Pauline volunteering at Pony Parties

My first week

I’m Pauline from Germany and I’m staying on a pony farm for two months. The farm is in Motukarara, that’s a small place on the south island of New Zealand. I’m living in the family who owns the farm and in this time I’m the right hand of my host mother. Her business is Ponyparties. Children can celebrate their birthdays in an indoor venue with all the animals like rabbits, ponies, donkeys, guinea pigs, a calf, goats and little dog Foxy.My jobs are to help wherever I can. In my first week I had the task of feeding the rabbits, chickens and guinea pigs every morning and evening. I also have to help cleaning and tidying up the house and the farm. I had my first two pony parties last weekend. With two or three other girls I helped to welcome the customers and helped the kids with the animals. We did pony-ridings and the kids could feed the animals. Furthermore we are supposed to keep the venue clean, provide everybody with food and drinks and just have an eye on the guests and make them pleased and happy.

It’s nice to be a part of the family (mother, dad and two girls). However you have to be aware that there is nothing near the farm where you can go. The next big city is Christchurch, it’s half an hour away and I won’t go very often to the city. You need a lot of books and other things for your entertainment. For my work my host mother often takes me out for a ride, when we have time and when the weather is good. That’s very nice for me because I can have a rest from the farm and the work and enjoy riding.
But one thing that also my host mother says very often is that it is not just fun. It is a lot of hard work and sometimes this work is annoying. It is as much fun as it is hard work.

Pony Parties and Pony Riding

It’s my fourth week on the farm now and I’m still enjoying my time here. Sometimes, for example on the weekends, when we have Ponyparties, it’s really stressful. When we have a ponyparty, we have to prepare everything before the customers are coming. We have to put all the animals into the venue and prepare some snack food for the kids and adults. When the customers are there, we have to be there if someone has a question or needs help and we offer hot drinks to the adults.Furthermore we make ponyrides and motorbike rides with the kids and help them with food and drinks. Sometimes the birthday kids are not coming to the venue, but we are driving to their homes or to other  events and make pony rides. In the past few weeks I also had a lot of nice rides with my hostfamily and some other girls who are helping on the farm.

Friends from Wellington visited me last weekend and it was no problem for my hostfamily to let them sleep and eat here and I had two days off to spend some time with them. So you see, I have a lot of work to do but my hostmom is very forthcoming and wants to see my happy and satisfied.