This page will give you an account of what a typical work day looks like for our students once they have started their internships in July 2019. Stay tuned!

FETTERCAIRN YOUTH HORSE PROJECT

​Damla Karakas
Hey! My name is Damla and during my stay in Dublin I made a little diary about my host company.
​ I hope I can give you a closer look. Have fun!
Gorgeos Lady (obviously my favorite)
How it all started
​
At my first day I was totally confused. I had nothing to do with horses and no idea about working in a stable. Of course I did some preparation before arriving. Well, I watched some Youtube videos and hoped for the best. I was nervos, in a good way. That's why I may have seemed a bit confused, when I got into the stable.

It didn't take long and I felt good. The people were so nice to me, that I had a quick time to arrive and feel accepted. The first days I stayed at the stable and helped by cleaning and refilling water for the horses. I got answered all of my questions, and I seriously got a lot! Together with me, there were a lot of young girls in the ages between 11 to 14 working with me working there as volunteers. They were in everyday except monday and helped. In exchange for that they got free riding classes. It was cute to see how they knew every little detail of each horse we got at the stall. 
​
The days past quick and my Friend Rebecca changed her host company and we started working together. She knew a lot about horses and helped me a lot getting along at the stable. Ashlin, the stable manager gave us her number, in case we wanted to go out at the weekends. She told us, that we can always call her, if we need any recommondations for clubs, restaurants and so on. Just the people made it so easy for us to work there, it was unbelievable.


​
Second week - "half-time"
 
Weeks past and we knew exactly what we had to  do at work. We knew the daily to do list, so we didn't had to ask. We were out at the arena a lot. We helped leading the horses. Most of all I loved prepearing the horses for the lessons, even though I had trouble by putting on the saddle and the bridle. After two weeks of work it was our time to ride and I was clearly very very excited. I got so inspired that I started thinking about taking riding lessons as soon as I am back in Austira. 
​​
 Buddy (left) and Lola (right) having their cuddle time

Time to say goodbye

The last days passed by so fast. The more time passed, the more we realised how much they had accepted us. It felt like we knew us since forever with the stable crew. We rode 3 times so far and I really loved it. It's clear that I'll start riding back home. We we're in at the therapy lessons with the asberger and down syndrome clients and took a lot of experience from there. We spent a lot of time talking to the girls at the stable. We really gained new friendships. At the last working day we exchanged our snapchat accounts with Ashlin to stay in contact. 

We had a great time at the stable. Everybody treated us so well, we had like no complaints at all. 

Thanks a lot to Erasmus+, to IEP, to all our teachers working for that project, to our host family and of course to our host company the Fettercairn Youth Hourse Project.
Damla Karakas