Do you want to see something good?

Ruth was getting a little worried that her clicker technique might not be quite perfect and asked me to go out and check. Since there is nowhere to contain this pony in his field, which is huge, or in a stable, clicker is all that we have. If anything goes astray, we will either be right back at the beginning or lost completely. She needn't have worried at all. 

Prince comes straight up to engage with us, leading the others up the field. 

He is letting Ruth put the scarf all around his face and along his neck with bits tightened up over his nose and dangling by his side. Ruth is calm, clear, and patient. The 'elastic' between her first single click and her three-click-reward is getting longer and stronger and as a result Prince is learning patience too. 

It has been less than two weeks since I saw them for the first time, and I was pretty astounded. I wondered what would happen if she approached him with the feather duster. He looked very wary to begin with and positioned himself out of its reach.

What on earth is that?

I was elated when Ruth, without being told, started to roll and rub it around his face, relieving him of the flies.

Working mainly on his left side, where he is the most open to learning, she was also able to 'pop-in' to the right-hand side and begin to equal him out. 

The great benefit of the scarf and the feather duster is that they begin to accustom the horse to accept foreign objects around their face and along their body - the feather duster has a telescopic handle so that it can touch him further along without the same risk of being kicked. With a lovely rub, deep and flat, the pony starts to realise that humans are useful and in time to accept the hand in the same places; I'd suggest that this would happen after Prince had accepted a headcollar again. 

Prince has worn a headcollar before, and indeed been led, but he was never trained to be caught without a fuss and now the headcollar is his nemesis. For now, we aren't even thinking about introducing it.

Reservists

I had not expected to make new friends in Hook but it is like I have known M for the whole of my life. While her application to be an official voluntary Looker is pending, she joined me for a pony-visit-litter-pick-mourning-of-the-Queen around the Reserve and we were successful on all counts. 

The ponies were all well - still fed up with the flies - and eating in lots of different places in the reserve. 

Only Nelly and Blue have obviously put on any weight, but they only have a month now until the nutritional value of the grass will drop for the winter. 

Horsey M'am

 

There's a lot to be said for a horsey Mum - R.I.P Queen Elizabeth II

Chance Encounters

By a strange coincidence, I met for the first time the two women who gave me so much practical help after Juma was killed. The first was Nicola Stephens who was the expert witness who gave me an independent valuation for Juma for the insurance company. Her credentials were perfect with a curriculum vitae that includes three-day eventing, showing and judging, as well as running her own sales, competition, and livery yard. Not only does she run semi-feral ponies on the Forest herself, but she has bred, brought on and sold ponies and horses for all disciplines. Her advice and eventual valuation were very helpful to me.

Yesterday I went to meet Beverley Molter who has become well-known for her calm and effective approach to ponies. She had invited me to come and see her ponies and we also put the world to rights for several hours. At the time of Juma's death, she was very supportive and again helped me with my insurance claim.

Beverley has managed to collect - and now breed - some of the finest New Forest ponies I have ever seen. She buys them privately and through the sales and brings them on slowly until they are ready to be sold. As well as good conformation, they all have excellent temperaments. 

Her five-year-old stallion, Mallards Wood Highlight (Frosty) has recently come fourth at the New Forest Breed Show and claimed the prize for the best Novice Ridden Stallion. He is by the renowned stallion, Applewitch Pure Magic. I spent many minutes giving him a lovely hug and stroking him in the stable and he was super polite about it all. Like all of her ponies, he lives out 24/7 only coming in for work and rest. 

Beverley has a batch of five two-year old colts including Frosty's son Forestmagic High Jinks (Moortown Nobby) (l), and Furzey Lodge Make Believe (r), who was licensed as a stallion in the spring. 

Flight of the Falcon (Fidleywood Falconer), Hollyhatch Heydey (Portmore Thunder Cloud), and Blueberry Blizzard (Brookshill Brumby) (l to r).

Why did I need help with my claim? It turned out that I was no longer a member of the Commoners' Defence Association who have their own solicitor, and the valuations given by the Agisters had not caught up with the significantly better prices that were being achieved at the on-line sales. These began during the pandemic and continued whilst repairs were made to the Beaulieu Road Sales Yard which had been set alight by car thieves. All of the money which I got for Juma has been promised to the organisers of the Feasibility Study into road safety cameras along the B3078. I certainly didn't want to keep it and would much rather have my pony back.

Watching the Detectives

The ponies at the Reserve are being monitored from all angles. As well as the official Lookers, we have householders on one side and even the cricket club members on the other. It is delightful to receive photos of them between visits. 

Pie by the entrance to the reserve on Sunday evening whose picture came with the message, "All looking fit and well x".

And photos from the private Lookers' blog where everyone records their visits and any non-urgent problems. 

As well as training by HIWWT, the Lookers have a set of rules - and plenty of contacts - about who and when to contact in an emergency which includes problems with a trough, gates and fencing, and anything which would present a danger to the livestock such as fly-tipping, recent fires and BBQs and dens. Blog etiquette requires that we don't go on about irrelevant matters - a bit like this one, it's mostly about horses and cows. 

Having had ponies out on the New Forest, where you have to work on the basis that No News is Good News, it's good to get a concrete reports every day or so. I was happy seeing my ponies once a week on the Forest knowing that accidents, incidents and collisions tend to get reported, but some Commoners' ponies are very good at eluding their owners for weeks or months on end and Agisters cannot be expected to put in a personal report on every pony they see on their travels; as it is they are very good at spotting problems even from the most subtle signs. 

I don't want to speak to soon, but none of the ponies have put on vast amounts of weight, despite having access to 75 acres and plenty of long grass. My only worry about them is the amount of flies. 

Mirroring

The new Exmoors at the HIWWT farm have settled in well. Jayne, who is the Grazing Manager as well as Senior Nature Recovery Manager for the South Downs & Coast (that's a very BIG badge!), has been befriending them. She has to walk a very fine line between getting them friendly enough to be caught by HIWWT staff and not that friendly that they go up to strangers. Her subtle body language is drawing this pony in. 

Just Browsing

Henrietta was wearing this adornment-cum-fascinator when we saw her yesterday. Apparently it is to appease the rain Gods and her prayers were answered overnight.

The long-legs and the long-ears have been so bored in their beige-coloured fields that we thought we would take them for a family walk. Considering they hadn't be out for so many months following my surgery, they were amazingly well-behaved. They were also very happy that the walk involved meal breaks - well, mainly one long meal break - and meandered along browsing on the long green grass and occasional tree. 

Henry and the donkeys did run off to their favourite spot once they were off their lead-reins but we soon caught up with them. 

We had time for a rest before moving on...

...everyone had plenty to eat...

...and when it was time to wander home again, we formed a caravan, and Henry counted everyone in.