milliepops
Wears headscarf aggressively
Yesterday was 3 years to the day that I picked up little Kira and started her on her new journey to being a working horse 
She came into my life via a friend of a friend - I was in a position to take a second horse and she had been turned away for a few years having proved to be a rather bad match for her previous owner. They needed to move her on so I was sent a photo of a little pink welsh having her feet done :lol: thought she looked OK but probably ought to go and meet her, so we went down with the lorry, not anticipating a problem (don't look a gift horse in the mouth, right?!
) She had got so feral that she could hardly be led down the field, but I fell in love with her curly little ears and thought I'd go for it. The princely sum of £2 was paid to transfer ownership (I didn't have any pound coins!) and she was bundled into the lorry for the journey home.
The pony I bought was worth more than £2 carcass weight
I had fully intended to get her up and running, do a couple of shows/fun ride/see hounds and sell her the following spring. This was going to provide my fund for a 'proper' horse, you know, like a WB or something :lol:
She wasn't quite a blank canvass - she had some knowledge about being a ridden horse but it quickly became clear that she had got quite well adjusted to retirement and didn't intend to come nicely! I rebacked her, with no facilities and a horse that was really quite enormously fat and totally unfit it was clear that she had to do load of quiet hacking, but she had other ideas. She napped going out of the yard, going up the lane, going round the woods, on the way home - you name it, she napped it
Quickly became apparent that this wasn't going to be a quick job.
She had been kept on her own in her previous home. Poor little mite was really quite lonely and quickly became very attached to Millie... Millie hated her
I tried putting them together but it didn't end well and still 3 years later I have them separated!
I got some help from a local pro because hacks were taking hours just to get her down the lane - she eeked each step out of her, minute by painful minute until eventually she was tootling around reluctantly but fairly reliably and gradually a nice looking pony emerged.
First clip - she hadn't been clipped before but LOVED it
As she relaxed into the new routine her sweet and goofy character started to emerge- every day she does something to make me smile and the day she just fell asleep with me in the field was a good one
or what about the time she insisted on eating thistles even though it was clearly quite painful
[video=youtube_share;bE4Azc_Ndtg]https://youtu.be/bE4Azc_Ndtg[/video]
Started doing some schooling
[video=youtube_share;futSBh9TSr4]https://youtu.be/futSBh9TSr4[/video]
Cantering was a challenge!
Did some group hacking, which she thought was much better than going out on her own
As she started to get more organised in the school, I took the plunge and registered her with BD. This was her first prelim in June 2015
Loading onto the box was a struggle at this stage and I remember one particularly bad session when my mum had agreed to come to a show with me - the rain was apocalyptic and it took 40 mins to get her loaded... but she went pretty well when we arrived
Managed to scrabble a couple of novice tests before the end of the summer, and qualified her for her first Area Festival. Off we headed to Beacons for our first overnight stay - she was a little star, although a little bit worried on the day (thanks to DirectorFury for the photo!)
... and carried on going from strength to strength... 9s!! 9s at BD! Don't tell Millie
We gave up on the solo hacking because it was just not fun for either of us - instead she comes for jollies led from Millie
though she has learnt about stubble fields
She likes throwing shapes
and going to Adam's for lesson
She did her first medium in January this year
and spent the winter learning how to do changes
[video=youtube_share;04hXeVyfkZg]https://youtu.be/04hXeVyfkZg[/video]
she's been to summer and winter regionals, the native champs, a whole load of area festivals and then her big weekend at the welsh champs a couple of weeks ago
..... it's clear she isn't the quick do up & sell project after all...
She came into my life via a friend of a friend - I was in a position to take a second horse and she had been turned away for a few years having proved to be a rather bad match for her previous owner. They needed to move her on so I was sent a photo of a little pink welsh having her feet done :lol: thought she looked OK but probably ought to go and meet her, so we went down with the lorry, not anticipating a problem (don't look a gift horse in the mouth, right?!
) She had got so feral that she could hardly be led down the field, but I fell in love with her curly little ears and thought I'd go for it. The princely sum of £2 was paid to transfer ownership (I didn't have any pound coins!) and she was bundled into the lorry for the journey home. The pony I bought was worth more than £2 carcass weight
I had fully intended to get her up and running, do a couple of shows/fun ride/see hounds and sell her the following spring. This was going to provide my fund for a 'proper' horse, you know, like a WB or something :lol:
She wasn't quite a blank canvass - she had some knowledge about being a ridden horse but it quickly became clear that she had got quite well adjusted to retirement and didn't intend to come nicely! I rebacked her, with no facilities and a horse that was really quite enormously fat and totally unfit it was clear that she had to do load of quiet hacking, but she had other ideas. She napped going out of the yard, going up the lane, going round the woods, on the way home - you name it, she napped it
Quickly became apparent that this wasn't going to be a quick job.She had been kept on her own in her previous home. Poor little mite was really quite lonely and quickly became very attached to Millie... Millie hated her
I tried putting them together but it didn't end well and still 3 years later I have them separated!
I got some help from a local pro because hacks were taking hours just to get her down the lane - she eeked each step out of her, minute by painful minute until eventually she was tootling around reluctantly but fairly reliably and gradually a nice looking pony emerged.
First clip - she hadn't been clipped before but LOVED it
As she relaxed into the new routine her sweet and goofy character started to emerge- every day she does something to make me smile and the day she just fell asleep with me in the field was a good one
or what about the time she insisted on eating thistles even though it was clearly quite painful
[video=youtube_share;bE4Azc_Ndtg]https://youtu.be/bE4Azc_Ndtg[/video]
Started doing some schooling
[video=youtube_share;futSBh9TSr4]https://youtu.be/futSBh9TSr4[/video]
Cantering was a challenge!
Did some group hacking, which she thought was much better than going out on her own
As she started to get more organised in the school, I took the plunge and registered her with BD. This was her first prelim in June 2015
Loading onto the box was a struggle at this stage and I remember one particularly bad session when my mum had agreed to come to a show with me - the rain was apocalyptic and it took 40 mins to get her loaded... but she went pretty well when we arrived
Managed to scrabble a couple of novice tests before the end of the summer, and qualified her for her first Area Festival. Off we headed to Beacons for our first overnight stay - she was a little star, although a little bit worried on the day (thanks to DirectorFury for the photo!)
... and carried on going from strength to strength... 9s!! 9s at BD! Don't tell Millie
We gave up on the solo hacking because it was just not fun for either of us - instead she comes for jollies led from Millie
though she has learnt about stubble fields
She likes throwing shapes
and going to Adam's for lesson
She did her first medium in January this year
and spent the winter learning how to do changes
[video=youtube_share;04hXeVyfkZg]https://youtu.be/04hXeVyfkZg[/video]
she's been to summer and winter regionals, the native champs, a whole load of area festivals and then her big weekend at the welsh champs a couple of weeks ago
..... it's clear she isn't the quick do up & sell project after all...
and WB are for loosers right 
