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| First headcollar |
Peechay has his microchip inserted today. Although he was fine, he bled quite a lot and clearly felt some pain as it went in. This piece of kit, a statutory requirement these days, is of no use nor ornament to the pony. Giving no visible deterrent to theft, it would only lead to his recovery if he were actually checked for a chip by the police, port or slaughter house. Given that the police are not that good at distinguishing one pony from another, horse theft isn't at the top of their agenda and many forces don't have a microchip reader it's unlikely that he would be found if stolen. It is also a useless for indentification out on the Forest itself where the ponies live in large and ever changing groups of mixed ownership. As a microchip cannot be read from more than a metre away they are no use whatsoever to the agisters or the owners of the ponies themselves. Peechay is one of many bay roan foals thrown by the same stallion. The only way I can tell him apart from the others is that he still tends to be with his mother and Blue.
I started his halter training today and, having touched him since he was born and spent time gently desensitising his head over the last few weeks, it took just seconds to put the headcollar on using the No Fear No Force technique of going over the neck first. I put it on and took it off three times and then turned ghim back out on to the Forest.
