Missing in action, but a growing CV

Yes I am alive. Mum had stolen my iPad because her work computer had broken but I have finally managed to steal it back.  I have been doing loads since I last put hoof to keyboard. My CV has been growing dramatically, I am now a hunting pony, a prelim dressage pony and a show jumper. Oh yes I am also a qualified temporary reindeer, due to passing my jingle bell test.  It's so exciting I don't know where to start. 

Well at Christmas Mum decided that we needed to dress up as a snow man and do dressage to music, I wasn't even allowed to eat Mum's carrot nose afterwards! However I did pass my jingle bell test, if you look closely at my front feet I have bells attached and you can certainly hear them when you watch me prancing around (get it Prancing - Prancer watch out I'm after your job) I'm going to apply to help Santa this year and see if I can be the first ever Dales pony to become a proper reindeer. 

Here are links to both my walk trot http://youtu.be/mc1EVdUFif8 and prelim http://youtu.be/n84-FOLY_RU dressage to music tests, I hope you like them, I still have the music going around my head even now.  I did enjoy it and I hope Mum will let me do some more musical dressage. 

Staying on the subject of dressage, some of you may remember I was also having difficulty with my right hand canter lead.  Well thanks to the lovely Polly Williamson (yes I have been having lessons with a top International Event Rider - who has retired from the sport to focus on teaching Mum to ride me properly, ok and maybe some other equine owners too) we have cracked right hand canter. It's easy peasey now, I can even strike off on the right leg doing a straight line down the field at Mums command. 

Unsurprisingly this has done wonders for our dressage marks and in my last outing my two classes were combined and I came first and second, not bad for a fluffy Dales pony. Though it's no wonder we are a rare breed when the dressage judge thought I was a cob - I couldn't have been more insulted and I can promise you Mum put him right in no uncertain terms!

Well I have lots more to tell you and I need to give you an update in all my pony friends at Akehurst Stud, as some of them are looking for their own humans and I have been promised a bag of carrots for everyone I help sell, and a pony can never have enough carrots! So I am off to do some more typing, bye for now pony friends. 

Jumptastic

I have been so busy doing things recently I haven't had time to tell you about the most fabulous day I had with Anna pony at Rabson Manor Cross Country Course.

When we started it was driving rain - yuck!  Fortunately the sun came out but it did mean the photos are a bit fuzzy. 

Jumping the ditch was so much fun I had to put in a good buck afterwards to show Mum how excited I was. That generated big squeals from Mum and lots of laughter from Trish and Alison. 

The photo below is my favourite. Mum and I had so much fun. Sadly for me Anna is now pregnant so she isn't allowed to come out and play for a while. However I know she is very excited to be a Mum, so my very best pony wishes to my cross country companion. We both love zooming down the steps, hope we can do that again once your baby is born Anna. Good luck xxx

Lots of Le Trec Fun

I seem to spend my life these days going out and about in the box on wheels. Today I got to go back to H&B Equestrian in Dalingworth - where I camped out with lots of Highland ponies, earlier this year. 

Today I teamed up with Iona pony to make the black and white native pony team to practice some fun Le Trec moves. We started with the S bend, the picture below was of us trying to do it at Highland pony camp, as we were too focused to take pictures today. 

We had fun cantering down the canter tube, before we moved to more challenging obstacles like the clover leaf. We started in trot and then both Iona and I upped the ante and managed the complex circling manoeuvres in canter. 

Then the tricky tarpaulin river, this needed some consideration and normally I make Mum walk over first but as she was on top I had to brave and face the monsters and get Mum over safely, yeah we did it, think the monsters must have gone on holiday, so I was soon happily walking over this. Then the biggest challenge of the day, walking the wooden bridge. It took two attempts but then I was happy to put all four feet on and walk over and over and over and over again. Mum was very impressed with me and I got lots of hugs. 

We then did Mums favourite obstacle the bending cones, first in walk, then trot and then canter. They were a bit trickier than at camp as they were a bit closer together, but we still managed to canter all the way through. Mounting and dismounting is fine and then I amazed Mum with the circle standing test. 

I'm a bit of a fidget pants so expectations were low. Mum put up my stirrups and knotted my reins and then left me to stand still in the circle, I had to stand still for a whole 10 seconds and not leave the circle while Mum had to stand outside the circle. I did it. Not once but twice, that impressed Mum. 

The last challenge was the trickest the snake test. Iona's Mum got hold of the circle rope and it started to move like a snake - scarey!  But after a while we were playing chase the snake, stamp on the snake and finally eat and wear the snake. Then Mum held one end of the snake while Carolne held the other and we went around in pointless circles - I do wonder about these humans sometimes!

Iona is very very good at all the exercises and if I'm not sure I just need to watch her, she's a pro. This was Iona trying to persuade me to follow at Highland camp, I only managed two feet that day. 

We took Benji dog as Mum wanted Benji to meet Benji. It turns out Caroline's Benji is identical to our Benji just a bit smaller. They are both crazy and spent the whole time running around like looneys playing chase with each other. I think they are now bestest friends.  Benji loved it, but he's a bit tired now. 

I hope I can go play some more soon. 

Last day in Dartmoor

I woke up on Tuesday to sunshine so we got to have one last ride over Dartmoor, and I even got to meet some of the ponies that must have escaped being rounded up yesterday. 

We headed up the fern covered tracks this time with Em in front (well until she decided to be scared at a big long line of horses with their riders going in the opposite direction, then I had to take the lead. Oh yes and I had to take the lead when we went past a luminous yellow coat man - but other than that she stayed in front). 

You can just see Benji hiding behind Em and Izzy in the photograph below. He was actually the person in the lead most of the time. 

We could see views of the River Dart, looks a long way down!

What wonderful views hey. I'm lucky Mum likes to take me out and about. Benji and I love exploring with new friends. 

Izzy, Em and Benji are exploring the quarry on our way home. 

Bye bye Dartmoor, I hope I can come back and visit again next year. Thank you to Strider and Em for loaning me a very yummy couple of acres to munch on. And to Izzy and her Nan, Janet for looking after me and to Cathy for looking after Benji and Mum. See you all again soon xxx

What an adventure.....

One minute I can see miles across the moors then the next minute the infamous mists rolled in and I couldn't see beyond my nose. I was out on the moors with about 20 of my equestrian friends, we all had our riders with us as we set out in search of those elusive Dartmoor ponies. They were made even more elusive when the fog descended but unperturbed the search went on. Our mission today was to collect all the hill ponies off the moor and drive them down into the drift, locally known as drifting. 

Being a native Dales pony the undulating ground didn't perturb me as we trotted off to round up the ponies. We headed off from the car park towards the first torr as we spread out in a line. It was hard work keeping up with some of the horses, who turned out to be 17hh local hunters, they knew the terrain so well. It wasn't long before we found our first few ponies and the humans got all excited and started shouting at them. The pace started to quicken as we chased them around the torr. We found some more ponies sheltering behind a stone wall and the herd started to grow in number. As the size of the herd grew so the pace quickened we were now cantering over dried ferns being careful to dodge those dangerous bogs, I wasn't going to miss the fun by being stuck in one of those!

By now I had no idea where I was the rolling mists made it so confusing but I just kept in line with my hunt horse friends, we had made it to the top of the torr, but today there was no chance to stop and rest and admire the views we had to get these ponies down off the torr and into the drift. By now the herd was at least 50 strong all strung out playing follow my leader, so they were tricky to herd and keep moving them in the same direction. As we came down the steep grassy banks of the torr we were in a gallop, this was so much fun, I love speeding down hills. We were leaping gorse bushes, jumping rocks we even had to jump a stream at one point while zigzagging down the hill and Mum clinging on for grim death. With one final effort we all managed to get the ponies to turn the corner, with the help of a line of humans, who were standing and shouting and waving sticks, they were scarey so I'm not surprised the ponies turned.  We chased up them up the wall edge and finally they were safely in the drift.  

I've put together a video of my day....

http://youtu.be/lfZKx2af2Ps

All us horses stood foaming and sweating from all the hardwork, but inside we were all sad as we knew not all the pony foals that would now be weaned from their Mums would find a good and loving home like we had. The humans have put a limit on the number of ponies allowed on the moors, and the foals make that number too big, so those foals that don't find new homes will get shot. If my pony friends who read this know of any loving kind homes please find out more at http://www.friendsofthedartmoorhillpony.co.uk/how-you-can-help/help-save-our-dartmoor-ponies.html. The ponies need your help now. 

I think sleeping on the Dartmmor hillside must of made my dreams so vivid. What actually happened is Mum came down and gave me my breakfast before disappearing off with Izzy and Benji who had all the fun and joined the human drift line, while Em, Stride and I were left in our fields to munch the grass - not quiet as exciting!  

Maybe next year.............

Dartmoor here I come

I'm one lucky pony, Sunday morning Mum packed me up into my box of wheels and we headed off on a mystery trip. We headed along the motorway for quiet a while, that was ok and then we pulled up on a brigde to meet our friend Izzy who rode Amy at the Highland pony camp. I want to say thank you to the lovely stranger who stopped in her horse lorry to check I was ok, because we were parked up on the side of the road - not many people would have done that, thank you nice lady in a very nice silver lorry, you have a wonderful heart.

It then got a bit scarey, we followed Izzy's Nan (Janet) up the road that got narrower and narrower with stone walls each side. Narrow bridges that we only just squeezed over, I was watching out of the back of the box on wheels, even I had to breathe in!  Then the road got really steep and the car wheels were spinning on the wet leaves down a track that we could only just squeeze the box down. I landed on my bottom a couple of times as Mum tried to persuade the car it did want to grip on the road and take me to my new home for the next three days.  She managed it finally - phew.

I got a quick chance to check out my new home, a yummy two acres of scrummy grass. I trotted over to my new neighbour, Strider, he's 31 years old and looks amazing, he'd give Zippy a run for her money and behind his paddock was my riding companion Em, another Highland. I'm starting to get worried, we seem to be hanging out with a lot of Highlands, hope Mum isn't changing her mind about her love of Dales ponies 😞. 

There was no rest, after a short break I was tacked up, Benji was put in the lead and we headed off down the hill with Em and Izzy. They have some funny looking horses in Dartmoor.

Both Benji and I stopped and starred for a long time, but we couldn't make head or tail of them and decided it was best just to walk past. We turned off the road and headed up onto the moors, the yard is literally right on the edge of the moors, so there is no real roadwork at all.  But Benji was kept on the lead until we were really on the moors and then he was allowed to run free too. Below is the three of us heading along one of the lovely tracks.

The views were amazing, which was quiet handy as some of the hills were very steep and very long, so both Em and I appreciated the humans stopping to look as we did the hard work of climbing up the hills. 

We followed along a ridge that gave us great views of the river Dart below and some of the Dartmoor Torrs. 

After a long drive in the box on wheels and a fun ride onto the moors I was ready for my tea when we got back, and was impatient to start tucking into my two acres of grazing. Yummy, night night friends. 

Zippy is doing more than me this week (well nearly)

Zippy has had a busy week this week.  Monday she was giving Sally a riding lesson. I got to come along too as Mum decided while the evenings were just about light enough for us to hack out round the farm we should make the most of the opportunity. 

Sally hasn't got Zippy's brakes working quiet as well as Mum would like but she has definitely got to grips with the rising trot. And we had a lovely ride around the farm, I wonder whether we will be allowed to canter soon?

Then Friday Zippy gave Isla a riding lesson. This was Isla's second ever ride and Zippy was on top behaviour and helped Isla master rising trot.  Isla's learning to ride because she is going on a trek in Argentina later this year, so Zippy is helping her to feel safe and confident on a horse. I was not allowed to help and got left in the field on my own. So I amused myself cantering around and doing handstands and seeing how loud I could call for Ziipy, it didn't work she was concentrating too hard on looking after Isla. 

Now this would normally have been a hectic week for Zippy but she had one more duty to perform - giving Mum's niece, Ellie, a ride on Saturday afternoon. Mum let Ellie ride Zippy bareback from the field, this turned out to be a mistake as half away along the road a car came and we had to go on the grass verge, as Zippy stepped down she leant to grab some grass and tipped Ellie off!

Fortunately it was a soft landing so we all walked back to the house and Ellie was only allowed back on when Zippy had her saddle on.  I was allowed to come too, which meant I got very excited and was dancing on the spot, Mum told me off because I was supposed to be being sensible and calmly leading Zippy with her precious cargo. Eventually I calmed down and we had a nice walk to the farm and back. It was a bit boring as I was only allowed to walk. 

Ellie had never trotted before so Zippy was put on the lunge and asked to do circles and she was very good. Ellie enjoyed trotting and Zippy even managed to do a slow trot when instructed too. So that's two people in one week Zippy has taught to do trotting, I think that pretty impressive. I hope one day I will be able to do the same. Mum says I'm not quiet reliable enough at the moment, she thinks my enthusiasm may unsettle beginners.