We arrived at Willowbrook Farm not really knowing what to expect. We found them via a web site called Help Exchange, the idea is you do about four hours work a day in exchange for board and lodgings. Willowbrook farm is set on about 10 acres of pasture where they have six competition horses. We met the family, Jan, the Mum of the house a sales rep for a food company and a great cook ! Geoff, the Dad of the house, a panel beater who has a great sense of humour and is also a great cook. Melissa who is repsonsible for the horses ! and Josh who works in I.T. and is rarely seen !. Other important members of the family are Slick - the hairiest collie you'll every likely to see, Willow a very naughty, but very cute collie puppy and flex a ginger German pincer who is equally mad. We soon realised that the dogs are the bane of Geoffs life, but also his babies who he loves ! You can often hear him calling them 'come hear you little b****** !' but equally sneaking a cuddle on the sofa. We soon got to work mucking out the stables and totally cleaning two of them and refilling with sawdust. It was great to be doing some physical work and also invloved me driving a tractor up and down the fields. The next day I mowed the grass surrounding the house with a sit on mower and we went to a horse sale with Jan and Melissa. There were horses going for between $200 and $60,000 ! I made sure Sam was sitting on her hands in case she accidentaly pointed and ended up buying a half million dollar horse ! As the week has progressed our normal routine is mucking out the stables first thing which takes about an hour, then doing everything from felling a few treees, to raking a couple of tonnes of horse manure, sealing holes in the stable roof, spraying the orchard with pestacide. Jan and Geoff have been great hosts and our next jobs will have a lot to live up to. We finish here next saturday the 3rd of September and then have about two weeks off to go exploring with Kia Ora.