Looking out over the 62 hectares she calls home in rural Victoria’s Macedon Ranges, Pam Ahern smiles as she realises how far her life has come. At five, a horse-obsessed Pam fashioned a pony out of a scooter and her mother Sylvia’s pantyhose, riding it around the kitchen in their small suburban Melbourne abode.
She never dreamed she’d one day become a champion equestrienne, winning the most prestigious events in the country. And once she had achieved those dizzying heights, even further from her thoughts was that she would give it all up after meeting a pig called Edgar to start the farmed animal sanctuary she’s gazing at today.
“Mum always said that the worst thing you could say to me was, ‘You can’t’,” the 59-year-old laughs. “I love a challenge.” Today, 467 rescued and abandoned farm animals – from pigs, sheep and chickens to cows, lambs and llamas – are housed at Edgar’s Mission Farm Sanctuary, and many more have passed through their gates.
“And absolutely I know them all,” Pam says adamantly. “People ask how. Well, I didn’t suddenly wake up and have 467 friends. They’ve come over a period of time and I’ve worked intimately with them and nursed them back to health. You know what your friends look like.”
Edgar’s grand entrance
Pam’s quest to make life a kinder place for animals started back in the 1980s. Having established a successful career as an equestrienne, she also ran on the side a dog and cat rescue group in the inland town of Kilmore, where she was then based.
この記事は Australian Women’s Weekly NZ の December 2020 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です ? サインイン
この記事は Australian Women’s Weekly NZ の December 2020 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です? サインイン
PRETTY WOMAN
Dial up the joy with a mood-boosting self-care session done in the privacy of your own home. It’s a blissful way to banish the winter blues.
Hitting a nerve
Regulating the vagus nerve with its links to depression, anxiety, arthritis and diabetes could aid physical and mental wellbeing.
The unseen Rovals
Candid, behind the scenes and neverbefore-seen images of the royal family have been released for a new exhibition.
Great read
In novels and life - there's power in the words left unsaid.
Winter dinner winners
Looking for some thrifty inspiration for weeknight dinners? Try our tasty line-up of budget-concious recipes that are bound to please everyone at the table.
Winter baking with apples and pears
Celebrate the season of apples and pears with these sweet bakes that will keep the cold weather blues away.
The wines and lines mums
Once only associated with glamorous A-listers, cocaine is now prevalent with the soccer-mum set - as likely to be imbibed at a school fundraiser as a nightclub. The Weekly looks inside this illegal, addictive, rising trend.
Former ballerina'sBATTLE with BODY IMAGE
Auckland author Sacha Jones reveals how dancing led her to develop an eating disorder and why she's now on a mission to educate other women.
MEET RUSSIA'S BRAVEST WOMEN
When Alexei Navalny died in a brutal Arctic prison, Vladimir Putin thought he had triumphed over his most formidable opponent. Until three courageous women - Alexei's mother, wife and daughter - took up his fight for freedom.
IT'S NEVER TOO LATE TO START
Responsible for keeping the likes of Jane Fonda and Jamie Lee Curtis in shape, Malin Svensson is on a mission to motivate those in midlife to move more.