Artists in Residence

Hi everyone, it seems that there are several really good artists visiting the stables this summer.  Several of us have been painted with finger paints recently. Teddy is always a particular favourite for this as he is a lovely black and white horse, or to use his proper description he is a "piebald".

Last week Sophie, one of our activity instructors, came over with a great group of young people.  They had fun riding and carriage driving and then the paints came out. 

As you can see Teddy looked fantastic by the time they had finished with him. I am not sure how Alice felt about the photo of her and Teddy but it did give all us horses and the other members of stables staff a laugh!!

Horse Weekend Hijinks -Part 2

On Monday all of us horses where feeling a bit sleepy after such a fun weekend. Do you all remember Daisy who comes with her mum Lynn all the way from Bude every week? She wrote a piece for the blog a few months ago.

Well Daisy is a very good friend of mine and she was expecting us all to be tired, so she came prepared and we had a very relaxed morning with story time in the stables!

Daisy brought a book from home all about a Teddy bear, so who better to read it too than Teddy?  Well Teddy loved the story and I even had to go a bit closer so I could listen too. 

Story time in the Stables

We all really enjoyed the story, maybe next time Daisy will find a book to read all about a special pony called Pilgrim. actually that gives me an idea, maybe I should write one! 

In the afternoon Daisy got to go for a ride on Hendrix, who still had a lot of paint on him from the Horse Weekend Hijinks! Kerri rode Henry and Lynn rode Teddy.

Off for a ride

I thought they were mad going out for a ride in the rain, but Teddy tells me its actually quiet nice going out in the rain as there are not many flies  because they don’t like to get wet. They sound a lot like me, I don’t like to go out in the rain as it messes up my coat!

Horse Weekend Hijinks

What a busy time we are all having at the stables at the moment. We've had some lovely groups in over the last few weeks, and we have also just had one of our fantastic horse experience weekends.

We horses love it when it’s a horse weekend because we all get to do fun stuff, and this weekend was especially crazy! We had a group of 7 people with us for the weekend, and everyone got involved with not only riding but the day to day care of looking after us horses.

In the morning they got involved in making our stables ready for us, by putting our beds down and making our breakfast. We then all had a good brush down and our feet cleaned before going out for a ride. The morning went so fast and before we knew it it was time for some yummy hay for lunch!

After lunch the sun was shining so it was the perfect opportunity to go for another ride around outside. I didn't get to go with them for a ride as I have the important job of looking after the stables whilst everyone is out. I also have very little legs so I get quite tired!

On the second day not only did we all get a good brush, Hendrix was the chosen pony who even got painted by a gentleman called Peter. I was a little bit jealous that I wasn’t chosen, but then I realised I already look beautiful and I wouldn’t want the paint to spoil my coat!

Peter painting Hendrix

Milo and the stable staff even taught the guest all about the tack we wear when we are ridden and everyone had a go at labelling the parts of the tack. Milo was really good at this job, and he loved all the attention he got. 

Milo modelling the tack labels

After lunch everyone rode around an obstacle course that the guest helped design. They had cones to go around, balls to put in nets and even a spot of fishing. Horses, staff and guests all had a lovely weekend.

A view from the field

Hi guys, Pilgrim here!

We've had lots of guests here over the last month. Teddy tells me that all our guests come from all different parts of the country and they travel by coach, mini bus, car or some even come by train. Apparently they can’t just ride here on a horse, which I think would be the best way to travel!

I think we horses are all very lucky to live here at Calvert Trust Exmoor; we are looked after and loved by all the staff especially me as people can’t resist a quick hug every time they walk past. 

The fields are all getting nice and green with lots of yummy grass, and some of our furry friends are coming out a lot more to enjoy the grass and the sunshine.

Teddy tells me that even though the grass is lovely and green it’s not always good for us horses, as too much grass can cause us all sorts of problems. One of the main problems is a disease called Laminitis that affects our hooves. If we get it, we will get very hot hooves and it's very painful to walk.If we get it we have to live in the stables rather than going out in the field and have special treatment from the vet and farrier. However much we horses love grass we don’t want that!

Luckily here at Calvert Trust Exmoor our grass intake is monitored very closely and If we start eating too much grass we get put into a paddock with less grass. Last week we had a man turn up in a big tractor with a machine behind it driving around are fields, I asked Teddy what he was doing and he explained to me that he was topping the fields, which is where they cut down the docks.

This is good because we don’t like eating docks and if they stay they soon spread and takes over our fields. Because we usually have Sundays off this is when a lot of the jobs get done like field maintenance. I like to help with this as I think it’s very important that I supervise the staff to make sure that they are doing it correctly!

They start by walking around the field checking that all the fences are up and there are no broken fence posts, they also check the water troughs to make sure they are clean. The sunshine is very good at turning water green and slimy which us horses don’t like to drink. So they empty them and clean all the insides, we do drink a lot in this hot weather. Jack also likes to stick his head in the water and blow bubbles out of his noise. I personally don’t like to get my head this wet, but he seems to enjoy it! Jack also likes to do this in his stable making his bedding wet.

There are lots of poisonous plants that grow around the fields so the staff check for these as well.  Us horses don’t know which ones are bad for us as we will eat pretty much anything so we rely on the staff to remove the plants we are not allowed to eat. These are the main plants that are poisonous to us. 

RDA Jersey visit

Last weekend we have had a lovely group of young people and their parents staying in the centre.  They are all from Jersey; they ride there with the local RDA Group.They had fun this weekend with us and all rode and had a carriage drive.

They also painted Teddy, I must say they were very artistic – Teddy looked amazing covered in different colours. They did give him a bath on Sunday to wash the paint off though!

Teddy looking artistic

On Sunday they also had a great time riding around an obstacle course which was set up in the outdoor arena, luckily the sun was out too.

At the end of Sunday afternoon it was time to hand out rosettes and certificates to all who had taken part.  I think they will all go home to Jersey very pleased with themselves and their achievements. I hope they tell their RDA instructors all about me! 

Fun with Milo

I had a fun time in the arena the other day with Milo. As you know he lives in the stable next door to me so I see him a lot.  I don’t go out in the field with him though so I have never really had a proper chat or a play with him before.

Playing with Milo

He is always rather fascinated by yours truly; I think I heard Alice say that he had some Shetland pony friends where he lived before. We had a lovely time running about together, because Milo is still quite young he likes to play.

He's got a massive head and I was little worried he would knock me over with it if he got too excited! He was great fun to hang out with though and I hope to spend more time with him soon.

Happy Birthday Daisy!

Yesterday we had an interesting visitor to the stables.  He belongs to Daisy, who is a good friend of all of us equines as she rides here every week.  He is a rather fat pony as you can see from this photo!

Daisy and Bullseye in the stables!

His name is Bullseye.  One thing I do know is I am not as fat as this pony – I don’t think he should allowed out in any fields!

Bullseye also brought a few friends along too, who borrowed Teddy's stable as he was out in the fields.

Bullseye's friends

Daisy is with us for the whole week this week, and today is her birthday, so all of us equines would like to say Happy Birthday Daisy!