Christmas fun and games

A lot of our regular local riders have had great fun here over the past two weekends.  As it is nearly Christmas it was time to play games on horses.

Christmas fun and games

We horses and ponies love playing games as much as people do, so the whole thing was enjoyed by everyone who took part.  My buddy Brin gets quite competitive when the games start but he only likes racing in one direction in the arena! 

They played musical statues to warm humans and horses up then they had a go at weaving through some cones.  They also played dress the snowman –each person had to put gloves, a hat or scarf onto the snowman.

Playing dress the snowman

Then they played a bucket in a ball game;Teddy and Henry thought the balls might be apples.  They had a little taste and said they weren’t very nice to eat! Teddy had a very tiny rider for some games which he loved!

Jack was being very serious and carefully looking after his little rider.  He didn’t show his competitive side. Bertie and his little rider Bethan were the quickest to begin with but both got a bit tired and decided not to have a trot. 

Who was that man in the red suit?

I've heard that most humans decorate a tree for Christmas;

for the last two weekends the staff in the stables have put decorations all over Hendrix’s carriage instead!

Every year at Calvert Trust Exmoor there are several Christmas Special Weekends. For these weekends Hendrix has a very important job to do, he has to pull his carriage with a very special passenger travelling in it. He also gets dressed up with tinsel too!

Hendrix looking great in his tinsel

The passenger has lots of white hair on his face and he wears a very cosy looking red coat and trousers which have furry trimming on them.  He also wears boots and a hat too which matches his outfit.  I don’t know quite what his job is but the humans here call him Father Christmas so I guess he is very well known.  

He always carries a very full looking sack with him but I don’t think it is full of horse feed because he doesn’t give any food to us! I hope someone has remembered that we would love a Christmas dinner too. Some carrots, apples and special horse treats are what I am hoping for this year!

Feeling Sketchy...

We are really busy right now getting ready for Christmas (yes, we horses celebrate it too!), but I thought you might like to see these drawings.

A lovely family called the Ostler's stated with us couple of weeks ago, and Sheri has sent us a couple of sketches she did of Brin and Rooster.

Brin By Sheri

Rooster by Sheri

Brin and Rooster both love their pictures; I was a but surprised she didn't draw me too, I'm definitely the best looking!

If you have any drawings or photos you would like to share with us (especially if they are of me!) you can send them to me on pilgrim@calvert-trust.org.uk.

See you soon!

Rooster's Showing Off!

A couple of weeks ago Rooster had a visit from Angela, who is a McTimoney chiropractic practitioner. After she had given him some treatment Rooster said he felt much better. He is 20, which is equivalent to about 60 in horse years (don't tell him I told you!); I think he looks great for an old chap! 

Here is a great photo of him showing off a bit; cantering round on the lunge. I hope to be bouncing around myself at that age!

Rooster Showing Off!

I think we must be due to start our Winter break fairly soon. All us horses and ponies get a few weeks off while the centre is closed.  This a great time for us to be out in the fields catching up with all the other horses and ponies who we don’t get turned out with normally. We do all get on and it’s great to get play time together. I will still need to come into my stable at night though because I get cold as I am closer to the ground than most!

Comings and Goings...

Two of the staff are moving onto new green pastures to go and look after other horses, Abi and Louise are both leaving before Christmas.

I am sure that wherever they go next the equines will appreciate the work that I and the other horses here at Calvert Trust Exmoor have put into them; we've got them both very well trained now!

Me telling Abi how to do it

Safari training Louise to use a bareback pad

Because of this there have been a number of new faces coming through the stables recently, and they all come to see yours truly of course! 

I am sure that whoever comes to join us here in the stables will think I am gorgeous; how could they not?!? 

I will soon teach them who the most important pony is, and exactly how we equines like things to be done. There's no point in having humans to care for you if they don’t do things how you like them to be done!

I will make sure I introduce you to the new staff when they arrive.

Cheeky Henry!

Last week we had another visit from our friendly local farriers,you may remember last time I introduced you to Dusty the Farrier? This time we were visited by Clive, who is the boss farrier.

Clive has been a farrier for a long time so he probably knows all there is to know about horses and ponies feet!  It was Clive who came up with the idea of my little plastic shoes, or as the stables staff call them, my 'trainers'!

I am very glad Clive thought of this because they feel great for my tiny feet. Clive is probably very glad too, as they take only a few minutes to put on.

Normal horse shoes take a long time and the farrier has to bend down all the time. This is hard enough with a regular sized horse or pony but imagine how hard it would be to shoe a miniature like me!

Cheeky Henry!

This photo is of Henry having his feet attended to by Clive. As you can see he's very laid back about the whole thing, and likes to rest his chin on the Clive's back while his shoes are being put on! What a lazy, cheeky horse Henry is!

Learning to Drive

Abi has been teaching Kerri how to drive our carriages.

They started with Kerri learning how to hold the reins for carriage driving (which is very different to riding). Bob was chosen to be her first driving pony as he is so patient!

Kerri 'driving' with Bob

 Once she had the reins figured out it was time to hold a long driving whip as well.  This is necessary to help steer a driving horse.

Next Abi radioed Oli to ask if he could come to hold a horse as she was planning to take Kerri out driving with Hendrix.  Oil arrived very quickly and went to hold Bob!  As you can see Bob wasn’t likely to move very far!

Oli 'holding' Bob while Kerri drives!

Once Kerri had the hang of it with Bob she moved on to real horses, Hendrix was very patient with Kerri practicing in the indoor school. 

Driving with Hendrix

things went so well in the indoor arena that they decided to try driving outside in the big arena. 

A 'driver's eye view' of driving with Hendrix!

Kerri held one set of reins and Abi was holding the other set in case she started steering towards the fence! they were still talking to each other when they had finished so I guess it all went very well. 

Hendrix tells me Kerri said she is looking forward to having another go!