THIS IS WHAT IT IS ALL ABOUT

February half term and Sheltie has visitors. They say a picture paints a thousand words (Perry Como??!!) These will show what a long way my boy has come. What a great time we all had. He now plays fetch in the stable and a little outside before the Spring grass calls too strongly. I will get photographic evidence of that claim before too long!
When  my daughters saw these pictures they were worried about the safety of the children...but you can see by the body language he is not a bit bothered. I have spent enough time poking and prodding Sheltie to know that he was going to be ok...besides there are plenty more kids where they came from!!!

New year new skills.

January is almost over. It seems ages since I updated this. In the time between I have seen two beautiful horses put to sleep before Christmas and a third only yesterday. I can still weep for my lost Spice, the more we look back on her the more we realise what a good horse she was and how kindly disposed to us humans. Sheltie has settled so well in his new home, he never seemed to stress at all and recently had a new mare join him and his pal so he is in a little herd of three and very content. After breakfast and a grooming session I have worked for 10 or 15 minutes most mornings, but where it used to be on the lunge it is now on the long reins. He understands whoa as a prelude to stand these days and we can do a slalom down a line of fence posts (with no fencing between, like bending poles) on the long reins, so steering is pretty good. He has just got the hang of backing up in them as well. He is very good at walking backward any old time but in the reins was a new skill. He moves off quite well too, at first he used to turn around and look at me ... can't see that being too good if in a cart! I am at the stables by 7.45 seven days a week, when the snow was bad it was a six mile walk round trip to get there.but he is worth it! Doing his bed does not take long, he is on rubber and easy bed; it takes two minutes to make his buckets for next meals ,the hardest thing has been water when the outdoor supply was frozen, fortunately there s  a handy utility room in the home close enough to carry buckets to and from. I only went flat on my back once this winter on the ice, no harm done thank God. Looking back on the last year Sheltie has gone from being a bit of a thug to being a very clever boy. He is quick on the uptake but has to ask why he ought to do stuff at the outset. After a million repetitions he gets on good as gold, but it is the repetition and the very regular routines that push the message in thoroughly. We have started doing a regular weigh tape check on the three ponies, all needed to lose a bit, but as we head into spring with the restricted grazing I am hoping to see Sheltie become a bit more slender. At the mo he is so hairy you cannot really tell his shape so the tape is a quick way to monitor all is well. I do not want him to end up a fat and laminitic pony. I got his crupper ok, and now am trying a different bit as he has not stopped opening his mouth in an unsettled way despite being light to steer with his bit in. I would even consider bitless if need be but we will see how a different bit works. He has such fat lips...all the better to kiss you with my dear! I am looking forward to having a few young riders up at half term to work on his rein skills from on board, Alysha did a couple of circles loose on him recently, I just stood in the middle and he did let her steer. WANTED, FOUR FOOT JOCKEY ,APPLY TO KAY. He is very small, very cute, very clever and very good, his personality is there but he is calm and biddable....I love him to bits.

THERE ARE FAIRIES AT THE BOTTOM OF THE GARDEN

Look what I found today!!! Sheltie is turning into Pegasus. Apparently he is an orange belt in flying lessons and will get bigger wings as he improves...
The snow is gorgeous but means he can't stay out all day. He has a wander about while I am there and then goes back into his deluxe stable when I leave at dinner time. He gave two little girls rides last week and was good on lunge but I could not risk him off lead, the girls were beginners. Now weather is bad he is having a bit of holiday just a little ground work each day. Last week though he long reined all the way from here around Hartshead Pike which was a good hour's walk and he went really well except for a couple of power struggles when passing his old gate and when two ponies ran to fence and spoilt his concentration. I was even able to hold both reins in one hand on way back and he is responding to a squeeze on them for directions...pretty good eh!

SHELTIE PUT A SMILE UPON MY FACE!!!

Today I have to say, Sheltie excelled himself. He makes me smile anyway but today he made me BEAM! Little things mean a lot to some folks don't you know?
I have long reined him a few times in the winter paddocks now. I want him to be able to give the small kids a ride on soft going in the future, and so need him to realise that everything he does outside the field can be done inside.
After the first time when there was a little power struggle for direction he has taken to it really well. I can do all the turns with gentle rein aids and he went up and down hill too. Today I had to stand him and wrap all his reins round as the shepherd had called the sheep and they were all at a gate on our side unable to move on. They usually go under the rails but we had to close the gate so Sheltie did not go away over the furthest field too. I left him and let the woolly ones out and by the time I had turned round of course Sheltie had bobbed under the tape on the other side of the paddock to rejoin his friend. They graze like this...the two ponies go onto one side of a field and Sheltie being little is able to graze under the tape into the next paddock too. When I work him in there I go on the side away from the old pony so we do not disturb her and so she does not come over when I give Sheltie a treat when he has done well. The sheep graze here too and they are able to get under an even smaller section of rail at the bottom onto rougher land again. Sheltie has not bothered about them at all which is nice and from a distance it wold be hard to tell if it was a sheep bottom or his you were looking at.
Anyway, back to the story.. I stood with my hands as if I had the lunge line attached to him (from the distance of about twenty feet on the other side of the tape fence still) and moved my hands as if drawing the line in. Sheltie came straight up! He ducked the tape and then right up..what a good boy. I took his bridle off and let him loose but then asked him to walk on as if on the lunge, holding my arms and the schooling whip in a shape. He went around me, very wide and back into the next field...but then, ducked back under the fence and did left and right rein circles completely free with a "stand" and "come in" in the middle before I gave him final treat and said we were finished. Is that not one cute, clever, special pony???
The photo is an old one, we are not at that farm any longer , I just liked hs face .

Who's a clever boy then?

Well, it has been seven weeks now since saying goodbye to Spice. A friend said that grief was like standing on a beach with your back to the sea, having a lovely time when suddenly a big wave crashes over you. Other times smaller waves lap at your ankles. That is a good picture, I am getting along ok than suddenly a wave of loss comes over me. If I sound chirpy in the blog it is because I can be, but it is not always so; for the sake of any readers' sanity I will not mention Spice again in these adventures of Sheltie. Sheltie has settled so well into his new home and has already come on in leaps and bounds in his work. He loves his stable and walks in from the paddock without an escort! He is a friend to Fudge, Goldie and Whisper. He would make a fantastic companion pony as he is so sociable with others, but that is not to be his destiny yet. He has finally understood what I want when long reining him. He responds to the signals to turn left and right with just a tweak on the reins, and an open rein to allow him to turn. He is able to do a figure of eight and circles now, without stopping or booting me. He has stopped mouthing the bit so much and carries it quietly . I even trotted him on long reins this week to prove we have control at speed. I am very proud of the way he has changed in the last year, if you read back to January I was as thrilled when he finally understood lunging. You might think that we are making slow progress but I want him to be rock steady in the things he can do, not just say that he has done it once...If you read between the lines of some horse sale adverts you get the impression that "has had tack on" means literally that and just once! I have also sat on him a few times...short of a mount now aren't I. He has carried on grazing or walked a few steps. He has not batted an eye as I have hitched my welly over his rump or shifted about to get comfy. I am only on for a minute and he is not concerned, so when a small child wriggles he is not even going to feel it. Also, to get off I put my hand on his neck and lean a little, again he ignores my movements. This is really to make him a safe mount. I am long reining so that he will understand rein aids from a rider though a child would never be left alone on him anyway.Got a crazy teacher friend who is tiny though and I expect to see her off the lead one day!! I have taken him a few walks back around his old farm on Hartshead Pike, and he is really doing well leading now. Remember back in Spring he was very nappy and I had to go back to some change of direction work. It has all paid off. Five days a week I do a short training session with him after he has had a couple of hours grazing while I do stable jobs. He comes away from the others nicely, does his little tasks and then has a big roll when released as if to say thank goodness that is over. He is a lot of fun and a source of exercise and through him I met my new friend with the lovely stables and land, so most everything in the garden is lovely ...just don't mention the S word xx

AND THEN THERE WAS SHELTIE

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.....

THE SADDEST DAY

I did not know that when I told you about my beautiful mare that she would be gone a month later.I had to have her put to sleep today, with some progressive mental degeneration. She looked sweet and well till you saw her stumble and act in an aimless manner. She had begun to lose weight and had a bout of colic after which it was just a downward path with no return. She did not suffer, the end was painless and stress free she still was beautiful but the time had come.I do not know how the hole she leaves will ever be filled nor the pain and loss I feel will ever fade. I loved Spice every minute of the nine years I had her. Sheltie has got a hard act to follow, I don't think he will ever have the same charisma, she was gentle through and through, never knew the meaning of temper. I am glad to have been able to give her a peaceful and dignified end but I wish it was not so soon. Goodbye my darling, and she was a darling.