Easter Saturday Ride

Mum gave me the morning off, as her friend helped cook a big breakfast (really Mum was too full to ride!).  However Lynne took her posh lorry home at lunchtime, which meant I had run out of excuses, so she tacked me up for a ride and we went for a straight forward ride around the forestry hill (read mountain).

Zippy got a super big groom, she shed soooo much fur she literally filled a wheelbarrow with fluff - can you imagine.  That's a lot of happy birdies in Wales whose little chicks are going to wake up in a snug white Zippy fluff bed when they pop their heads out of their shells!

I got told off for herding Zippy around the big pen, so I was move into my own stable (much better accommodation) with the real horses - rather than with the cows!!!!

We all got hay and tea.  It was nice to catch up with Katy who Sarah had been looking after. Mum decided to take her for a quick ride around the arena.  Delia suggested that as she hadn't been ridden for several months and was previously freshly backed, maybe she should lunge her first, but oh no, Mum knew best!!!!

Three circuits of the arena in various cantering/bucking formations and impressively Mum still on top Katy came to a halt.  I'm sure I head Delia mutter 'should have lunged her'.  Katy was now de-stressed and exhausted and behaved impeccably around the arena walking and trotting on command!

All in all a good day, glad Katy tested out Mum's staying power - saves me the job!

Holiday time starts...Good Friday

Finally life has got interesting! Surprisingly it's thanks to pony Dave. Mum has decided he had served his purpose, keeping me company all winter and that it was time to take him home. This has caused some dilemma as the box on wheels only has space for two ponies but we are a field of three. 

After much debate somehow Zippy managed to bag a ride in a deluxe little lorry all on her own - though she was charged with the care of 10 bales of hay, some hope of those still being there by the time we arrive!  Meanwhile Dave and I had to slum it in the tin on wheels - great! Still we also had copious amounts of hay and I did my best to eat it all without letting Dave have any. 

After a long journey, thanks Mum says to some incompetent road workers badly managing the traffic lights around the road works we finally made it back to Dave's home (my ex home) The Akehurst Stud (www.akehurst-ponies.co.uk) in Wales.  Dave got unceremoniously turned out with his old field mates Vince & Brian, bye then Dave, thanks for keeping me company!  While Zippy & I decided to share their old pen, which had a lovely deep bed of straw - this is good news for Zippy's old creaky bones (but don't tell her I said so, otherwise she might think I cared!)

The pen has a concrete base, so my excited pacing could be heard around the farm, evidently my clip clopping while herding Zippy around the pen that afternoon and evening - I can't help it, it's very exciting being on holiday, caused human stress, and ok possibly wore Zippy out, so I was upgraded to my own stable, while Zippy kept the pen.  Ponies this is a top tip, if you want your space be annoying, like humans quite often you can get promoted up the ranks, while actually just being an annoying pain, rather than because you have done something good and actually deserve the promotion!

Looking forward to exploring.......

Zippy's special misson

Zippy is my very best friend and field companion.  She is now 28 years old so Mum decided that it was the right time to retire her.  So when I was turned away Zippy had her shoes taken off too and is supposed to be living a life of relaxation and luxurious pampering.

Except she was asked to go on a very special mission.  Mum's niece came to stay for the day and she loves Zippy, so Zippy was tasked with the very important an special mission of taking Ellie for a ride up and down the road.

This included a lot of eye spy, mostly pigs, sheep and other ponies - that was the human version, Zippy was playing eye spy grass, more grass and oh yes more grass!  She managed to sneak plenty of opportunities to try the grass too.

The mission was a complete success, Ellie loved her ride and Zippy loved taking her out, and liked being asked to pull out of retirement for the mission.  I think she's secretly hoping there will be more mission, little light people are good fun especially if it comes with a side of grass!

Had a breakthrough....

Well actually Zippy and I have managed two breakthroughs!  Straight through our fencing to the paddocks that were 'resting'.  It has lots of yummy grass in it.  Zippy and I have managed daily escapes into the two resting paddocks, all week, so we have very full tummies.  Dave was being a goody two shoes though and decided it was too dangerous and so stayed in the wet muddy field - silly boy.  Considering he has been breaking down all the other fencing in break out attempts you'd think he would have joined us???

We even managed to make Mum smile, even though we were being naughty - which I think is quiet clever.  Every afternoon when she arrived to take Zippy home, she called us and we came galloping across the fields, jumping the broken fencing.  Mum was particularly impressed with Zippy's speed, she was soooo fast she didn't even have time to get her phone out to record the action, which for a 28 year old horse is pretty impressive.  Dave and I hope we are still that fast when we are that old!

Sadly our adventures have come to an end, the fencing has been repaired and now is tricky, ouchy stuff again - humph!

Field Report

I have been moaning to Mum about the amount of water we have in our field and that we might have to take up swimming lessons.  She told me not to be so silly and that there were ponies much worse off than me, who really needed swimming lessons and that a few very small streams through the field were nothing to worry about.  This was our field at its wettest, we are quite lucky it is ridge and furrow so we just stand on the ridge bits, plus we have a big bank which Mum is standing on to take this picture so if we really get fed up we can stand up there on that.

So for all those poor ponies out there who are really swimming, sorry for being so silly.  Dave and I are now working on a sunshine dance to see if we can help improve the weather for you all.  As you can see in the picture below we just about made the sun shine before it started to set behind the hills.  We will keep trying - we think its working because the sun is out again at the moment!!!!

We have quite a boring routine at the moment.  Dave and I wait at the gate for Zippy to arrive in the morning and neigh to say hello when we can hear her coming down the road.  We then all go off to tuck into the hay Mum gives us.  Then we stand at the gate waiting for Mum to come back and take Zippy away to her bedroom for the night and then she also gives Dave and I our hay rations for tea time - which we eat straight away!  This is us standing at the gate waiting for Mum to arrive.  As you can see I decided not to grow my clip back, Mum thinks I'm mad but I don't see the point, my tummy fluff is keeping me warm and I am hoping it will soon be spring.  Ahhhh yes spring - lots of yummy green grass to eat.

 Hoping all my pony swimming friends are managing to keep safe and warm and have found somewhere dry to shelter out of the rain.

Errrrr we look like girls now!

Being turned away is very boring, so I am glad Mum arranged for Dave to stay, otherwise I would be REALLY bored.  Sunday we were all dragged onto the yard at the field (Note: I am no longer good enough to be allowed down to the proper house yard, where my lovely warm stable resides!)

Anyway Dave and I got attacked with a cold hose, but fortunately only our tails.  Mum washed all the mud off and then spent ages carefully combing out our tails applying various lotions and potions until we were tangle free.  This is Dave's tail below - errrr don't tell ANYONE but Mum sinned and chopped some of his tail off - I know, can't believe it, with scissors in a straight line too!  Her excuse was it was trailing two inches into the mud it was so long - well it's not now - sorry Dave!

This is me, not a great picture, I'll blame Mum for that but at least my tail is now fluffy rather than mud wrapped rasta style!

But then would you believe it, Mum decided to plait our tails!!!!  I mean Mum we are NOT girls.  I know Dave can be a bit of a wuss but even he didn't deserve to have his tail plaited - yuck.

Life is very boring here at the moment, that has been the excitement of the whole week  Otherwise we are just eating hay and chilling.  Oh yes Dave got to go for a walk down the farm track, I hope Mum is not getting ideas, has she forgotten I am the love of her life.  Dave will be in trouble if he starts muscling in on my Mum.  Hmmm I think I had better keep a close eye on them both!

It's race time.....

The other day I got to go on another new adventure to meet some more of Mum's friends.  This time it was Barnaby and Liz.  They live near Rockley and have the most AMAZING riding ever - I want to move over there, we only crossed one road and there are miles and miles of grass tracks you can ride along.

I know Mum likes to canter and when we go out on our own we try to get some practice in, as many of my pony friends don't like going fast, or in Zippy's case is now too old and creaky.  Mum said she thought Barnaby would be up for a canter.  However when we went out on the ride he took quite a bit of convincing.

There was a big muddy hill and Liz said they always charge up there, so I was all ready to go but Barnaby wasn't interested - it was quite sticky icky mud.  However later on Mum held me back so we could have a canter to catch up as its not often we get treated to so many nice grass tracks.  I was keen to catch up so after bouncing on the spot for a while I was allowed to charge after Barnaby and met let me whizz past too, Barnaby suddenly woke up and decided to catch up and we started a race.  Humans are soooo boring just as we got going they pulled us up - hey I thought you wanted fast?

We were allowed another canter later and after a toss too much of my head a super quick acceleration Mum asked me nicely to stay behind Barnaby and let him go first - humph! but I did do as I was told.

We got one last super charged blast up the field towards home which got Barnaby and me a bit over excited and it took a while for our Mum's to calm us down and wait for the horse and trap to go past.  It was a great ride about 6 miles and I had so much fun, hope we can go back soon - thank you Barnaby for teaching me racing I had never done it before and its really good fun, thank you Liz for letting us come visit and ride with you xxx