Visitors from Jersey

Just recently we had a lovely group of visitors staying with us from Jersey. Even Teddy didn’t know where that is! 

I heard the stables staff chatting and they said that our guests are all part of Jersey R.D.A., who provide riding for children and adults with disabilities on the island of Jersey. 

On Saturday morning they all had a horse riding lesson, they were quite excited to be riding horses a bit bigger than Toffee and Darcy who are two of the ponies they ride at R.D.A.  After a bit of getting to know us horses they played a game of chase with Abi to practice steering. Some of the riders used special reins with loops on to make steering easier.

The group also did some grooming and learnt about the parts of a horse.  The mums even got to have a ride which the children found very exciting!  They took lots of photos, some of which are in the gallery on their website.

The children all went for a ride on the track in the afternoon, down towards the reservoir and round the woods.  Everyone loved this as they hadn’t done it before. 

On Sunday morning they did more riding and then some carriage driving with Hendrix, he said they loved driving round obstacles and it was great fun.

All the children also spent some time with me in the morning and I showed them all how brilliant I am at doing agility, then at lunchtime the children all helped to feed us our hay.

Sunday afternoon was spent building an obstacle course in the outdoor arena. All the riders had a go at riding around the course which was made up of steering along the sneaky snake, riding through a wiggly worm, staying inside the circle of doom, stopping in the penalty box and walking across the black hole! All of this was done while avoiding the scary bear and using lots of imagination!

Lots of smiley faces receiving their certificates! 

At the end of the afternoon everyone got together to have a presentation of certificates and rosettes. I know all us horses and ponies and the staff enjoyed the whole weekend and judging by the smiles I saw I think all our guests from Jersey had a fab time too!

Film Crews Galore!

Hi everyone it’s your favourite horsey spokesman here. We had a very busy week last week with film crews galore!

Firstly we had Martyn Sibley here, making a film for the Visit Britain "Access All Areas" series all about Exmoor, so of course they wanted to include Calvert Trust Exmoor in the film!

Then the next day we had some visitors here to do some filming for Forces TV. They came to the indoor riding arena gallery and watched Safari and Brin being ridden during a centre group session. I know Brin loved being on camera, he told me he felt like a movie star! 

Watch the film on Forces TV

Safari also enjoyed showing how good he is at his job by trotting around the arena with his rider. Hendrix also got in on the act; he never misses an opportunity to get involved! 
He was giving one of our guests a carriage drive in the outdoor arena and also ended up on the film. 

Hendrix showing off for the camera!

I think that I must have been busy taking some of our guests for a stroll to find some nice grass, I'm sure I would have been first choice for the camera if I had been out doing agility when they were here at the stables! How could they possibly resist me?

I would have liked to have prior warning though so I could have been pampered and made to look my fabulous best! I must remember that for next time…

Sunburn is no fun for horses

My mate Teddy is a piebald horse, which means his coat is made up of black and white patches, and he has a pink nose.  We actually have several horses here at Calvert Trust Exmoor stables that have pink skin.  This makes them more likely to get sunburn, just like people who have fair skin.  

Teddy's pink nose!

All the horses with pink noses get sun cream put on before they go out in hot weather, Teddy says it feels nice but is a bit tickly! The staff also put sun cream on themselves when they are outside; most of them have tanned arms and faces.  

You might remember I told you a while ago I had my shoes taken off to give my feet a bit of breathing time.  I'm ready to have my plastic trainers put back on as my little feet are getting a bit worn down when I walk on the stones.  I have heard the staff saying that that the farrier is coming to the stables again soon, so I hope he has my little plastic shoes with him! 

Sweet Itch? what's sweet about an itch?!?

This morning I was talking with Henry about why he has not been out with us in the fields or in the Horse Watching sessions, and he explained to me that he gets very bad Sweet Itch. 

We asked Teddy about it and he said Sweet Itch is also know as Summer Seasonal Recurrent Dermatitis, which sounds a bit of a mouthful to me! 

In the hot weather there are lots of nasty little flies about, which none of us like, but for poor Henry they are particularly annoying; he is is allergic to their saliva, so the bites make him very itchy and he rubs himself.

At this time of year we all get fly repellent put on to make us more comfortable, and we get washed off quite often when we have been working which feels great and cools us down. 

Because Henry has such a bad reaction to the flies, he gets to wear some special clothing; he has a fly mask for his face and a fly proof rug for when he is out in the fields.

Henry in his fly proof clothing

Running with the big boys!

Yesterday we got to do one of our favourite things which is called horse watching. I don’t get to watch the horses play and run around, that’s our guest’s job, but I do get to take part!

Running with the big boys (in the lead of course!)

Teddy says the point of horse watching is so our guests get to see how wonderful we are and how we interact with each other when we are not in our stables. We usually chase each other around and get to have a good roll in the arena. 

We like having a roll in there as it’s really sandy, I use it to get rid of my hair as I’m STILL looking a bit woolly from the winter.

I do LOVE a good roll!

Brin and Bertie got a bit carried away yesterday showing off to the guests and were having a competition to show who could stand on their back legs the highest. Of course I don't need to show off, everyone already knows I’m the special one.

Brin and Bertie showing off

Well the centre group is about to start so I had better get back to make sure everyone knows what they are doing today, and give all the guests their special Pilgrim welcome. Catch you all soon!

Hoist helps happy horse riders!

Today in the stables we have a group in from Leonard Cheshire who have come all the way from Guernsey. I’m sure they have really only come to see me as everyone knows I’m the star attraction at the Calvert Trust.

Teddy tells me that most of the guests in this group have to be hoisted on to a horse. He says that the horse needs to stand really still to be a hoist horse. I think this is why they rode Brin as standing still is one of his favourite things to do; well that and eating!  

Lovely Dil being hoisted onto Brin

Teddy knows all this because he's also a hoist horse, but he was being ridden by one of the other riders today. Apparently training to become a hoist horse takes quite a long time. I don’t know whether I would want to do it if I was big enough, but the good thing about it for Teddy and Brin is they get to do lots of slow and gentle work while they are looking after their riders.

Dil on Brin and ready to go!

It’s great that we are able to give people the opportunity to still ride even though they are in a wheelchair. Teddy says people have to sit in a special sling which gets attached to the electric hoist in the arena. Nicky or Abi then have a thing with buttons on that controls the height and the movement of the hoist so the person can be lifted on to the saddle, and then they are ready to go riding.

Dil and Brin enjoying their ride

Meeting my ½ sister

The best thing about going to the show was that I got to see a member of my family!! I met my half-sister for the first time. She did very well in the same class as me.  She was there with her owner Poppy, who I used to belong to before I came to the Calvert Trust.

meeting Poppy and my ½ Sister

 Poppy told Nicky she has lots of photos of me from when I was a foal so hopefully she can pass some on and I can put them on my blog for all of you to see how cute I was when I was born!

I really enjoyed my morning at the show and even saw some of our lovely volunteers there.  I hope I get to go to another show sometime and maybe one of the other Calvert Trust Exmoor horses or ponies can come with me.  I am sure we could have a great day out together. I will let you know!

After all the excitement of the weekend I was feeling a little worn out, but I'm looking forward to meeting some more guests this week and showing off my agility abilities!