some horses weren't really good swimmers, but I think he might have choked on some water when we got out. Afterwards we went to a field and the beginners got to canter our horses. Blue was all excited because when it was our turn I didn't even have to do anything and he just started going, but I thought I was really gonna fall off so I had to slow him down and I think he might have been a little disappointed. They said you had to get into a rhythm with the horse but I didn't know what that rhythm was till after the fact.. No one explained. Anyway, Flora's horse actually galloped across the field.

We went back to the arena and we got to try to track a calf, which was basically following it closely on horseback. I got to see Justin "cutting" calves, a term used to describe separating a single animal from its herd on horseback. It was so cool to watch because the horse seemed to know exactly what to do without Justin having to steer it too much. When it was Colin's turn to track the calf, he got the horse going by using his upper body like you'd see in the movies when you were supposed to use your heels. It was funny to watch, but it worked. Usually they'd drive us back in town for a night out on our last day but there was the Tamworth Country Music Festival, one of the biggest country music festival in the world, so instead we got to stay on the farm for another night and go back early next morning. Back at the shed Justin got out Tim's branding iron and we all got something branded as souvenir. That night the backpackers had the night off and we made dinner for ourselves. We played sound observation games around the bonfire like "In Happy Sunny Valley" and "On Venus and Mars." We also played "Suck and Blow" with cards and rolling a ping pong ball through people's pants as fast as you can.

Everyone was drinking lots, especially them Scots. Colin tried to keep up with them but he was getting pretty drunk and was telling us his drunk stories. In the end the Scots changed into their kilts, going commando, and taught us traditional Scottish dance. We also played the laughing game where one person picks someone to sit on their laps and say to them: Darling I love you, and if you love me please laugh, The other person would reply, without laughing: Honey I love you too, but I cannot laugh. But if they ended up laughing then they'd have to give their seat away. Girl English was the easiest target she just couldn't stop laughing while saying the line, but her laugh could also be contagious. David tried to use his kilts to his advantage, but me and Matty were the only 2 who never broke out laughing.

Katrin and some other people got rooms for the weekend to check out the music festival, but I found out too late and everywhere's booked. Anica's heading to the airport to fly up to Cairns, and I've booked 4 nights at Newcastle Beach YHA, so I'll be taking the train at 10.30AM. I've wanted to check out Newcastle because it seemed like a nice town when I passed by it on Greyhound to Sydney. Tim wrote each one of us a reference letter, and I also bought a DVD of our 5 days on the farm for $25. Tim also found me a job looking after horses in Narrowmine, however it'll be working for accommodation so no pay, which means I'm gonna have to look for a side job. I'll see how it goes with this job... My new boss Lindsey seemed like a nice guy when I had a brief talk with him over the phone, but he didn't know anything about Working Holiday Visas and he thought he had to pay for it. I explained to him that he just had to sign me off for the work I've done when I leave, and he was okay with it, as long he didn't have to pay for anything.....