Bernadette Kelly
Subscribe to Bernadette's blog (RSS)
Posts
- May Gibbs Fellowship
- Back to Winter
- EQUITANA MELBOURNE
- November 2008
- March 2008
- Merry Christmas 2007
- Two Beautiful Foals
- September 2007
- July 2007
- May 2007
Categories
- Events (1)
- News (6)
- Uncategorized (16)
Archives
September 2007
Uncategorized | Posted by Bernadette on Wednesday 5 September 2007
What a busy time it’s been since my last post. Myself and Black Dog Books Illustrator, Richard Morden, recently had a lovely day speaking to Mentone Grammar primary students at the school’s Shoreham seaside camp. It was a delightfully sunny winter day and the students were all fabulous listeners. They were all very keen to ask lots of questions about books and writing.
For me, that day was soon followed by another visit to Assumption college to speak to the 2007 crop of year seven’s. Again, a very interested and enthusiastic group of students with some very thoughtful questions and responses to my presentation.
My other life as a horse breeder is about to become very busy too. Both the mares have huge bellies that look as if they might burst at any minute. I don’t think the foals can be too far away now from making their entrances into the world. Foals and older horses are especially at risk from the Equine Influenza virus so I am carefully watching the current situation. My horses are at present safe in Victoria but nobody knows if the disease will eventually spead down south from NSW and Queensland to here.
If any of you reading this have your own ponies, please keep them safe from this current Equine Flu outbreak and most importantly, keep them at home so that the Department of Primary Industries can contain all the affected horses and stop the disease from spreading. The horse flu would have to be one of the most contagious things you can think of. Because the bacteria that causes the virus can live for a long time on any surface, it can be spread not only from horse to horse, but by people, gear, vehicles and even just through the air.
If we all do our bit we can hopefully stop the spread before it covers the whole country and we all have to live with it forever. If any of you have had to miss out on competing because of the flu, that is disappointing. But just remember that we don’t want to have a situation where we are always putting our horses at risk of the flu just by going to events.
But on a much brighter note, keep an eye out here on the blog and on my horse page. I hope to soon be posting pictures of the foals. Here’s hoping for healthy, happy, mares and foals everywhere this breeding season.