We all trooped into the arena to find what I can only say was a picture of complete chaos like a bomb had exploded in a rubbish tip. There was tarpaulin, a big pile of plastic bottles, flags, flying fish, jumps, poles everywhere, even a curtain of ribbons. Ok humans what's going on?
We were introduced to a very clever human called Shelia Reed http://www.sheilareedequine.com. Now this lady knows her stuff. She knows how us ponies think and work and she was soon telling the humans how to get the best out of us - hmmmmm can't decide whether I like this or not. I think as hairy ponies one and all we like to have the upper hand, well it wasn't to be today!
Shelia explained about body language and how to move our feet (very important for Highland pony owners, Highlands like to plant their feet and never move again - so this was an essential skill for their humans). Me I like to move and play so Mum doesn't need to worry about moving my feet, normally she has the opposite problem and it's about keeping them still!!!
Tired from the galloping ride around Cirecester park that morning I decided to take the path of least resistance and humour my human as much as possible. This meant trouble as there were a lot of different things on the ground that she wanted me to put my feet on!
We started with the big rubber mat that had a STOP written on it in big white letters just like you see on the road. Up until now I generally dance around such writing when I find it on the road. I'm a pony and can't read for all I know it says 'trolls'! However it didn't take long for Mum to persuade me to stand with all four feet on it and STOP - I liked the concept of stop, it means a rest.
But not for long, then we headed up to the other end for the terror of tarpaulin. Now remembering I wouldn't put my feet on the carpet during the Le Trec training yesterday, Mum was going to have her work cut out trying to persuade me to step on crunchy tarpaulin. We walked around and around it, Mum jumped up and down on it to kill it for me - thank you Mum, owe you one. By now I was fairly sure it looked quite safe so ventured some front feet onto the edge. Chuffed Mum gave me a massive pat and we headed off to do easy stuff like reversing around L shaped poles and bending between cones. Below is us doing the cone walking.
Just when I thought I had got away with it, she headed us back for some more stomping on the tarpaulin, by now I was getting bored so decided to walk across. Standing in the middle I thought I'd check to see if it was edible, errrrrr definitely no, as I shot off at super rapid speed when it started to growl and crackle at me - Mum are you sure there are no trolls hiding underneath? Mum just laughed at me, which made me feel silly, so I had to step back on just to keep my pride intact. Actually it's quite boring after a while and by the end of the afternoon I plonked myself right in the middle with Mum fanning me quite nicely by opening and closing a golf umbrella in my face - very cooling.
I haven't found any pictures of me on the tarpaulin under the umbrella but below is Whaetsheaf and Iona looking a little bemused at the umbrella's - humans it's not raining, I think you only need them when it rains. I think they were tired too and had somewhat lost the plot by this point.
Much to the humans disappointment all us ponies enjoyed clattering through the pile of flattened plastic bottles, though we did test the humans at their pony control when they asked us to go under the ribbon curtain. Again I'll try and find some pictures. The lovely Shelia helped the humans with this task by first parting the curtain completely, so the humans were confident to lead us through and then slowly she put one, then two and then lots of ribbons hanging down from the pole.
Mum thought it was very funny when she walked through and I stopped and just poked my head through the ribbons, anything to please and bring a smile to my human. After opening the curtain up a little I came through and by the end of the session I was happy to walk through, though goodness knows why I would need to do any of this in real pony life, but hey it kept the humans amused for the afternoon.
I think all of us ponies mastered all the challenges very well as you can see from above, we were all enjoying strutting our stuff.
Sadly that was the last event of the camp. All that was left was to tidy up my stable, pack away our bits and load up. While all the other ponies headed off somehow I was asked to model a driving harness. Honestly whatever next. For the second time that weekend I patiently stood still while the humans tried on various bits of driving paraphernalia to see if they fitted me - I'm a riding pony humans, I don't need driving stuff, errr do I? Well I guess only time will tell.
I have to say a lovely thank you to all the Highland ponies, I enjoyed your company, especially Rannoch my next door neighbour (whose company meant I got three square meals a day) and Amy my galloping partner in crime, without whom I'd probably have had to walk the whole ride!
Also a big thank you to Claire Schimmer (owner of Wheatsheaf) for organising the whole weekend and a very very big neigh to Iona's human, Caroline, for inviting me in the first place (even though I am a Dales and not a Highland pony) and for letting us all stay at her amazingly calm and relaxing yard (H&B Equestrian - which is now on my wish list of places I want to move to).
Here's hoping we can get the whole gang back together soon for another hairy pony camp adventure.
No comments:
Post a Comment