I ventured down to the Beaulieu Road Sales this morning to disseminate some of my leaflets on Handling the Wild Pony Courses. There are very few foals at this early stage; the drifts don't get going until later in August. Instead there are odd yearlings and older ponies and the odd tired looking mare, thoroughbred or donkey and you wonder what they've done to get there. One throughbreddy horse had really bad feet with massive cracks and you couldn't help wonder about his fate. I know that Commoning is meant to be a business but I think I'd want my old brood mares put down at home when they'd done me the honour of producing a foal every two years rather than putting them through this and then off to the meat man. I'm bemused at anyone seeing the sales as a nice day out - it's heartbreaking. I also believe that it is stressful for the ponies. Once again, not a bucket of water to be seen and just the odd haynet here and there for halter-broken ponies that are tied directly to the fence. Ponies that don't know each other are put in together and there are frequent kicking matches particularly when pens are overcrowded. The RSPCA were very much in evidence, in fact I had a good chat to them, but there is very little they can do.
I defy anyone who has been to a Parelli demo not to have tried riding their horse without reins. I rode Petra freestyle with a saddle this morning and we had great fun. The clicker trained stop with the seat is really useful when you've got nothing attached to the horse's head. Petra turns with my body so there was no need for a carrot stick either.
