1st November, 2010 Day three....

By day three, Chester (bottom) was practically all singing and all dancing, Tina Turner (the yearling with burrs in her hair) had been brushed all over and I had groomed her tail strand by strand with my fingers. Most of the ponies had had their first headcollar on - although of course this was not the main focus of our work. Touch first and then teach them that the headcollar is nothing. We don't use the headcollar itself for restraint and first leading is established with a scarf around the neck.

Sadly there was one unfortunate incident. Whilst the students and I went for a brisk walk up the hill to warm ourselves up, Derry, one of the tutors, succumbed to temptation and went into Button to cuddle him and then put his headcollar on by herself whilst no-one was looking. Thanks to a faulty headcollar which wouldn't undo, she was caught in the act! After that I made sure that all of the tutors had some hand-on-pony time!

1st November, 2010 Day Two.....

Somewhat inevitably one of the black fillies was named Little Petra and she proved to be a darling. As the "Tutor's Pony" she enabled me to demonstrate the handling techniques and how to put on the first headcollar. Little Bambi is probably only three and half months old but apparently her mother was pretty poor and so she had to be weaned. I would prefer to work with older foals but she did enable the students to see the reality of life on Dartmoor.

We were all touched when the ponies decided to lie down and go to sleep in the corner closest to us when we were all having our lunch.

1st November, 2010 First day in the Little Pony Household

On day one we started to get a picture of the ponies we were working with. The more white they had on them, the calmer they tended to (Chester and Fingle) whereas the more pure bred they were, the more flighty and nervous they tended to be (Prince and Orlando). Although the younger ones seemed to have missed the lesson about humans being predators, they didn't learn as quickly as the older ones and certainly got tired more quickly. I started to work on a age to training time ratio.

We started off with the feather dusters and scarves in order to get closer to the ponies mentally and physically. The atmosphere in the barn was like a library with everyone quietly engrossed in what they were doing.

1st November, 2010 Euphoria

It's hard to come down from the euphoria and elation you feel when working with wild foals, helping them to understand that humans are not going to eat them and can be trusted. The five day course at the Dartmoor Pony Training Centre in Widdecombe is one of the highlights of my year. From day one we knew that we had an exceptional set of students and of all of the tutors are highly competent. The whole course ran smoothly and the foals all made great progress and were much much tamer by the end.

On day one it was unusual to find foals that were willing to present their heads for both running with a feather duster and contact with a hand. Two of the foals were very young so that whilst most of the foals were handled for half a day at a time (with lots of breaks) they were even more part time and got to lie down, chill and graze out in the field. The students included Joy, a vet with The Brooke, Xanthe who had come all the way from Mallorca where she rescues and trains mules and donkeys, and Jane and Sue who both work with children with special needs. John, the only man this time (!) work with traumatised pony at home and has done many of the IH courses. He quietly gave the DPTC a significant donation at the end of the course which made us feel very humble. Ruth is completing her HND in Equine Studies and two of the students were 16 year olds on half term - what a great way to spend a school holiday and such a pleasure to meet two young people who want to be gentle with the ponies they meet. Leanne is a conservationist with Essex Wildlife Trust and we tried t persuade her to take all the ponies home for a grazing project. Kay had won the course through Your Horse magazine and they came to watch us on the Thursday and an article should appear in the magazine in December. Kay actually took a pony home!!

30th, October 2010 Piggies

Pictures of Tabitha's ponies, Magic and Merlyn, licking pigs over the fence was a sharp reminder that I have some work to do with Theoden. Despite living on the edge of the Forest, he seems to be terrified of pigs and our last session with the farrier was a bit exciting as he was completely distracted by five pigs frolicking in the field next door. I resolved to do something about it when I got back from Dartmoor but there was some Godly intervention on the Saturday as we were about to leave. David and I had gone to collect the panels from the field amidst the blackest clouds. As it began to pour down, we took refuge in the trailer, and we watched Theoden standing like a statue next to Jack and Petra as two large pigs, one pink, one black invaded their field. As a massive hail storm developed, the two pigs fled into the field shelter to save their softer skin and this seemed to convince Theoden that they were not fierce predators at all. Later he followed them down the field and then started to graze fairly close by. Job done!!

21st October, 2010 Of course

21st October, 2010 Zeegeegees

Back to Vale Farm yesterday for our third visit. The next time we go it will be for the first of our courses but with 45 equines about the place, a zorse and a zonkey all set to arrive in November, we are not going to run out of horses, ponies, donkeys and things beginning with Z to work with for some time. The zeedonks were already quieter yesterday and much more curious and confident than the week before. We also began work with a cob called Blue who is headshy and difficult to catch. She lives in a huge field as a brood mare before moving to the farm and probably didn't need humans all that much or like them particularly. I started clicker training her. We are very much at the beginning with many of the animals but progress is already significant with Dot accepting touch on his right legs and ready to be touched with a hand next time. Students will experience a whole range of work without the animals being compromised and the emphasis will be on working steadily, eithically and gently.