Sounds like a great gig, right? Working and riding in a tropical paradise with weekends off and an apartment provided for us to live in. Colleen and I thought so too. So off we flew to a foreign country without so much as an address or our work permits to give at customs. Now I know that the previous sentence makes us sound naive and unprepared, however, we had attempted to contact our boss several times and the most information we could get out of him previous to our arrival was that we should book a flight for June 13. So we arrived on the island on the designated day and of course were whisked away by customs because we had little to no idea what we were doing in their country. Fortunately Bermuda is a relaxed environment and they were able to sort things out over the phone with our employer.
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| A trip to the beach in St. George's Bermuda |
We officially began our internship the next morning. Nick, our boss, told us to help with turnout and cleaning stalls and when we were finished with those chores we each had 2 ponies to ride. Nick then disappeared for the rest of the day and left us to attempt to get some direction from the stable hand, Angel, who supposedly spoke only limited English. We managed to figure things out, each mucked about 8 stables, and rode both of our ponies all before lunch. Our University training had served us well, and Nick was astonished that we could do quality work so quickly because Bermudians do everything at a much slower pace. We were told to slow down or we would run out of work to do before camp began.
That's right, we were going to be in charge of running the summer camp program. This was not in the original job description. Neither of us were enthused about the prospect of spending our days teaching baby beginner riders and essentially babysitting, but we decided that we would embrace the lot we had been given and make it the best summer camp ever. By then end of our first week at Inwood we were already getting extremely positive feedback about our teaching abilities so we figured camp would end up being alright.
So, our first three weeks before summer camp began were spent prepping the ponies for the kids. Now, Colleen and I should not be riding ponies. I am 5'9" and she is 5'10", but we were schooling everything from smalls to larges. Hilarity ensued, especially when I was schooling an ex harness racing pony named Dusty. No one told me that you shouldn't cluck to a racing pony because they will scuttle their butts under themselves and run away with you at the trot. Another quality moment came when Colleen made what seemed to be a very small gypsy vanner go lame when she rode it. Other ponies that we rode included a 22 year old Morgan mare that was formerly the best pony jumper in all of Bermuda, and a dopey yet adorable Fjord called Fefer.
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| Dusty |
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| Royal |
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| Colleen and Fefer |
Pony camp began, and it was utter chaos. There were children as young as 5 years old, and the majority of the lessons were glorified pony rides. Again, we were left with little to no instruction as to how camp had been run in previous years. This forced us to get creative and come up with an organized daily schedule for the camp. Children and parents alike were thrilled with the program we designed and several told us that it was "the most fun camp has ever been". Parents of some of the campers that were also enrolled in the stable's lesson program also noted that their children had made significant improvement in their riding under our instruction. So although running pony camp was painful and terrifying at times, it was a worthwhile experience in the sense that it forced us to work independently and manage ourselves.
During camp we continued to teach regular clients as well as ride a few days a week. Fortunately by the time camp started we had upgraded to riding the warmblood show horses so we no longer looked like giants on our mounts. Colleen began riding Bajan Blue, aka Romeo, Nick's $100,000 imported jumper that had been off for two years with an injury, and I was riding Soft Spoken, aka Softy, a Trakhaner mare that wins in hunters, equitation, jumpers, and dressage. Getting the opportunity to ride such well schooled show horses, was an outstanding experience. However, I only wish we had gotten the opportunity to jump them.
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| Colleen riding Romeo |
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| Softy |
Unfortunately we did not get the weekly lessons we were promised before arriving in Bermuda. We each had a couple of flat lessons and one jumping lesson all within the second week of our internship. After that we were on our own riding for the rest of the summer as Nick was rarely actually at the stables. This lack of riding lessons was really the most disappointing part of the entire internship. It would have been nice to have received the lessons we were promised because Nick is a great trainer, and if we had ridden with him all summer we would have undoubtedly returned to the United States as much stronger riders.
All in all the Bermuda experience was a good one. I got to ride some nice horses on a tropical island, get paid to spend time at the beach, and increase my independence. I think I will always look back fondly on this summer, and my time spent living on the island of Bermuda.
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| Goodbye Bermuda! |
