Horse Life Stories - Brin

Hi folks its Pilgrim here! sorry it's been a while since my last post, I've been super busy with our lovely guests!

I thought you might like to find out a bit more detail about my friends in the stables, so I'm going to write a series of posts, one for each of them.

Here's the first one, about my friend Brin;

Brin (or should that be Picasso?)

Despite being known to all his friends here as Brin, he is actually neither Welsh, nor called Brin! He was born in 2005, at Lionheart Stud in Warwickshire, and his name is really Picasso.

Brin’s colour is bay roan, his father was a lemon and white stallion and his mother was a piebald mare. He stands at 16.1hh, which means he is 16 hands and 1 inch high. 

Just in case you don't know horses are measured from the ground to the top of the withers, which is the ridge between a horse's shoulders. A hand is equivalent to 4 inches, so Brin is 65 inches high (5 ft 5 inches, or 165 cm).

Brin was bought from Lionheart stud as a foal, and brought to live in sunny Devon by his owner Rosie.  He grew up on a quiet farm just down the road from Calvert Trust Exmoor where he lived with his 2 best friends Cloud and Dandy who were both Shetland ponies like me!  No wonder we are such good friends.

He was broken to ride and drive when he was 4 year old, and has always been very gentle and laid back, possibly a little too laid back at times!

Brin joined us here at Calvert Trust Exmoor in 2012. To start with he came on a 6 month loan, but he got on so well with all us that the stables staff arranged to buy him, and he's been with us ever since.

Brin is not the tallest horse here but he most certainly has the biggest build, he’s a gentle giant!  He's great at helping lots of different people here; mainly during lessons for centre guests as he’s very steady.  Brin is also trained as a hoist horse as he’s so laid back and patient; this is one of Brin’s favourite jobs as he gets to stand still! 

Brin also loves to go out hacking in the woods; although he’s a big horse he can be a bit of a wimp sometimes especially when it comes to tractors! 

Although he is trained for carriage driving Brin doesn't do any driving here as he’s too big to fit in our carriage, but sometimes he gets to harrow the riding arenas to make them level. Brin tells me he enjoys doing this as its a different challenge to just been ridden and is another way of keeping him fit and healthy. 

As well as being my big friend Brin is also very friendly with Teddy; being so laid back he actually gets along well with all the other horses and ponies here. He's a very special member of the team and has given lots of people a great riding experience. I hope Brin is able to keep doing his job here for many years to come.