Pictures The Adventures of Cousin It!

ElleSkywalker said:
I do, in fact, have two Lady Its, one is far too old however and the other far to feral 😭 They are also both large standard shetlands so he might need a little platform to help him on his way 🤭
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Also... feral ponies are my specialty 😍
I think they sense a kindred spirit 😂

My first section A was the instigator!
I was 11 and a family friend was selling up and dispersing their stud. The ponies had been roaming feral as the breeder had been ill for some time.
Parked halfway up an actual Welsh mountain I was told if I could catch anything and get it in the lorry I could have it...
3 hours later all the adults had disappeared into the house in boredom to chat, saying I'd give up eventually.
I did... when I'd loaded the most beautiful dapple dun colt with 2 electric blue eyes, followed by a chunky little bay with a fat blaze, and an accidental New forest x....
At which point my mother looked out of the window and legged it outside to stop me acquiring any more 🙈
 
Cloball said:
😱 you showed them how to disassemble it! Now he knows how to get the food!
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Fortunately the pins are longer than his neck!
So I think we're safe...unless he persuades one of the yearlings they'd really like to share with him, and gets them to do his dirty work like a tiny evil genius...

That's sounding more and more plausible as I type it 😳 I may just wander up to the field to double check!
 
AutumnDays said:
Have you seen the film "up"? With the dog called Alpha? That's how I imagine his voice sounds... Fits in with his tiny evil genius persona
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It's not far off at all!
Just imagine Alpha with a Scottish accent and it would be perfect! 😂

One day I'll figure out how to upload a video or sound clip of the reality of the noise... has to be heard to be believed.
A bit like the raptor screech in jurassic Park, most people freeze, then turn slowly towards him in disbelief 🙈
 
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Sir Fluffy Snozzle came in today to be made presentable for his Sunday afternoon stroll around the village.
It never ceases to amaze me how something so small can be so spectacularly grubby!
I think it takes the same amount of time to groom him as it does the big horses.
He also requires copious application of coat conditioner to all of his underneath, an exercise in contortion to get the blessed thing to spray while you're on your hands and knees trying to aim upwards!
His wooly undercoat has a tendancy to felt into uncomfortable looking mats in his armpits, which then takes forever to comb out with a tiny slicker brush. So I'm hoping making him as slippery as possible will prevent them 🤞

Our walk was uneventful beyond the usual stops to be patted by dog walkers and passers by.
He convinced me he was exhausted on the way home with much yawning and snorting and dragging of feet.

Then we got home and the second I turned him out with the peacefully grazing others, he instigated a riot 😳
Tired my foot!

We started with synchronised bucking,
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Followed by realising what he'd started...
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Leading the rocking horse charge,Screenshot_20241110_161600_Gallery.jpg

Being rapidly overtaken, but thankfully not kicked in the head 🙈
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And finishing with his bestest, stumpy leg stretch extension! 😂
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He does make me giggle 🥰
 
P.forpony said:
Thwarted and forlorn!
(Possibly also plotting revenge)

The conundrum of having 3 thoroughbreds and a Cousin It in the same paddock in autumn.
There's plenty of grass but obviously it's not as good as it was, and a bit colder so the bigguns are all dropping off, pleading starvation and begging for hay.
Cousin It definitely does not require hay!

Soloution...small bale in 2 sections of a tombstone feeder, he can reach the top but not down inside to get the hay!

View attachment 149665
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Where do you get the tombstone feeder from? Thanks
 
@P.forpony might I suggest a goat milking apparatus to pop him on while he's being titivated and greased like a weasel? 🤭🤭🤭

www.mwengfab.com

Goat Milking Stand

This goat milking stand has been designed and fabricated working with a local customer to fit their exact needs. Dimensions are: Platform size: 500mm x 1150mm Height From Ground : 450mm Overall size including ramp, side rails and wheels: 670mm wide x 2100mm long x 1150 high The wheels and...
www.mwengfab.com www.mwengfab.com
 
ElleSkywalker said:
@P.forpony might I suggest a goat milking apparatus to pop him on while he's being titivated and greased like a weasel? 🤭🤭🤭

www.mwengfab.com

Goat Milking Stand

This goat milking stand has been designed and fabricated working with a local customer to fit their exact needs. Dimensions are: Platform size: 500mm x 1150mm Height From Ground : 450mm Overall size including ramp, side rails and wheels: 670mm wide x 2100mm long x 1150 high The wheels and...
www.mwengfab.com www.mwengfab.com
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This, and your wording, just made me snort laugh rather unattractively 🤣
 
ElleSkywalker said:
@P.forpony might I suggest a goat milking apparatus to pop him on while he's being titivated and greased like a weasel? 🤭🤭🤭

www.mwengfab.com

Goat Milking Stand

This goat milking stand has been designed and fabricated working with a local customer to fit their exact needs. Dimensions are: Platform size: 500mm x 1150mm Height From Ground : 450mm Overall size including ramp, side rails and wheels: 670mm wide x 2100mm long x 1150 high The wheels and...
www.mwengfab.com www.mwengfab.com
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Brilliant! 😂
Titivated and greased weasel both shamefully under used parts of our lexicon 😉

But curiously, it's actually next on my to do list of adventures, getting him to hop up onto a platform.
Will make life so much easier, and also get him ready to use a step to get into the landy, when I finally get round to having a proper box built for him 😁
 
I gambled and I lost! 😖

I am sulking this evening because I've finally had to admit defeat and resign myself to clipping Cousin It.

I did it last year for weight management. This year his weight is spot on and thoroughly vet approved, so I thought great, no need to clip, he can go full thelwell 😁

But today he is stood in the field with a coat thicker than a polar bear, its 14°c, he's damp with sweat, it is mixing with the grease to form a revolting glue and his undercoat is already matted between his front legs.

I now have to decide what kind of clip isn't going to look utterly ridiculous half grown out when I try and show him in the spring 😖

Last year I fully clipped, legs left on, face taken off.
I'd rather not take his beard off now though, it's looking rather fabulous!
But he's going to look like a lion if I leave it on 😳🙈

Thoughts?!
 
I think he'd look very handsome fully clipped! Otherwise how about a mini Irish clip? Or you could get the blades that cut the coat shorter but not shaved off, no lines to grow out?
 
AutumnDays said:
I think he'd look very handsome fully clipped! Otherwise how about a mini Irish clip? Or you could get the blades that cut the coat shorter but not shaved off, no lines to grow out?
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He does look quite smart fully clipped.... I'm trying not to be swayed by aesthetics but I'm only human! 🙈
I think it's probably the sensible thing too. He's so tiny trying to do neat lines while crawling around on the floor will probably just lead to my complete mental collapse 😂 and so fluffy that there will be at least an inch and a half cliff between clipped and not.

It will also make it a lot easier to assess his condition. I have to admit to getting rather defensive the other day when someone on the yard called him 'the little fat one' 😳
But they're not used to shetty shape and just see round and fluffy and assume. So I must try not to take it personally 🙈

I think I'm going to try and do a full with coarse blades, then use my trimmer with guards to blend the legs and face a bit...
Will post photos when I've done him and then any suggestions for improvement gladly received!
 
Rumtytum said:
‘the little fat one’ How very dare she??!???!
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I get the same, my shetlands are both good weights, if anything one is rather too thin as elderly, but fully fluffed for winter they look like chubby little fuzz balls. I also get offended when people call them fat 😡

Could you do a belly and gullet clip on Cousin It to stop the matting between his front legs and tum but means he doesn't need rugging?

I tend to leave mine fully fluffed and shear them in the spring, but they aren't going anywhere (unless the feral one invades the next village again) so doesn't matter how their coats look for showing 🫣
 
Slightly different size but his coat's not far off shetland thickness. Wiggy's on box rest and was sweating in his stable so we gave him a little clip. It's worked perfectly, no more sweating but he's still plenty warm enough when he goes out to his little pen in the field for a few hours every day. I don’t think this would look ridiculous on him for showing.
 

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