Our Volunteers Are Awesome!

Hello everyone it’s your favourite small equine here!

I thought it was time to tell you all about the brilliant volunteers here at Calvert Trust Exmoor. Every week we have volunteers  come and help us in the stables. The volunteers help the stables staff to look after us and also they help to enable our guests to be able to ride and carriage drive.

Some of our lovely volunteers

Whenever there is a group of people coming to the stables to do things with us horses and ponies we need the help of volunteers, they get involved in all sorts of things! 

They might be leading one of us, or walking beside us to give a rider some help, or out being a driving groom in the carriage with Duchess or Hendrix.

Brin and some guests being lead by Mike, a regular volunteer

There are always things for the volunteers to do and the staff say they couldn’t do riding and driving sessions without their help.  Some of our volunteers have been coming to help us for years, even longer than Teddy has been here, but we  also have some newer ones.  Most of the people who come to help love being around us horses and ponies, of course I am usually their special favourite!

New volunteers are always welcome, all us horses and ponies love to meet new faces! Anyone can find out about becoming a volunteer here by speaking to Josh in the office or Nicky in the stables, or visiting the volunteering page. 

Meeting my new colleagues!

do you remember me telling you all that I have started writing for our local newspaper?

I had a surprise visit on Friday, some of my new colleagues from The North Devon Journal popped in to see me!

Some of the North Devon Journal Team

Apparently as well as meeting me they got to do some archery and had a go on the challenge course too; although I was undoubtedly the highlight of their visit!

I'm going to a show!

Hello everyone, Pilgrim here, I heard something exciting this morning!

The stables staff were chatting about me and I overheard Nicky say she is planning to take me to a show! I wonder where the show will be and how I will get there? 

Maybe I will get a trip in the horse trailer. I don’t know what I will be doing there but I will of course keep you all informed. 

I've been having a lot of my winter hair removed recently, underneath the long winter coat is a lovely sleek and shiny summer one but the staff haven’t found it yet!  I think all this grooming is so that I will look my best when I get to the show. 

The things I have to go through! It's not easy being as cute as this you know!

I wonder if I will get washed with shampoo before I go? I expect that everyone there will think I am the cutest pony they have ever seen and of course they would be right!

Surely I'm bound to win cutest pony? look at me!

Henry's Tried Jumping!

Henry tells me he has been learning to jump over poles with a rider. This is a new thing for him, but I think it sounds quite easy! I do agility and go over and under things all the time! 

Henry clearing the jump

He even had a go at a little jump, as you can see from the photo above; he said he loved doing it and he will be doing more of this in the future so I will keep you up to date.  If he wants to I might let him do a guest spot on my blog.

Here's a video I took of Henry clearing his first jump!

That’s all for now folks.  I am just off outside to do some agility and meet lots more lovely people. Hopefully later on I will get put back out in the field to eat some lovely grass.

A lovely week with EnergEyes

This week we have had a lovely group of people staying at the Calvert Trust called EnergEyes. 

They are a charity group who run social and sports activities for people with a visual impairment from Weston-Super-Mare and the North Somerset area.

This is their fourth visit to Calvert Trust Exmoor and they are enjoying a great activity holiday experiencing everything we have here from archery to abseiling to canoeing, although visiting the stables is the highlight of everyone's week of course!

The EnergEyes group in our indoor arena

Yesterday they spent the morning in the stables. They met yours truly of course and also did some riding. Once they were on their horses they got to know their horse by feeling along the horse’s neck and down their back.

Getting to know Safari

Then they practiced steering and even did a spot of fishing! Not in the river but taking fish off a post and hanging them on another.  The fish are not real by the way!

Jean, who is completely without sight, riding Jack by following Abi's voice.

Some of them went for a ride down the track outside the arena. They have also spent time with Louise learning how to tack a horse up, (that means putting on the saddle and bridle to get the horse ready for riding). They all thought the bridles were especially complicated!  

My New Trick!

Sometimes several of us horses and ponies get put out together in the outdoor or indoor arena.  This is great for us, we get to socialise and have a gossip!

Hendrix copying me

People like to see how we behave together and some of them try to work out what we are saying to each other and who is friends with who. I of course am friends with everyone; all the other horses love to spend time with me! 

I'm the leader of the pack! (well, herd!)

Brin, who is my best friend, sometimes gets a bit jealous of the other horses when they are chatting with me but I have told him it’s because I am so great they want to be my friend!

Everyone wants to be my friend!

______________________

I've learnt a fabulous new trick; I was out in the indoor arena with Rooster the other day, and as you all know he is very tall. I do like him and wondered how it feels to be his size, luckily I was next to the mounting block and I had a flash of inspiration! 

Before anyone could say "Shetland pony" I was up the ramp and standing on top of the mounting block next to Rooster! What an amazing view I had from up there I can tell you.  I must try it when I am in the arena with Brin, that will surprise him!

My new trick!

I'm back, and I've got a new job with the newspaper!

Hi guys, the mighty atom is back on the blog!  Thank you to Rooster who did a sterling job telling us all about his life. 

We are all busy here now and the weather is just perfect for ponies, we've been out in the fields a lot enjoying the fresh grass.  The riding and driving horses have all been out a lot in the outdoor arena working and taking people for rides and drives down the track, and I've been doing lots of agility outside. 

I've also got a new job!

The lovely people at The North Devon Journal phoned me a few weeks ago and asked if they could use the things I write in this blog in their newspaper.

Teddy say's that's called 'syndication', i thought it was pretty exciting.

The first piece, which i wrote specially for the paper as an introduction all about me, went into this weeks Journal; how fabulous is that!!

I'm really looking forward to seeing all the stories about me and my friends here in the stables in the paper in the coming weeks and months,apparently I'm going to be in every other week!