When you take on a pet you are responsible for all its needs. The final need is the hardest to face but has to be faced. Life does go on and in this case Sheltie has needed to be sorted and cared for no matter what had happened to Spice and no matter how awful I felt. There was a day last week when I did not even like him. I was so sad to lose Spice and he was running around the hill in the dark with the mad arab mare for company refusing to come down from the ten acres and the mare threatening to drive me away except for my big stick. I found myself thinking what was the point of him. Why stress out in the wind and the rain for a little beast who would squash you rather than go around you and obviously felt no bond. He was not in my good books and for three nights after losing Spice I left him to run. The Arab was too dangerous to deal with on a dark wet hill so I saw him in the mornings and did not attempt to go up after work. I knew that he would soon go wild and woolly again in these circumstances. Without the wise old girl to set the lead he was taking his cue from one a lot less biddable. I took the offer from a friend of a stable on her land. There are post and rail paddocks with controlled grazing and no ragwort. Sheltie has a stable as big as my kitchen with the units taken out. It is at the end of the trail around Hartshead Pike so we can go for long walks without going on the road, and he is tucked up in bed each night learning to be a pet pony and not a feral monster. It is the Hilton for horses and Sheltie has settled instantly to a new routine. He loves his new stable, there is room to lunge him inside it!
He walked up the two miles last Saturday night as good as gold on the road past Hannah's through Thornley Lane and up Lane Head. Only ten months ago I had to pay for a box to move him the same distance as he was so difficult. He did excel himself and looked so cute and winsome Ha.
He has made tentative friends with the other two ponies here but can graze alone if necessary. He is learning some manners from my friend, she is an excellent horsewoman and will not let him be rude to her. She is an angel in disguise offering a home here, lights and flat paths for me in the bad weather and all covered paths etc. She wants no rent from me either. It is all a yard should be , safe and orderly. The routine settles the ponies and I know things are going to be cleaner and easier than I have ever had them in 9 years. Perhaps God is looking out for me in my old age now!
I restarted serious long reining yesterday which was stopped almost as soon as it started when Spice took ill. He has had his bit and long reins on and fed through his stirrup leathers. I have been teaching him to walk a circuit, whoa and gee up with voice and rein pressure. I am close up behind him, probably too close for comfort but he knows me. Just as well when I had to bump start him with a knee under his tail DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME KIDS .He got the hang of it today and actually halted and the set off again on command. I had quite a tender moment with him inside the stable I sat on my stool eyeball to eyeball with him and he stood and enjoyed a chest rub for ages without doing anything rough. When you sit down he looks a nice size, but when you stand up he is really only diddy, all 8 hands of him. Thanks to my friend there has been a silver lining to my big black cloud. Thanks to Sheltie my life still has the rhythms and routines of horse keeping. Imagine if I did not have the little one, what would I do now? Two other friends have offered to let me ride their cobs but I don't feel a need for that at the moment. Spice was such a steady ride I haven't been on another horse for nine years and I just loved being around her as much as the riding. Horses are very calming because you have to be calm for them and it comes reflecting back deeper and deeper. When you hug them they seem to give you strength and peace. Sheltie is just the wrong size to turn to for comfort...he is more a distraction and a plaything than a romantic hero.
Without Spice to save him Sheltie is really going to be getting some work done, if he thought he was busy before he is going to be in for a big surprise: this is the start of thenext chapter in my life and his.....
