Visitors We Have Hosted....
If you are travelling through this way and would like to pop in and say hi, explore the local area and love to get information about places you visit from those who live there rather than from a travel guide, then you can certainly do that here!
Sadly - I am no longer on property and no longer have horses, fencing, land etc to be looked after, so am probably not much appeal to travellers anymore, I am open to having backpackers still pop in and will be able to give them a couple of little jobs to do in return for a few nights stay, good conversation, a few laughs and showing them the local area or at least giving them the directions to find something good to see.
If you would like to spend a few days or so in Whyalla and get some advice on whats good to see on the Eyre Peninsula, Gawler Ranges and Flinders Ranges - then by all means get in touch. Its fantastic to meet folk from different countries whether I have horse/farm tasks or not for them to do.
Get in touch if you are keen to spend some time with myself, Tessa my Kelpie, and Zeek the insane cat.
Contact me for more details by Email: reigatestud@gmail.com or Phone: 0412 385 274
Below you can see the awesome people we have had here in the past - Backpackers, Work Experience and 'Locals' who have come at times. Absolutely fabulous people - some with horse experience - some without any. All have had a great time while here and many laughs!
Jennifer - Germany
Having been in Australia since November 2013, Jenny was looking for somewhere to do her farm work and found my advert on Gumtree, and got in touch as she needed to do her 3 month farm stay/rural work for her second year Visa. Jenny has horses of her own back in Germany and after 'stalking her on facebook' and talking to her quite a bit - we decided that she should come for a trial to see how she got along with us and how she
was going to enjoy it here. After running down to Dunkeld (near Hamilton) to collect her and then having her look a little concerned when I said my phone had gone flat and therefore had no navigation - but 'meh - she'll be right - we will get home eventually'.... things turned out just fine!
Jenny is a polite and lovely young woman who is very good with the horses and the other critters here, is an accomplished rider and has fallen in love with Flirt - the Thoroughbred mare, and is working really well with her, and rides Bill very nicely too. Jenny arrived at the start of March and was here til July I would recommend her to anyone looking for a courteous, responsible and hard working young lady at their stud, training stables and more!
Pauline is also a young lady who knows Maggy and Jenny from the Hostels and their travels... She was here for a few weeks from June to the end of July.
She is a hard worker, likes to be kept busy, and willing to jump in and give anything a go! Having ridden quite a lot when younger, she hopped on Bill for a trial and rode him very well. Sadly - she rode him after his saddle was stolen - so was in the jumping saddle that was too big for her, and did not fit Bill properly.
Pauline - France
Pauline who worked well with Blossom, Bill and the other horses, and even ended up teaching Camille (next lass down the list here!) some basics and working really well with her and the other girls as well!
Pauline is also a lass I would recommend to anyone as well - she is a really lovely girl with a great outlook on life and making the most of what she is presented with!
Marguerite - France
Maggy is a lass who knew Jenny from their stays in Hostels with their travels.
She needed to get her days up as well for her farm stay work - and signed off her working days here with us in time that she was here. We miss her terribly already - but wish her well on her travels and have made a friend now who I will
keep in touch with for years to come! She will be back later in the year though to see the foals and catch up!
Maggy is a wonderful girl and I would recommend her to anyone wishing to have her working for them and staying with them. She is an awesome cook as well which certainly does not hurt!
Maggys career is in fashion primarily - so this was a big change for her - though she has ridden horses in France as a child so certainly was not a complete newbie when it came to dealing with the horses. She worked very well with Bibi - and of course Winky!
Camille - France
Camille is also from France, but has spent quite some time in Canada from her accent.
She arrived the night before Maggy left so it was lovely to have all of us together for one evening. Camille is a lovely girl and fit in perfectly here with the rest of us! She knows the other girls as well from her travels and the Hostels.
Camille had not had any experience with horses - and we threw her on Bill - which turned out to be her second time on a horse - and she did really well - She stayed on the lunge line and got a bit of a lesson from Pauline in the use of legs and the aids.
She is an awesome person and shall be someone I stay in touch with for a long time! (As are the rest of the girls!!). Camille was here when we were starting the move to Dartmoor and spent a lot of time pulling down fences and packing as well as the usual feeding of the horses and the day to day care and work needed to be done with them. Without her help - I would still be trying to get things moved I am sure!
Tracey - England
Tracey is from England, and despite not having had any experience at all with horses previously - has fit in beautifully!
Thrown in the deep end - she arrived while we were part way through the move to Dartmoor and quickly learnt how to pull down fences, put them back up again, load horses onto floats, learn about feeding them, handling, and how much
'stuff' I have, and also how much stuff I had and didnt really need.
Tracey was to do her farm stay - and her 3 months farm work is well and truly up - she has her 2nd year working visa and has opted to stay for a lot longer as she is enjoying herself and none of us could envisage her even leaving!
Tracey has been fabulous and we are absolutely lost without her! Sadly she had to go back to the UK in November 2015, and life is not at all the same without her here. ANYONE thinking of hiring Tracey in any capacity, ever, would be doing themselves a major favour in doing so. Though she is back in the UK now - I consider her very much a part of the family here.
If only our immigration system was conducive to our situation here .... She would be back in a heartbeat given the opportunity.
Chloe - France
Chloe, also from France, arrived a couple of days after Angie departed, which was awesome timing - though after we discovered she was planning on hitchiking to WA - we quickly got her hooked up with Angie and sorted for her to meet her in Adelaide...
Chloe is from a family who has a lot
to do with horses, so it was an ideal fit for her to spend some time here.
She got along well with all the critters and us, and it was fantastic to meet her, even if it was for a shorter time than originally planned. She and Angie had a ball on their trip over to WA together and it was so nice to see them travelling together!
Kathi - Germany
Kathi, from Germany, was here for a short time and is a really lovely young lady who had enjoyed her time in Australia.
She fell in love with all of the critters and learned very quickly that Tess was kind of the boss of the couch for the most part!
It is a shame that Kathi didn't have longer here with us. She fit in really well with the madhouse here!
Roseanna - England
Roseanna, from England, was here for a few weeks and had a blast. She is fantastic and anyone wanting to host her at any stage would do well to take her on!
She fit in perfectly with everyone here - animals and people wise... lots of laughs, and I would love to have her back here sometime if she ever comes back to Australia!
Val & Marion - France
Val and Marion were the first 'couple' I have had stay with me - and, as I have said with so many of the previous backpackers - they are awesome!
I think I have really hit the jackpot with awesome people! Val is an amazing cook, and Marion is now equipped with the know how and recipe for the family Pavlova!
I hope that they can come back before they leave Australia!
Val and Marion stayed for Christmas 2016, they were unsure of their plans and as we also had Florestan and Marine here at the same time - it was silly for them all to be heading off and spending the day alone.
So after some discussion, they stayed, and went to help Mick at Mick and Becs the day before to do some work, and we then had an awesome Christmas with Mick, Bec, Tiny, Derek, Dina and Jim as well as the four Frenchies and myself. Lots of laughs and loads of photos taken. I would love to see them again before they leave Australia.
Sarah - England
Sarah had been in Australia for some time, had completed her Farm Work already but wanted to come and stay here for a while too.
She had been working on some different studs here in Australia in SA, QLD, NSW and was with us for 10 days. We wish her well in her endeavours and it was nice to meet her.
Angie - France
Angie is a visitor from France who was doing a relatively quick trip around Australia so was spending about 2 weeks in one spot at most. She has worked with horses previously and fit in well here.
All the animals loved her and us humans thought she was pretty awesome too. I organised folk for her to stay with at Waterloo Corner, Port Augusta and
Ceduna on her way over to WA... she was going to be driving alone - not ideal - but at least having some stops on the way with friendly people was a good start!
We managed to talk our next backpacker, Chloe, out of hitchiking to WA and meet up with Angie in Adelaide. It worked out well for both the girls! The girls had a blast from the looks of their facebook albums and comments!
Miri - Germany
Miri is from Germany and was on a short stay in Australia - however fell in love with it here when she arrived and stayed til the end of April, then travelled with her parents for a month before bringing them back here briefly for a visit which was fantastic. She headed home to Germany to begin her studies.
Back home, Miri has been riding Western Pleasure horses and working with a few different ones there for other people. She is quite a good young horsewoman and it is lovely to have her working with the horses here.
Miri is keen to come back to Australia and to us when she has completed her study in a few years time. We will welcome her with open arms if she says shes heading our way! We love Miri to bits :D
Elisa (above) & Caroline (left) - France
Elisa and Caroline are two lifelong friends from France - here in Australia for a fairly short amount of
time. The girls had been in Melbourne for a couple of months before coming to Dartmoor - a bit of a change in scenery to say the least! Caroline has been riding for about 10 years, and we finally had a non drenched day that she was able to have a ride on Bill.... its a shame that it has rained continuously since as she and Billy boy got along really well.
Elisa has a horse at home, and her family has had horses for years - though I think shes a bit more in love with the little ones here than the big ones! The girls are heading home to France again in the middle of July.
Florestan & Marine - France
Flo and Marine were the second couple to stay, and arrived a couple of days before Christmas 2016...
Being here at the same time as Val & Marion, it was fantastic for both couples to have fellow Frenchies to converse with, and they all did a few hours work with Mick over at Mick and Becs place.
We then had an awesome Christmas with Mick, Bec, Tiny, Derek, Dina and Jim as well as the four Frenchies and myself. Lots of laughs and loads of photos taken. These guys have since become engaged and welcomed a baby boy into the world in August 2018 - Huge congrats guys!
Patrick - USA
I cannot believe that Patrick was the first American to be here! He had only been in Australia for a couple of months when he arrived here and was thrown in the deep end with fencing, and with my awesome friends Jo and Jason being here with the four kids!
It was a case of 'hey how are you? - here are some tools!'... We did have a fun time though and Patrick is just lovely. He is a really nice bloke who is bound to love the rest of Australia while he is here! Would be great to see him again if he heads back down this way sometime during his travels.
Val & Marion - France
NO - you are not seeing things!! Val & Marion came back!!!
After being in Lorne for a few months, they bought themselves a car and headed back this way to stay for a week before heading off on a nearly 3500km journey to Perth. They will head right up around the WA coast too when they are ready.
It was absolutely brilliant to have them back again - They got on fantastically with Tia - and it was hard to work out who the bigger kid was - Val or Tia..... Such a beautiful couple - inside and out. There was mention of them maybe coming back next year again - that would be awesome and the spare room is always waiting for them!!
Chiara & Adrien
(France & Italy)
Adrien (left) and Chiara (centre) are pictured with Mandy after finishing off the garden beds at the back of the house at Wallacedale. It was 'beer o clock'....
They came at the end of January 2018 and
were only staying for 2 weeks - but left in July 2018 to head back to Europe for a couple of months and are heading back to Wallacedale when they return for a bit longer as they have work at wineries around the area and will then head off to see more of the country.
They are a wonderful couple and very much became part of the family. I wont be there at Wallacedale when they return obviously now that I am in Whyalla - however Mandy and Tia are still there.
Lou - France
Lou is someone that we loved having here - even if it was for such a short time. Nearly 3 weeks in all - Tia said 'Can we keep her?' lol...
An experienced horsewoman back home, she settled in to the routine here and did some amazing work with a fair number of the horses, and fell in love with them all.
Lou also got to experience her first Tiger Snake at the paddock,
and saw it be caught by a local snake catcher. She loved the fact that the paddock was full of kangaroos - particularly every time she rode. Koalas, Kookaburras and other wildlife showed itself to her as well.
We definitely want to see Lou come back here before she leaves Australia! She truly is a fantastic person!
Manou & Andrea
(France & Italy)
Manou (on the left of me) and Andrea (on the right), visited me in hospital the day before they left after staying for about 3 weeks I think it was - it was meant to be one week but then I had a heart attack - and they decided to stay and help out Mandy and Tia and the other backpackers we had at the time - Chiara and Adrien.
Manou and Andrea were such lovely people to have stay with us and if they decided to come back to Australia again for another holiday I would love to catch up with them :D They could even see a different part of the country now that I have moved :D
Below is a selection of images of our awesome visitors who have come through!
We hope you enjoy them as much as we enjoyed having the various folk here and I would say that I will keep in touch with 99% of the people who come to stay here.
I am unable to travel around the world myself these days - however getting to meet these fabulous people and getting to know them a bit is about as good as it gets without actually being able to go there and explore the planet.
Thankyou to all those who have come and stayed here whether it be for a couple of days or a few weeks, months, or longer!
 |  |  |
|---|---|---|
 |  |  |
 |  |  |
 |  |  |
 |  |  |
 |  |  |
 |  |  |
 |  |  |
 |  |  |
 |  |  |
 |  |  |
 |  |  |
 |  |  |
 |  |  |
 |  |  |
 |  |  |
 |  |  |
 |  |  |
 |  |  |
 |  |  |
 |  |  |
 |  |  |
 |  |  |
 |  |  |
 |  |  |
 |  |  |
 |  |  |
 |  |  |
 |  |  |
 |  |  |
 |  |  |
 |  |  |
 |  |  |
 |  |  |
 |  |  |
 |  |  |
 |  |  |
 |  |  |
 |  |  |
 |  |