Hello, I'm Brian the imposter!

Hello, my name is Brian the Dales pony.  I've come to stay with Cyril (my half brother) and Woody (my little full brother). My mummy's not very well, so Cyril's Mum is looking after me for a while. 

I am staying in Cyril's indoor bedroom so I have to be extra clean and make sure I keep it nice and tidy for him. He forgot to pack his iPad when he went on holidays so I thought I'd use it to say hello. 

I've been here just over a week now. I prefer it to my first new home, it had horrible horses that were mean to me. I much prefer it here. I live next to Zippy cob at nighttime and share a field with her during the day. She's ok. She was a bit scary to start with so I made sure I kept my bottom and heels towards her, but she's quite old so doesn't hurt me and we have now become friends. 

Cyril and Woody are in the field next to me, so we get to chat over the ouch fence. 

I'm here to learn to carry humans and become a grown up horse. Aunty Lynette said I had to be brave and start as I meant to go on. Which means I've been walking with Zippy up and down the road. We didn't have cars in Wales and in my new home I had only stayed in the field, so being at Aunty Lynette's has been quite scary. I used to jump every time a car went past, the first time I nearly squashed her - oops!

Zippy says they are nothing to worry about, and I'm getting a lot better though I can't quite ignore them like she does, well not yet anyway. I've even walked down the road without her, so I have to listen to Aunty Lynette even more carefully then. 

I like it here I have my own bedroom and I get breakfast and dinner everyday and I get to go out on grass everyday, the field is full of it, very yummy. 

I have started work and I have already passed my saddle exam. I have been revising my lunging and by day two I was doing walk and trot and halt foot perfect. It was too windy and wet today to work but I'm hoping I can do some more tomorrow. 

I hope Cyril doesn't mind me using his stable and borrowing his Mum while he is on holiday. I have promised to be good. 

Last hack before holidays

Mum says I've worked so hard this year I can go on holiday. I'm not sure this is a good idea with imposter Brian nicely settled into my bedroom, what if Mum falls in love with him? She might forget about me and I may never get to return to my bedroom and carry Mum on all sorts of adventures. Zippy says I shouldn't stress, Mum calls me her forever pony so I'm stuck with her, which is great news cos she's not bad as humans go, but don't tell her that. 

We were very lucky with the weather yesterday after a sprinkling of rain first thing the sun came out and we had blue sky, yes honest after weeks of dull grey it was joyful to see the sun. 

Mum brought me back to the house yard to get me ready and as I was shiny and showing off my dapples she decided she would take a photo of her handsome pony. 

But Zippy kept photo bombing the pictures much to Mums amusement. She did finally get a portrait of her forever pony. 

Ok I'm munching hay but I was hungry and needed to fuel up for my last hack of 2015. 

Mum loaded me onto the box on wheels and we set off for Barbury. Wow what a view when we arrived. 

I stood getting tacked up with the sun shining - lovely. 

Soon my new horsey friend Vana arrived with her Mummy Clare, in her gorgeous big truck, I'd like one of these Mum, it's deluxe travelling. I know this because I hitched a ride in it last week, when Vana and I went to the Water park. 

Benji was allowed to come in our last hack too. He loves this ride with all its smells and big fields to run around in. 

I got to show Vana a new route and she was fascinated with Benji dog, couldn't quiet suss him out as he kept popping up in hedges and then disappearing across the fields. 

We all had the most fantastic ride and I feel very lucky the sun shine was so glorious for our trip. The humans let us run along the grassy gallops up Smeaths Ridge which was the perfect end to our ride. You can see Vana and I were very happy content ponies by the time we got back to our box on wheels. 

When I got home I had to make my final preparations for going on holiday. Mum has decided I don't need to pack my rugs or plait my hair, I'm going to be allowed to be a roughty toughty pony for a couple of months, so all I had to do was apply my own mud pack rug. 

Still needs some work but plenty of time for that!  Thank you Vana and Clare for a lovely last ride. Not sure what 'endurance' means but going to look it up after my holidays as it sounds like Vana and I might be going on one of those rides next year. Too much like hard work to need to worry about it now. 

Time to put my hooves up and enjoy my nice outdoor bedroom with 24x7 access to grass. It can't get much better than that, take care pony friends xxx

The best Christmas present ever

It's been reported I have an imposter in my stable but I have no way of checking because a couple of weeks ago Aunty Jo was left in charge and abandoned Woody & I in the field. It's true! I know I couldn't believe I had been kicked out of my lovely warm stable never to return!  Woody loves being out 24x7, he's died and gone to heaven. I'm not so sure. It does have its up side as we have 24x7 access to grass. Now I know all Dales ponies love grass, but I LOVE grass. 

The downside was our outdoor bedroom was rather wet and muddy, well until Christmas Day!

 

Mum has given Woody & I the best Christmas present ever. Christmas morning she arrived with the box on wheels full of straw. Off I thought. 

However she got her food wheeli machine and put tarpaulin and straw in it and dragged it through the mud to the other side of the field and started building in our outdoor bedroom. I sent Woody to check out the scary tarpaulin. 

Then Mum covered it in lots and lots of straw. 

Again I sent Woody into check all was safe, he's a sucker for that. It all appeared safe so I decided to join him. 

Ohhhh yummy hay in here and our favourite salt lick. Life is good. We now have a warm dry outdoor bedroom and 24x7 access to grass, thank you Mum this is the way a Dales pony is supposed to live. 

Errrr imposter Brian here, what about me and Zippy?

You've stolen my indoor bedroom Brian, so you are not going to allowed into our outdoor bedroom, sorry. 

Thank you Mum best Christmas present ever - errrr are you going to muck out our bedroom, because Woodys already done a poo?

Don't I look handsome

I know I am a very handsome pony and I know it gives my Mum great pleasure when I toss my head and show off my mane, as I get so many admiring glances. People love to comment on how amazing my mane and tail are. I have to laugh because humans your horses could have gorgeous hair too if you didn't keep pulling it all out!

I have to say a big thank you to Caroline Harwood of H&B Equestrian (whose yard I want to go live on if I ever have to move - it's the best) who I think has done rather a fine job of capturing all my handsome good looks in my portrait below. 

Thank you Caroline there is no end to your talents. 

Slip sliding away

Mum has been on a mission lately to make me more traffic proof. Two days ago she took me and Benji up on the hill and instead of our usual route round the fields she decided to take us out on the road to Salthrope. It's a relatively quite road but there is a steady stream of cars. Benji was put on the lead and I happily walked and trotted along the road with Benji next to me and the cars going past with no issue at all. 

So Mum decided to up the anti today and take me along the main road, which does have a big wide verge, then through the housing estate and back down the hill home. By the time she finally had me tacked up it was raining but as she had put my bright yellow sheet on I didn't mind as it keeps me dry and warm.  Though with my legs bands, rein and reflective nose and I did feel like a glowing yellow target, but Mum matches me in her yellow coat and hat, so we were a walking ray of sunshine on a very dull and wet day. 

I really can't remember the last time we went down the main road, or even for that matter up the lane to the main road. Mum got on at the wall outside the house like usual so I went to turn right - well we ALWAYS go that way, but Mum said no and turned me left and then right up the little lane. 

I should point out at this juncture we had be treated to a marathon 2 hour grooming session the evening before but more importantly we had had our legs sprayed with pig oil in the morning - this will become very relevant very quickly. 

So I headed up the lane snorting my uneasiness at not going out on our usual route. It's hard work going somewhere new on your own, you never know where the monsters are lurking. I can tell you they were not lurking on this ride they were in plain view and HUGE. I soon discovered this when we turned left onto the main road and a massive juggernaut headed towards us, it was at about this point that Mum realised she had absolutely no grip on my reins - why? Because it was raining and she was wearing the same gloves she had been wearing when she had sprayed us with pig oil that morning - yeah not clever. 

I'm not too sure whose heart was beating the hardest or fastest at this point, but I had no intention of hanging around, so executed an immediate pirouette with the full intention of legging it home as fast as I could. Mum had other ideas but was being hampered by not being able to actually take a firm grip on the reins, so we ended up just spinning on the spot, which was making me dizzy so I stopped, and much to my relief couldn't see the killer Lorry anymore. Mum decided to press on (never one to give up!) we hugged the hedge side of the super wide verge while cars zoomed past us. I don't mind cars but the huge lorries scare me, and without my faithful Zippy or for that matter any other horse to hide behind I was finding it hard to man up, especially as Mum was struggling to give me any confidence down the reins. So several pirouettes later we made it to the roundabout and turned left.

Mum had planned to take me through the housing estate at this point but finally her common sense prevailed and decided we would head home, but not before another juggernaut descended towards me with absolutely no intention of slowing down, and this time I didn't have a wide verge to dance on.  He slowed down when I started spinning into his path.  The driver just gave us a dirty look, which Mum matched and some, as she had been signalling him for him to slow down. Having scared myself, Mum and all the traffic around us at this point we sedately headed for home, with the rest of the traffic funnily enough giving us a wide berth.  Two other lorries passed us but they slowed down, which made them much less terrifying. 

We finally turned left back into the lane, phew. I did take some time to stop and watch the traffic up on the main road as we headed home.  That was a big lesson for me, I kinda think I did ok really. But wow Mum learnt the biggest lesson of all - never, ever ride in gloves covered in pig oil, especially in the rain because they were just slip sliding away from her. Queue music from Paul Simon - Slip Slidin' Away!