Jenni_
Well-Known Member
This is the start of Merida's tale.
Merida is a 7 month old Welsh Section A filly. She is black, and has 4 white socks, and a little white star. Her mane and tail are fuzzy and her black coat is soft and fluffy. She has a kind eye but is very timid. She also has a plastic disc with the number '74' written on it superglued to her hindquarters.
Since Sunday past, Merida has been in the ownership of my partner's sister. Before that though, she didn't really have the most conventional start to life for a foal...
It may be a Daily Mail article, but you will get the jist of where she came from:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ed-animal-rescue-teams-hours-slaughtered.html
My partner's sister ( From here on referred to as 'V') already has 2 horses, one of which is in shared ownership with her friends to keep their horses company should one ride on their own etc. This little Shetland filly was also a rescue, who has provided them with not only convienence, but barrells of laughs, and plenty moments of frustration! So she was in the position to rehome another as on their livery yard they had space in their 'barn' and also their turnout.
V was in coversation with the lady who had them for a week or so after seeing the story in the paper and tracking down the facebook page. After sending over references and pictures of the ponies potential new home, she travelled down to Manchester with her mum on Sunday to pick up 'Lottie' as she was called then. This was the picture of her from the Facebook page :
'Lottie' as she was then, surprised them by walking right onto the lorry. She also continued to talk to them the whole way up the road
They arrived at home in Bonnie Scotland around 7pm on Sunday night, and they herded her quietly into her new box.
This is her on her first night in her new home:
And in the morning:
Her new name was decided... Merida was chosen after the Scottish Disney character from the movie 'Brave' as Brave she had most certainly been the day before!
I popped up last night straight from work to meet the new arrival. Having been taken from her mum at around 3 months, and put in the company of only foals of similar ages, and then used in the way she was, you can imagine how well developed her social skills were. V stood over the door as I quietly tried to get close enough to get the massive piece of hay she had sticking in her eye out. Wasn't happening, she would just walk very quickly backwards away from you. Not overly petrified, scared of the unknown. Especially as she was used to 2 legged creatures sticking things into her.
I held her bucket for her whilst she ate her tea. The lure of food was too much and she ate it from my lap whilst keeping a as much of a distance as possible. After a few attempts I managed to get the hay out her eye.
V then thought she would bring over Merida's new big sister, P the shetland (read wooly mammoth at the minute) to see if another equine in the vicinity would spark her curiousity. V felt that Merida had to progress to human touch sooner rather than later so we could work on getting her turned out, so she didn't spend more time confined to a stable. So we stood P at the door and P took a look at the water bucket. Straight away, Merida also had a look at the bucket. So V got some sweeties and fed Pippa from her hand. We got some of the feed Merida was used to eating and offered it in hand as P was eating sweeties. Very quickly, Merida copied and was eventually walking up to us for some food.
SHe was playing with Pippa, mouthing at her and very happy to have company!
Not quite sure:
Oh HI!
We were chatting away and then I positioned myself so that to get to P, Merida had to walk past me. After a few minutes she quite happily did so. V was fussing over P so Merida got curious and started stretching to V's hand, and allowed her to scratch her chin, and after a few minutes, V was able to touch her headcollar on the leadrope ring. Yay!
She worked her way up into her chin, and Merida was happy with that.
I edged over and started scratching her chin from the side. I worked my way up into her chin groove and then very quietly progressed onto her neck. Success!! I scratched all the way down her neck gently till I hit her withers, where Merida made it more than obvious I'd hit the spot! She was trying to bend round and groom me back which was great, but when she couldn't really reach me she reached for V's hand. I scratched under her chest and between her legs and she could hardly contain herself. Big break through in one night!
I left soon after that and V text me later to say that she was absolutely shattered after her many visitors of the day.
It was great to see her go from absolutely against being touched, to actually enjoying our contact- even if it was only for twenty minutes or so.
She is such an inquisitive little thing that I think she will be a dream to work with... when trust is established.
What are V's plans for her? Well, just to give her a nice home to start with- this is most DEFINITELY a home for life. Then maybe show her. Perhaps even in the youngstock classes next year. Only time will tell what she will grow to be like- when V gets her stuff through I will post bloodlines. V wants to get her turned out with P as soon as possible so she's outside and learning.
V has also jokingly (I hope anyway...) said that me and her other sister need to produce a foal of our own to ride Merida when she is ready. Sadly for her, thats a no no from me!
I'll update as V works with her, her friends who own the other pony in the gang will be helping too. I'll ask permission to introduce you to the whole gang at somepoint as well.
For the meantime, I hope you'll all join me in welcoming Merida to the gang. I can't wait to update you with her first turnout pics with P!
Merida is a 7 month old Welsh Section A filly. She is black, and has 4 white socks, and a little white star. Her mane and tail are fuzzy and her black coat is soft and fluffy. She has a kind eye but is very timid. She also has a plastic disc with the number '74' written on it superglued to her hindquarters.
Since Sunday past, Merida has been in the ownership of my partner's sister. Before that though, she didn't really have the most conventional start to life for a foal...
It may be a Daily Mail article, but you will get the jist of where she came from:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ed-animal-rescue-teams-hours-slaughtered.html
My partner's sister ( From here on referred to as 'V') already has 2 horses, one of which is in shared ownership with her friends to keep their horses company should one ride on their own etc. This little Shetland filly was also a rescue, who has provided them with not only convienence, but barrells of laughs, and plenty moments of frustration! So she was in the position to rehome another as on their livery yard they had space in their 'barn' and also their turnout.
V was in coversation with the lady who had them for a week or so after seeing the story in the paper and tracking down the facebook page. After sending over references and pictures of the ponies potential new home, she travelled down to Manchester with her mum on Sunday to pick up 'Lottie' as she was called then. This was the picture of her from the Facebook page :
'Lottie' as she was then, surprised them by walking right onto the lorry. She also continued to talk to them the whole way up the road
They arrived at home in Bonnie Scotland around 7pm on Sunday night, and they herded her quietly into her new box.
This is her on her first night in her new home:
And in the morning:
Her new name was decided... Merida was chosen after the Scottish Disney character from the movie 'Brave' as Brave she had most certainly been the day before!
I popped up last night straight from work to meet the new arrival. Having been taken from her mum at around 3 months, and put in the company of only foals of similar ages, and then used in the way she was, you can imagine how well developed her social skills were. V stood over the door as I quietly tried to get close enough to get the massive piece of hay she had sticking in her eye out. Wasn't happening, she would just walk very quickly backwards away from you. Not overly petrified, scared of the unknown. Especially as she was used to 2 legged creatures sticking things into her.
I held her bucket for her whilst she ate her tea. The lure of food was too much and she ate it from my lap whilst keeping a as much of a distance as possible. After a few attempts I managed to get the hay out her eye.
V then thought she would bring over Merida's new big sister, P the shetland (read wooly mammoth at the minute) to see if another equine in the vicinity would spark her curiousity. V felt that Merida had to progress to human touch sooner rather than later so we could work on getting her turned out, so she didn't spend more time confined to a stable. So we stood P at the door and P took a look at the water bucket. Straight away, Merida also had a look at the bucket. So V got some sweeties and fed Pippa from her hand. We got some of the feed Merida was used to eating and offered it in hand as P was eating sweeties. Very quickly, Merida copied and was eventually walking up to us for some food.
SHe was playing with Pippa, mouthing at her and very happy to have company!
Not quite sure:
Oh HI!
We were chatting away and then I positioned myself so that to get to P, Merida had to walk past me. After a few minutes she quite happily did so. V was fussing over P so Merida got curious and started stretching to V's hand, and allowed her to scratch her chin, and after a few minutes, V was able to touch her headcollar on the leadrope ring. Yay!
She worked her way up into her chin, and Merida was happy with that.
I edged over and started scratching her chin from the side. I worked my way up into her chin groove and then very quietly progressed onto her neck. Success!! I scratched all the way down her neck gently till I hit her withers, where Merida made it more than obvious I'd hit the spot! She was trying to bend round and groom me back which was great, but when she couldn't really reach me she reached for V's hand. I scratched under her chest and between her legs and she could hardly contain herself. Big break through in one night!
I left soon after that and V text me later to say that she was absolutely shattered after her many visitors of the day.
It was great to see her go from absolutely against being touched, to actually enjoying our contact- even if it was only for twenty minutes or so.
She is such an inquisitive little thing that I think she will be a dream to work with... when trust is established.
What are V's plans for her? Well, just to give her a nice home to start with- this is most DEFINITELY a home for life. Then maybe show her. Perhaps even in the youngstock classes next year. Only time will tell what she will grow to be like- when V gets her stuff through I will post bloodlines. V wants to get her turned out with P as soon as possible so she's outside and learning.
V has also jokingly (I hope anyway...) said that me and her other sister need to produce a foal of our own to ride Merida when she is ready. Sadly for her, thats a no no from me!
I'll update as V works with her, her friends who own the other pony in the gang will be helping too. I'll ask permission to introduce you to the whole gang at somepoint as well.
For the meantime, I hope you'll all join me in welcoming Merida to the gang. I can't wait to update you with her first turnout pics with P!
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Looking forward to more updates!
Its going to take a while before she wears them down or will let a farrier near her 
