Our Rosettes Have Arrived!

Vanessa very kindly brought over our Horse Agility rosettes today from our last OLHA competitions - Topsy was placed 6th and has a lovely purple rosette...and Rocky has a green "special" rosette for coming 7th in his class.  Clever ponies!

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Handling The Wild And Traumatised Horse Course

Nicole and Ebony

 We really enjoyed our weekend course that we hosted at the p4p yard - "Handling The Wild And Traumatised Horse".  Vanessa Bee of Positive Horsemanship and The Horse Agility Club is always so supportive of p4p and our work and is always so generous - donating all the course proceeds directly to us.  We met some lovely people on our course this weekend - Carol; Nicole and Martin who came from the Berks, Bucks and Oxon Wildlife Trust; and it was great that our friends Angela and Lisa could come too.

There's always so much to fit in on the 2 day course.  Whereas we usually have wild ponies in to handle, there is such a shortage of homes for them to go to, we just couldn't take in any extra ponies.  Instead, we decided to incorporate the round-up of our sponsor ponies Ebony and Apache - both of whom are very nervous, traumatised ponies.  Thank you very much to Jane for allowing us to do this and for all the lovely scones and chocolate cake and tea that she provided for us.  Ebony and Apache have an untraumatised sheep friend (called Larry) who lives with them and is convinced that he is a pony too so he joined in with everything.

After the introductions and videos on Saturday, we worked with the p4p ponies at the yard - they are all at differing levels of trauma (except Frodo who was a different sort of challenge for them!) and it's pretty fair to say that the ponies were really alarmed at just the sight of a group of unusual people appearing on site.  Even Topsy was able to do a bit of work - allowing Carol to do some handling with her.  We rounded up Ebony and Apache late afternoon so that they could stay in overnight and settle before handling the next day.  Actually, deciding to round-up Ebony and Apache was great for Martin and Nicole in particular as they have conservation ponies that they work with at the Wildlife Trust sites.  It's wonderful that they are so keen to learn about and understand the ponies - both are so thoughtful and are so dedicated to handling them in the right way.  I think they are now both addicted to wild pony handling too!  Whether we are teaching, or just students on courses we always learn so much.  Faye was really happy with how well Apache did - he was so fearful in the morning but with just advance and retreat (and no need for a "glove on a stick" etc) he allowed her to headcollar him.  After handling, Ebony and Apache have gone straight back out to their nature reserve...it's great for them to have these positive experiences of people and they are straight back out living in their natural paradise again.

We'd like to say a big thank you to Margaret who has been so dedicated to helping us get ready for this weekend.  She also helped throughout the weekend keeping everyone happy with tea, coffee and biscuits; and helped with poo-picking and keeping the ponies provisioned with hay - helping everything to run as smoothly as possible.

Inviting Ebony to see Larry

Martin, Ebony and Larry

Vanessa applying horsemanship to sheep...is that "sheepmanship"??

Frodo did have a bath on Friday night before the course (not that he was impressed) so I took this photo as proof that he was clean when I left him.  Just as well because he was covered in mud again by the morning...and it was raining so there wasn't really anything that could be done to clean him up!!

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Conservation Round-Up

 Today we had our annual round up of our ponies Star, Misty and Breeze who graze for the Devon Wildlife Trust on a gorgeous site by the sea.  We need to say a huge thank you to all our friends and volunteers who came to help - Gill, Catherine, Margaret, and of course to Vanessa and Phillip and to Frank the farrier who are all so generous with their time and don't charge us for their services.

The ponies are looking really well - Star's doing fine but is definitely looking older.  We were very thankful for the weather being so kind to us!

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P4P Rescue Fieldtrip

We've been on a p4p excursion this evening to the edge of Dartmoor to help Ted and Jenny collect some new arrivals...but not of the pony kind!  Ted and Jenny decided to have a couple of outdoor rescue cats - thankfully the cats aren't completely feral so the owners were able to catch them without the need for traps.  The ponies were really intrigued by the meowing baskets that came out of the car - Bobby was really interested and I was remembering that he used to share his stable with Cilla's old cat Humbug.  The cats are settling in and it'll be a little while before they can be released.

I think it's probably a new p4p record this week - we've been offered a total of 89 ponies this one week alone...it's so difficult to turn ponies away but it's the starfish on the beach scenario...we can't rescue them all...but we do make a big difference to the comparatively few that we can help.

...And of course, finally we must send Happy Birthday wishes to Jeremy who was 11 years young today!

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June Calendar Photo

Our June photo is of lovely Gypsy Dan (known as Dan for short) grazing amongst the buttercups at our main base.  He's got such a lovely "calm and assertive personality" but he also has a very high fear level (fear of people that is).  He was one of the main stallions in the herd and was already mature when Paul and Cilla first saw him, so we don't really know how old he is for sure.  He has made a lot of progress at the new yard where he's around familiar people but he's still very suspicious of strangers - particularly men.   He's a long term rehab.  He's a real asset in the herd as he keeps a calm, balanced presence - firm but fair, maintains the rules and keeps a sense of order amongst the youngsters.

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Preparations Are Underway

Larry, Apache and Ebony

Preparations are underway for our upcoming course - it's not long to go now so Margaret's been helping to get lots of jobs done - we've moved mats, hay, straw and we've sorted out the fencing so we now have the two new gateways in operation.  Margaret's also washed all the headcollars for us!

Jane is very kindly allowing us to round-up Ebony and Apache as part of the course so Faye went over to visit them on Monday.  Larry the sheep is very happy living with the ponies (and he actually thinks he is a pony!) so he'll also be joining in the round-up!

We were asked to take in some of the ponies seized by the authorities in the recent prosecution case on the Blackdown Hills, but sadly we just can't take any others at the moment...there would be extra costs involved with foals, or colts that would need to be gelded and whilst we try to help as many as we can we can't overstretch our resources.  With so many unhandleable equines it's a very sad situation...

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...And The Results Are In!!

The Online Horse Agility results have been published and we have great news!  Topsy has scored brilliantly...95 out of a possible 100 points...we're so very proud.  This score placed her 6th in a class of 12.  The scores are made up of 10 points each obstacle - 5 for effectively negotiating the obstacle and 5 for good horsemanship shown whilst negotiating the obstacle. Vanessa's feedback comment was "what an excellent start and brings tears to my eyes that Topsy looks so relaxed!".   Topsy only needs 3 more league points to progress to the next level up!

Rocky also had a video entered, although I'm not sure he's really impressed about horse agility yet, he scored well too with 93 out of 100!

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Topsy's Horse Agility Video

Thanks to Margaret's efforts with the videoing...today we managed to film Topsy doing her first ever Horse Agility Online Competition entry (OLHA).  Topsy's a bit stiff but otherwise is doing great.  It might not be the best competition entry ever but it's a huge achievement for us and Topsy!  Topsy only did the hula hoop obstacle and the flags for the first time yesterday!  We're hoping Topsy might get awarded her first ever rosette...we think she deserves it!  

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Sunshine At Last

Topsy obviously decided to make the most of the remaining mud this morning!

Today has been the first day of the year when it's been possible to do all the chores with no wellies!  Hooray...and it's T-Shirt weather!  The ponies are losing the last of their winter coats and their lovely shiny summer coats are at the ready to fully emerge.

We started the week with woolly hats and fleeces (and mud of course!) and we had a couple of brilliant local chaps come to put some gates in for us, thanks to Ted and Jenny.  They were able to improve the set-up of where the ponies go in and out of the yard area with two gates - one for tractors and one for ponies.  It looks very smart...Topsy now has the job of eating some lush grass for us to get it operational and all incorporated as part of the pony field.

We are pleased to announce that to replace our normal fundraiser at The Brooke show, we have been accepted to have a stall at the Tiverton Balloon Festival in July!  This is the biggest event that we've ever attended and we're looking forward to it...it's three days for us during the afternoons and evenings.  For more information visit http://www.tivertonballoonfestival.co.uk/

Thank you very much to Vanessa for donating our free membership and entries to the Horse Agility Club - the deadline for the online starter course is getting very close now but we're still hoping to make it for the starter course entries.

On Thursday, Faye went to visit some members of Frodo's pony family - his sister Winnie, his half sister Millie, and his Mum Tess (aka Mrs Brownhead) - it was lovely to meet them all and Catriona.  Winnie's not been feeling well so we hope she feels better and back to her normal self very soon.  Millie is a half sister of Frodo because although they share the same Mum, Millie's Dad was very clearly Dan rather than Apache.  The strange thing is that Millie is MUCH bigger than both her Mum or Dad so there must be some "nearly 13hh" genes in there somewhere.  Millie has such a lovely personality - so clearly like Dan but without the fear.

On Friday it was "now or never" with the mud and rolling - it's so much easier to walk around when it's rolled - it makes a big difference...and then today we helped Ted and Jenny make a gravel pathway and tidied up one half of the tack room.

We've been inundated with midges but thankfully Bobby's been managing well with our special mixtures that we apply.  They've been biting us as well as the ponies!

Catherine's husband is now home again and feeling much better - so we wish him a speedy recovery...and we must say a belated "Happy Birthday" to Peter who was 10 on Thursday.

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Group Excursion

We had Peter and Margaret with us today, so as well as doing all the usual chores we went on our first team excursion - which was also Topsy's first walk out with the other ponies.

Ready to go!

Quick snack of delicious greenery for the ponies

Peter and Frodo taking the lead

Special photo for Katie and Nicola...
we hope they are very proud of their pony!

Off we go...thank you Jenny for taking the photos for us!

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