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| Patrick Kempe's gorgeous Lusitano, Tetua |
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| Banksy meets Wendy and his first feather duster... |
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| ...experiences his first touch... |
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| ...and tries out a new scarf |
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| Extra special has his face touched |
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| Special Edition talks to Kathryn about her plans for his feet |
Pictures from the first day at the Handling the Foal Course which I ran over the weekend by kind permission of Suzanne and Patrick Kempe. Patrick and Suzanne have bred sturdy, performance New forest ponies at the Rodlease Stud for a long, long time and the three youngsters we were working with were no exception. Full brothers Special Edition and Extra Special are both by Longcopse Elton out of a lovely mare Special who has bred 18 foals in 25 years and looks fantastic. Banksy is by Pondhead Panshine, making him a half-brother to the foal I bred, Sherekhan Kanuthi. All of them did really well. Banksy had his first headcollar on which he accepted very easily and was led for the first time. Extra Special was clicker trained and by the end of the two days allowed me to walk up to him in the field where he put his nose in the furry hoop in exchange for a click and a treat. Ed was starting to pick his feet up without wafting them about.
The phrase of the moment seems to be 'man up' and I would just urge everyone involved in the lives of young horses to 'man down' and just work with them carefully and slowly. It is worth it in the end.
"The course was brilliant . Also got to see the amazing Tetua ... he is stunning- and I wanted to take home a gorgeous little foal called Banksy who was just adorable." KW on Facebook and then email:
"Just wanted to say thank you again for a fab weekend and to say how much I appreciate you giving your time, experience and knowledge into making courses like this happen. Thanks to your patience, great teaching methods and humour, you make it so worthwhile and to gain such experiences like I had this weekend is priceless."
