Land

So... I'm browsing Trademe, looking at sections and getting really irritated with titles such as, "build your dream home!" and "large section"

Two things I know my dream home is not: In Ravensbourne (damp, dark, cold place that it is) and on a 600m2 property.

When I'm looking for a large section, I'm thinking 5acres plus. Preferably more than ten. I want to keep horses and a garden and an orchard... 600m2 is not going to cope with that. The best I've found so far, and the place I would really love, is around 10 acres on the bank of a river in Southland. It has a 3 bedroom house (which is new and very livable, if not what I would build for myself) a 40x40m riding arena, a number of sheds, one partially converted into stables, and substantial amounts of horse quality fencing. The one problem with this section? Well... I make roughly $200-300 a week. Hardly enough to pay my existing bills without getting what is no doubt quite a substatial mortgage. I've just applied for a second job filling shelves in a supermarket so as to have a little spending money.

But hey, I can dream. And dreams go further than you imagine... I dreamed for a long time, in an abstract way, about getting a horse. Then for six months I thought of little else, figured out what I wanted and needed and dreamed about that and... found him. So now I have a horse. I'm hoping the same approach works for property.

And I really do want property. A horse I have been working on for some time now, Mr Wobbles (formerly known as Volcano) has recently been sent back to a former owner who wants him gone in a week or he's going for dog food. Had I land of my own I would take him in an instant. He's kind and gentle and tries so hard to please. An absolute sweetheart who had one accident (a horse fell on him in a float) and is now in the process of being rehabilitated. I believe he is fixable, and I believe he would make a wonderful first horse for anyone. In the three months or so I have known him he has gone from falling over and being unable to get up, to being able to carry a 65kg person around comfortably at a walk. I realize he has damage and may never be able to compete to a high level, but I fully believe he can be a perfactly good mount for anyone wanting to hack gently around the countryside... and for such a wonderful natured horse who will try his heart out for you even when in so much pain... I think he deserves a better end than the knackers.

Had I my own property I would take him in in an instant. Sadly, I rent grazing and the land can't really take another horse, nor can I currently afford another animal. However much I might like to. Having seen one other horse I cared for wind up at the knackers, I would hate to see another end up the same way. It's been well over a year since Fergus sent Bill to Clover (clover meats) and I still can't believe he's really gone. Another sweet horse gone for no good reason.

Still, I have Harry. And I will do everything in my power to see he never has to worry that he might end that way. He is currently diging in to huge amounts of baleage and looking very pleased with himself. He covers himself in mud whenever he gets the chance to and with recent rains... well. He is a hairball covered in mud and as happy as can be.