Recent content by suestowford

I have a plastic box with the kind of lid that you can stand on, so I could use it as a mounting block if I wanted to. I used to keep it in the pony shed, until I got a new pony who quickly worked out how to undo the clips. I found the entire contents strewn across the floor, all with bite marks...

Good vibes all round :) In my experience, motorcyclists are the most considerate (in general) of all road users, especially to other vulnerable road users. I've ridden for many years and have only ever encountered one thoughtless biker. All the rest have been super.

Riding two young ponies past a madly galloping mare in a field was interesting. We found ourselves whizzing at great speed towards the main road. Stopping to say hello would have been preferable as I really thought we were done for.

Sometimes a breed whose numbers are too low for safety, will consider starting up an inspection scheme, for unregistered ponies who conform to the breed standard. The Fell Pony Society did this for a while, when numbers were very low, although it's no longer in operation. But it's an option open...

I have found with Viovet that there is always some reason why they can't send out right away. This time it's 'moving' but they have been this slow and awkward for years. I don't use them any more after they mucked up several orders in a row. I like 365 vet for meds, they're helpful and fast. As...

In many pairings there is often one who is bossy towards the other, mainly this seems to happen at feeding times. I've got two here who get on really well, but you wouldn't think so at dinnertime from the awful faces one of them pulls. He will chase & bite too. But the other one just scampers...

I was a member of BHS for many years. During that time I became disillusioned with them for many reasons. There seemed to be a lot of in-fighting at one time, as the old guard resisted the new, and I thought it took their focus off the important things for a while. They also completely ignored...

Might come in handy if you ever play scrabble and end up with the 'Z' tile :cool:

It's a hard thing to do. I too have lost a long-term resident here and it's been pretty awful, not having him around any more. You have all my sympathy x

The only belittling I see on this thread is from the barefoot zealot. I dare say I shall be accused of masking lameness in my ponies but my credentials are sound in this case as I have no shod ponies here. All with excellent feet, and an excellent farrier too (who was the one who encouraged me...

You might find two 20l containers in a wheel barrow easier to deal with than one 40l one. Or perhaps on a sledge, with all the mud there is right now! We have 20l barrels and they are not too hard to lift. You can rest one on the other while you pour out so you only have to lift them up, not...

I don't like the idea of sticking to one method. Surely it's better to be open to all possibilities, rather than narrowing your options? I had terrible trouble with bitting once, and so I did an experiment. I collected together a selection of bridles, bits, headcollars, a hackamore, bitless...

I got 2nd hand ones on ebay, they are very pricey new. The added bonus being that they were well worn in and not at all stiff, so we had no rubs or scrapes from them.

I can see you have a dilemma - it's very difficult with a young horse to give them enough work to decrease their weight, without overdoing the workload on a developing skeleton. I too would have suggested finding some nice hills to walk him up but the road makes that a problem. I agree with...

There's a pony here who wore front shoes for 20 years. He had them removed on farrier's advice a couple of years ago. I did a lot of walking out in-hand (he's arthritic so no riding him) that first year and he wore boots for that but now, his feet are doing really well and the farrier says he...