Muddy Buddies

This week things are quiet here at the stables, we horses and ponies are enjoying a well-earned holiday. We have spent lots of time gossiping, playing, giving each other a lovely scratch and of course enjoying some winter sunshine in the fields.

The fields are a bit muddy now but horses and ponies love mud! 

A rather muddy Teddy enjoying some lunch!

I particularly like to have a good roll in the mud when I am put out in the field.  It is very satisfying and I love to see the look on the faces of the stables staff when they see the mud plastered all over me! 

Bertie makes all us horses smile; he waits until he hears the stables staff coming to check us all in the field and then rolls right in front of them to get as dirty as he can!

Yummy Christmas Dinner

Today we have had our Christmas treats!  Very nice they were too.  We had apples and carrots each in a little surprise pile with our hay. I had mine in my stable when I came in from the field. 

Yummy!

All the other horses and ponies had theirs with their usual hay in the field.  They always gallop down to the feeding area when they hear the wheelbarrow which brings the hay; they were all very impressed with the extra treats today! 

The Dinner Queue

Bertie enjoying his Christmas Dinner

We certainly all enjoyed them very much. Thank you to all our lovely friends who have generously given us nice things to eat for Christmas; we all had a lovely time munching!

Spring Cleaning already?!?

The staff here in the stables have been very busy.  Each year they pressure wash all the stables and the stable mats we have to lay on, do some painting and have a big clean up around the yard.

The stables looking sparkly and clean

I heard them saying they were spring cleaning.  Now I have heard of being organised but that can’t be right; it’s only December!

They do all this work at this time of year because there are no guests here and it's holiday time for us horses, which means that we are out in the fields and our stables are empty for the cleaning to be done. Of course I am still able to come in every night to go to bed! 

A busy day with the R.D.A.

I haven't had a chance to tell you before, but this time last week we had a really busy day here in the stables.

First thing in the morning I knew something special must be happening because there were lots of people here. As well as Nicky, Abi and Kerri our two new members of staff Richard and Alice were here too. Oli, who is an activity instructor, was also in the stables with Amy, one of our regular volunteers.

After we horses were brought in and given breakfast the two carriages were set out on the back yard. I thought we must be expecting a group of guests from the Centre.  Then Nicky went off to reception and came back with four people I had not seen before.

I heard all the humans talking and they discussed the carriages and the two driving horses Hendrix and Duchess. I kept hearing R.D.A.  being mentioned and thought I should ask Teddy what on earth was going on! He said he thought the people had all come to assess the carriages, horses and drivers.

The R.D.A. (Riding for the Disabled Association), is an organisation which provides riding and carriage driving for people with disabilities; as you all know that is what we do here at Calvert Trust Exmoor too. 

The staff here all think it will be great to be part of the R.D.A. I heard this morning that Nicky and Richard are now R.D.A. whips (this means they passed their assessments). Duchess and Hendrix also passed their assessments as R.D.A. driving horses. Abi was also assessed as an R.D.A. whip and hopes to be able to help at an R.D.A. group near to her new job. 

Christmas fun and games

A lot of our regular local riders have had great fun here over the past two weekends.  As it is nearly Christmas it was time to play games on horses.

Christmas fun and games

We horses and ponies love playing games as much as people do, so the whole thing was enjoyed by everyone who took part.  My buddy Brin gets quite competitive when the games start but he only likes racing in one direction in the arena! 

They played musical statues to warm humans and horses up then they had a go at weaving through some cones.  They also played dress the snowman –each person had to put gloves, a hat or scarf onto the snowman.

Playing dress the snowman

Then they played a bucket in a ball game;Teddy and Henry thought the balls might be apples.  They had a little taste and said they weren’t very nice to eat! Teddy had a very tiny rider for some games which he loved!

Jack was being very serious and carefully looking after his little rider.  He didn’t show his competitive side. Bertie and his little rider Bethan were the quickest to begin with but both got a bit tired and decided not to have a trot. 

Who was that man in the red suit?

I've heard that most humans decorate a tree for Christmas;

for the last two weekends the staff in the stables have put decorations all over Hendrix’s carriage instead!

Every year at Calvert Trust Exmoor there are several Christmas Special Weekends. For these weekends Hendrix has a very important job to do, he has to pull his carriage with a very special passenger travelling in it. He also gets dressed up with tinsel too!

Hendrix looking great in his tinsel

The passenger has lots of white hair on his face and he wears a very cosy looking red coat and trousers which have furry trimming on them.  He also wears boots and a hat too which matches his outfit.  I don’t know quite what his job is but the humans here call him Father Christmas so I guess he is very well known.  

He always carries a very full looking sack with him but I don’t think it is full of horse feed because he doesn’t give any food to us! I hope someone has remembered that we would love a Christmas dinner too. Some carrots, apples and special horse treats are what I am hoping for this year!

Feeling Sketchy...

We are really busy right now getting ready for Christmas (yes, we horses celebrate it too!), but I thought you might like to see these drawings.

A lovely family called the Ostler's stated with us couple of weeks ago, and Sheri has sent us a couple of sketches she did of Brin and Rooster.

Brin By Sheri

Rooster by Sheri

Brin and Rooster both love their pictures; I was a but surprised she didn't draw me too, I'm definitely the best looking!

If you have any drawings or photos you would like to share with us (especially if they are of me!) you can send them to me on pilgrim@calvert-trust.org.uk.

See you soon!