For a long time now I have been hoping that I could arrange a meeting between Hilary and Ruth as their ponies' stories are so similar. Bought originally in the hope that they would be good riding school ponies but both completely wild and determined to stay that way. In each case the ponies were befriended by kind women who happened to be there because they had another pony at the school. Each lady made some progress with taming the ponies before the inevitable happened and they fell in love with them, and eventually asked if they could take ownership of them.
Unlike Hilary, Ruth had little experience of horses, whilst Hilary had no experience of wild ponies. In each case I helped as much as I could by showing how to make the first moves towards touching them and catching them and building a bond like no other; the ponies' progress depended on complete and utter trust.
Benji was much younger when he started his journey and now seems like a normal domesticated pony but occasionally he will still show that his trust is dependent on Hilary being trustworthy - a critical link in their relationship. Hilary has to respect what he was and what, underneath, he will always be.
Ruth went to see Benji with me yesterday and it was great to see Hilary too. We hope that Hilary will come and meet Prince towards the end of this month.
Back at his yard, Prince is making great progress in being led back and forth to his field.
He also stands to have his hooves picked up, front and back.
