13th February, 2017 Just for Fun

I am hoping that 'doing' horses (and donkeys, mules and camels etc.) for fun will bring back my joie de vivre. I will keep this blog up to date with pictures of the horses I meet on a more leisurely basis and we still have a little while to go before I stop working with them altogether.

I shall also do a lot of my thinking on here, as usual. I've noticed that no matter what time of day I go up to my horses, on the basis that if they don't have a routine they won't get into a routine, they are always standing close to where they get fed, even if I creep up on them. I wonder at what time they start standing sentinel, how many hours they spend there, and how long before they would give up. It certainly accounts for why this part of the field is trashed but also means that they have nothing to eat while they are waiting.

It's the same argument out on the Forest. If the ponies are given hay at feeding stations, the only places where supplementary feeding is allowed, then do they just stand there all day waiting for their rations to turn up. How good is their clock, and do they bother to go further afield to look for food? There are continuous arguments for and against from various people who keep ponies on the Forest and I note in the rules for payments under the Verderers' Grazing Scheme that no supplemental feeding is permitted except in emergencies.