Getting ready for Winter

I heard the staff in the stables talking about the summer holidays being nearly over for school children; I thought that this might mean that it was time for me to go on my holidays, but Teddy has informed me that this is not the case as we work all year round! 

I don't really mind though; although us horses don’t mind a bit of a break, we do actually prefer working as it stops us getting too bored.

Because the summer is nearly over Kerri and Louise have started sorting out the winter rugs, read for all of us to wear when it starts to get a bit chillier.

Even though we do grow thick winter coats (especially me; I've only just got rid of mine!), we can get cold when its rainy and windy,so our rugs give us a bit of extra protection to stay snug and warm. I look especially fabulous in mine of course!

Me looking  fabulous in my coat last Autumn!

It can get wet and a sometimes cold up here on Exmoor. When it does we think of our cousins the Exmoor ponies who live up out on the moor and feel very grateful for our the rugs! 

A week in the life of a Calvert Pony

Our busiest days in the stables are Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, when we are working with groups of guests staying in the centre. For this blog post I thought you might like to hear about what else happens in the stables for the rest of the week.  

Teddy says a week is seven days, and starts on a Sunday; this means we get to start our week with a day off! Sundays we get to stay out in the field all day relaxing and eating and some of us also like to have a play. Brin and Bertie especially enjoy this; they are very good friends, but the staff in the stables say they are like a couple of little kids chasing each other around! 

Brin and Bertie (and me!) enjoying a good chase!

Mondays, Wednesday evenings, Fridays and Saturdays are taken up with private riding lessons and carriage driving. We have some lovely regular riders let me tell you a bit about some of them.

Daisy and her mum Lynn who come twice a week on a Monday and Friday all the way from Bude. I don’t know where it is but Teddy tells me it’s too far to walk and they have to come in a car. Daisy does stable management and riding on a Monday then she rides with her mum on a Friday. 

Lynn and Daisy in the arena with Bertie and  Teddy

Jack (not Jack the pony in the stables!) and his mum Michelle also come to us from Bude. I hear it's really nice there with lots of grass! Maybe I will get to go there one day. Jack must be a very popular name as we also have another Jack who visits on a Monday to ride Duchess.

I don’t tend to see the people that ride on a Wednesday evening as usually I'm out in my paddock for the night by then, but Teddy tells me they are all very nice, and even some of the activity instructors join in on the lessons.

They've made me a Logo!

Have you wonderful people been reading my pieces in the North Devon Journal? You might remember I told you a while ago that I was going to start writing for them.


If you've been reading my column you might have noticed, the lovely folks at the Journal have made me into a logo!

I love it, and I'm going to start using it on my blog too; it makes me feel like Leo, the MGM lion! roar!

Yummy! Fresh Grass!

Hi everyone it’s the mighty atom here!  I am just about to go out into my field next to the archery range.  All the other horses will be excited when they go out today because I saw Nicky and Kerri taking electric fencing to the field…

... this means they all get lots of lovely new grass to eat!  Happy horses all round tonight!  

Me in my lovely little paddock

I don’t get any extra grass because I am too small to have too much grass.  It can make ponies get a horrible illness called laminitis which makes their feet very painful. I've never had it, and I don’t want it! So I am quite happy with my little paddock.

Hoist Training

Kerri had a very busy afternoon a few days ago, Nicky was training her how to hoist riders onto horses, this is an important skill for the riding instructors here at Calvert Trust Exmoor to have, because lots of our guests need this kind of assistance.

Preparing to hoist

Kerri had to practice hoisting a rider from a wheelchair onto a horse. Brin is trained as a hoist horse and so is Teddy. Today Brin had the very special job of helping to train Kerri.

Amelia on her way

 I told you about Eilish last time I blogged didn’t I?  She also helped along with Amelia; they both had a go at being hoisted from a wheelchair onto Brin.  As usual Brin took the opportunity to stand as still as possible and have a little nap!

Landing on Brin's back

Irish? No, Eilish! (and a photobomb from Rooster!)

Last week we had a lovely person here in the stables on work experience.  Her name is Eilish but she’s not Irish! (Sorry, but if you're a horse that joke is really funny!)

She's actually originally from New Zealand, but has lived in the UK for 9 years, and is just about to start her 3rd year of an extended diploma in animal management at Bicton College, which sounds very clever to me! 

Rooster Photobombing Eilish!

She's been doing work experience here at Calvert Trust Exmoor, finding out what it is like to work in a stables. Rooster really liked her, and he's such a show off that he couldn't resist getting in on the photo I took of her, as you can see!

Eilish loved meeting me of course, but she said that her favourite animals are dogs! (Maybe that’s why she thinks I am great, I'm about the size of a large dog!)

After her week here she has gone to the Donkey Sanctuary for work experience to see what they do. I am sure she will have a good time there too, although Donkeys are nowhere near as nice as horses of course!  She has been brilliant here and we have loved working with her.

A visit from SSAFA

This week we've had a group here at Calvert Trust Exmoor from SSAFA.  Their name means "Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Families Association", they are a charity that was set up under a Royal Charter from George the 5th.

I had to ask Teddy who George the 5th was, apparently he was king of England a long time ago and also granddad to Queen Elizabeth the 2nd, who is the Queen right now. I've not met her, but I did meet her cousin, Princess Alexandra when she came here a couple of years ago.

So anyway SSAFA has been going for a very long time, Teddy says since 1926, and they provide help and support for British Forces families.  We've had a lovely group of young people and their volunteer helpers here this week, they have all been to see us here in the stables and done some riding with the bigger horses and ponies. 

Some lovely SSAFA young people

I also got to do some of my agility work with them, which as you know I love doing! I've had a great time this week meeting lots of different new friends. 

I also did some jumping this week in the outdoor arena which I always love.

I do love jumping!

I like to show that I can do all the things the other bigger horses can do even though I'm tiny!  I think people are often surprised that a small Shetland pony like me can be so agile!

Brin's had a Haircut!

My buddy Brin looks a bit different today than he did a few days ago, he's has had a session with the clippers with Louise and Kerri.

He has had his mane ‘hogged’, which means he has his mane clipped off to make him look smart.  Brin said he really likes having his mane hogged becuase he doesn’t like people touching it when it is long.

I think he must think people are trying to pull his mane out when they touch it! I like having my mane stroked, but Brin doesn't.

He also has his legs clipped to keep him looking stylish.  His legs get REALLY hairy if he doesn’t have that done! 

Brin's smart new look

Poor Henry has been suffering badly with his Sweet Itch this week.  I heard Nicky say he is going to spend a few nights in and not go out in the fields to give him a bit of a rest from the flies.  I'm pretty sure I saw Henry smile when he heard that, he really hates those pesky flies!

Pilgrim goes Camping

Earlier this week I got moved in to the field by archery and I wasn’t sure why, but then Teddy told me that there were some guests doing something called camping in my other field!

He said this is where humans come and put something called a tent up on the grass, and then they sleep inside it overnight. Sounds a bit like a stable to me! 

As none of the other horses in the stables have never seen anything like this before I felt it was my duty to investigate and report back to everyone.

So this is tent!

Abi and Lynn led me up to the camping field where the tents were, and I had a good look around and inside the tents.

In I go!

I was pretty impressed but I don’t think I'd fancy staying in one overnight, I much prefer the freedom of my paddock.

So, what's in there then? 

I must go now as I can hear my name being called to go and do another of my amazing agility sessions; see you all soon. 

Playtime with Jack

Because I'm doing so much agility over the summer the stables staff thought it would be nice if I could have a bit of a break and do something different. On Wednesday afternoon Abi took me for a long walk around the reservoir with one of the guests so I could stretch my legs a bit more. I found this very exciting so I thought I would show off some of my moves. Of course everyone enjoyed watching me perform!

I've also been in the arena with Jack and Teddy to have a bit of play, as I have to go in my own separate field during the evening so I need some time to catch up on the gossip, otherwise I will have nothing to write about!

Come and play Jack!

I was in quite an energetic mood that day but all Teddy wanted to do was have a rest, luckily for me though Jack was keen to have a play. We also had a good grooming session and it was nice to be able to have a chat with Jack as we don’t get to meet very often.

Having a nice chat with Jack

Flippin Flies!

The last week in the stables we had loads of groups in, which meant all of us horses have worked really hard. This also includes me of course; although I don’t do any ridden work I've done lots and lots of agility. I do love showing off my abilities to our lovely guests!

Not only has it been busy it has also been really hot and the flies have been out in force. This makes it  a bit difficult for us in the stables as it gets too hot to work in the indoor arena but going outside means we get lots of bites from the flippin flies! The good thing about this though is it means we get to have a cool down with the hose pipe once we have done all our work!

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!

My first horse show!

As I mentioned I've recently had a few baths to try to get rid of the long winter coat which I am hanging on to. (I'm still not 100% convinced that it isn’t going to snow soon!) Anyway I am still quite hairy but slowly it is coming out with lots of grooming and the occasional wash.

Last weekend though I was very glad I looked clean and shiny because I went to a SHOW! It was on Sunday and I had been in overnight so I had an inkling that something was going on.  On Sunday morning I was groomed and had hoof oil put on my feet.  I looked gorgeous if I do say so myself.

As soon as I was ready Nicky and Louise got the horse trailer and I climbed up the ramp.  The journey to the show was not very long, but I am too small to see out of the window in the trailer so I don’t know exactly where we went! When we arrived there were lots of other trailers and horseboxes lined up and horses and ponies of all shapes and sizes.  I don’t think I have seen so many shiny and beautiful equines in my life!  I got to have a walk around with Nicky to take in the sights which was great, and then I got to taste the grass which was brilliant! 

Soon it was time for my class and Nicky put on the new head collar that Mollie got for me.  The class was for Mountain and Moorland types - which means all sorts of different breeds from different parts of the country.  I saw Welsh ponies, Fell ponies and also some other Shetlands including miniatures just like me.

The Mountain and Moorland Class

Meeting the Judge

I enjoyed myself in the ring and was very impressed with the other ponies, and I got a rosette too which was lovely.  The judge did comment on how woolly I was!!

Proudly wearing my lovely rosette

I'm no oil painting... (but I'm going to be!)

Hey everyone it’s me, your favourite small equine here! 

Last week I had a special group of visitors come to see me, they came to say hello to me in my stable first and took lots of photos of me, then they took me outside to have more photos done in the sunshine. Teddy lives in the stable next door to mine and he was desperate to have his photo done too!

He posed beautifully so the visitors did take some of him as well as me. I am sure mine will look the best but Teddy is a very handsome chap! 

Teddy out for a ride looking handsome!

Anyway the reason for this photo-shoot was to get some good pictures of me for one of these visitors who is an animal portrait artist; she is going to paint my portrait. I'm very glad it's being done from photos as I don’t think I could stand still for long enough to be painted!

I will keep you posted on the progress of the portrait; all the other horses will be very impressed and a little jealous! 

vet visit

Yesterday was a really important day for us here at the stables. 

Every year a vet comes to see all of us and checks us all over to make sure we are fit and healthy. The vet looks in our eyes with a strange thing which makes a clicking noise! I think it is just to make sure we can see properly.

He also looks at our general health and listens to our heart with a thing that goes in his ears (Teddy said this is called a stethoscope). 

Next we have to walk and trot for the vet so that he can make sure we are moving properly and are sound.  I liked this bit; it was good practice for trotting for the judge when I go to the show. The vet said I looked very good and I made him smile when I showed him my trot! I hope the judge at the show thinks I look good too! 

Bath time again!

We had a great Horse Experience Weekend here last weekend.  These are great fun, and people who come on them get to spend the whole weekend in the stables so they get to know us all really well.

The weekend was lovely weather too so the guests did lots of riding and carriage driving in the sunshine, and then finished their weekend with a competition.

I was lucky enough to get a bath on Saturday, which I love. It's helped a bit more of my old winter coat to come out, but there is still some hanging on!

Hey! You forgot to do my hair!

I need to be looking as good as possible because as I told you I am soon going to a show; I think it will be great fun and can’t wait to see what other horses and ponies might be there.  I wonder if there will be any other miniature Shetlands? 

Meeting some lovely young people

Hi everyone, we horses and ponies have all had another busy week here in the Stables.  

We had a school group visit from Ladbrook School year 6. They were a great bunch of young people and all came to the stables for sessions riding, carriage driving and of course doing some agility with me! 

Kev is such a poser: He seem's to have forgotten its all about me!

Some of them also did some grooming and even mucked out!! I really enjoy meeting young people.  I think some of them may never have seen a pony as small as me before. 

 Quite often people ask whether I am a baby; If I was I wouldn't know half the things I know! I guess people think I am still a foal because I am tiny, but they don't call me the mighty atom for nothing!

More New Kit for Me!

Kerri, who is one of the riding instructors in our stables, has a young daughter who is horse and pony mad!

This lovely kind young person is called Molly.  She recently went to Badminton Horse Trials to watch horses and riders do lots of very clever stuff. They do dressage, cross country, (which involves very big jumps made of stuff like trees and jumping into water!) and show jumping. 

I've had a go at show jumps before...

Me show jumping!

...well very little ones and admittedly I didn’t have a rider on my back! These other horses sound like really talented chaps to me!

Anyway while Molly was at Badminton she saw a stall where you can get things for very important ponies such as me. As she had heard about me from Kerri she wanted to get me something special.  I am now the proud owner of a Superstar head collar!  It is red with stars and my name on it. 

Look at my lovely head collar!

As you can imagine I feel very proud that she chose me to get something for, and I feel like a movie star in my new head collar.  I am available for Hoof prints on the red carpet and feel sure I will soon get a call from Hollywood!!

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!