What a Busy Week!

On Monday we had our Open Day and we had lots of visitors who haven’t been here before, some of us horses and ponies were giving people rides and carriage drives for the day.  Duchess is one of the horses who pulls the carriage and said she had a great time in the sunshine meeting people and taking them for a drive.  It was great that lots of new faces came and saw what we do here, I love meeting new people!

Duchess pulling a Carriage

I have moved into my Summer paddock now.  It is next to the Archery Range but I don’t go out when there are people shooting at the targets in case one of them has a stray arrow!  I know horses in the past were used by riders with bows and arrows, but I don’t think I would like it much!

Me enjoying some yummy grass in my summer paddock

Are Easter eggs nice?

All us horses and ponies are enjoying a bit of sunshine and grass! As you all know it was Easter this weekend, and I did see lots of brightly coloured and glittery eggs hiding around the stables and the yard. 

I think this was so that guests could find them, I didn’t get any though and as I have never tasted chocolate I do wonder what I have missed? The staff say chocolate is not good for ponies so we all had some carrots instead which were yummy!!

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The other day I heard some music coming from the indoor arena while the guests were riding. I wondered what was going on and why I wasn’t involved, after all I'm a very talented fellow!

Bertie said they were doing a musical drill ride which sounds like a lot of fun (although I'm not completely sure exactly what it is!).

Louise and Hendrix

Our new member of staff Louise has been given a project by Nicky.  Hendrix told me that she has been lunging him and this morning Nicky lunged him and Louise got on him!

He has been doing lots of driving but hasn’t been ridden for a few months, but now Duchess has joined us to do some of the driving, he gets to do both again. Hendrix said he is looking forward to having some fun with Louise.

Louise and Henrix having fun

We are all happy to see loads more people coming to the stables, its getting really busy again. Roll on Summer!

More about the Newbies!

Jack is being ridden by all sorts of riders.  He is a jolly chap and he has the most amazing moustache! Also he has been out with Bertie doing something called "ride and lead". This means one horse is ridden and the rider also leads the other horse. Jack enjoyed this as he gets on well with Bertie. 

Once they had had a practice they then went out on a ride with one of our regular riders, Daisy on Bertie, Abi on Jack together and Nicky on Safari.

I told you Rooster had been a race horse before he came here, but he is loving life here as it is much quieter.  He's a favorite with some of our regular riders already.

Justyn riding Rooster

This week we had a visit from our friendly vet Jenny.  She came with her dentistry kit this time, and some of us had our teeth checked and vaccinations done.  Because us horses have so many teeth the vet has a special thing which she puts in our mouth so that she can see all the teeth, then she puts a rasp over the teeth to smooth them off as our teeth can get quite sharp. This doesn't hurt us and helps to keep us comfortable when we are eating and being ridden or driven.

Jenny doing Rooster's teeth

Bare back? well, sort of!

Hi everybody, it’s the mighty atom here again!

We are very busy in the stables now with loads of lovely guests, and finally the grass has started to grow, so we are all a lot happier in the fields. I have even stayed out overnight on a few occasions as it has been warm and dry; lovely!  As you know I don’t like getting wet and cold so I am usually tucked up in my stable at night!

The new horses I told you about have all fitted into the team very well. Duchess is pulling the big carriage regularly now and she says she loves it.  It looks quite big and heavy to me but she is a big strong girl and she pulls it easily!

Safari has a new saddle type thing that he has been wearing.  It has no stirrups and is very soft. I heard the staff call it a bareback pad and Nicky, Abi and Louise have all had a go at riding Safari with it on.  

Safari looking great with the bareback pad.

It's looks strange to see people on him with no stirrups! but Safari says it feels great and some riders find it very useful as they like the feel of it.

More New Arrivals!

I mentioned new arrivals, well I haven't finished telling you about them; A couple of weeks ago we had another two horses arrive! 

The first one is called Duchess. She is a black mare who is going to pull our big carriage, she says she has done lots of driving before she came here and also she likes being ridden.  She has VERY hairy legs!! (she calls them feathers, but it looks like hair to me!)

Duchess trying out our carriage with Abi & Louise

Jack is a piebald pony so he will fit in well as we have several piebald’s already.  He is a riding pony and has worked in a riding school before so he is used to this kind of job. He also has a mousetache! I've never seen one on a horse before, I thought only humans had them!

Jack showing off his Moustache!

They both seem very friendly although Teddy tells me Duchess thinks she is going to be in charge of all the horses in the field.  I heard the Nicky say that quite often girl horses are the boss, so we shall see!

We are now all ready for the busiest time of year here with lots of visitors coming to stay at Calvert Trust Exmoor so I am looking forward to meeting lots of new people and saying hello to those I have met before.

I'm back! Hello again!

Hi everyone, I know it’s been a while but things have been rather busy here.  We had a wet but mild Winter here this year, I was looking forward to some of that white stuff falling from the sky but so far we've had none of that!

through the winter I've been tucked up nice and warm in my stable every night, so its lovely now that the weather is brighter to get out into the fields again.

All the other horses have also spent quite a lot of time in the stables at night too as the fields have been very muddy and us horses can only cope with so much rain; a bit like humans I suppose! We are all very excited about being out in the fields in the sunshine again.

The main reason why it’s been so busy is that we have had lots of new arrivals since Christmas, and I've been showing them the ropes.

The first to arrive were Safari and Rooster, who came together from another stables.  Safari is an unusual looking chap.  He tells me he is an Appaloosa, apparently that’s a breed of horse!  He is chestnut but has white spots and patches on his back and hind quarters.  He tells me this means he is "a Chestnut Frosted Blanket" which he obviously thinks makes him quite special! 

Safari posing for his photo!

Safari arrived with Rooster who is very, very tall!  He said he used to be a racehorse but now he is a bit older he was looking for a quieter life so Calvert Trust Exmoor should fit the bill for him. He is a chestnut but with none of Safari’s fancy spots. They seem very happy to be here and are both working with our guests really well.

Rooster ready for action

We also have some new humans too! Kerri-Anne and Louise have joined Nicky and AbI, to help them look after us and all of the new horses too.