We took one of the scurry carriages out of the lorry (where it has been living) to use with Shirley and Rats so that I could get out quickly if I need to, but Lacey noticed a great big crack in the crossbar. Another job for dad to do before the show season and I was extremely relieved it did not happen while we were on ponies!
We put Shirley in the bigger carriage and within 5 minutes, we were trotting round the field on the lunge with Veronica on the ground. She was so good. On the Sunday we did the same and then Veronica jumped on the back of the carriage. We still had the lunge rein attached in case we needed an extra brake. She feels very green unlike her sister but she has come on leaps and bounds now that we have attached her to the experienced pony. I wanted to clip Pepsi’s chin to see what she thought of the clipper’s. She was very good considering, but it was a cold day and when I turned her back out she obviously felt the chill to her chin. I wish I had had it on video, as she ran around trying to punch her own chin and was rearing and shaking her head in temper. It did look really funny though!
Veronica was away working the following weekend, so Pepsi and Shirley had that one off. I lunged Casper and we have definitely gone forward with him and he is lunging in breaching gear really well now. I did lunge him in only a blinkered bridle last weekend and he does find that very scary but for the moment he has stopped kicking which is always a bonus! I will take him very slowly as there is no rush at all for him.
Last weekend we drove Pepsi and Shirley in turn with Rats. Pepsi is getting feisty but she is standing when I ask her and has a good walk, as long as she has done some work first. She actually showed Rats how it should be done! We even had a horsebox and a horse trailer come past very close and she did not bat an eyelid, while Rats was spooking. Shirley was very good driving in the paddock on Saturday until I turned a tighter circle. As the pole nudged her over, she got annoyed with it and kicked it with her ears flat back. Luckily she only did it the once and after being growled at by me, she seemed to settle back down. Often with young carriage ponies, they kick once, scare themselves and then carry on kicking!
I decided to try her out on the road with Rats on Sunday to take her mind off the pole. She spooked at a few puddles but was on the inside of Rats (kerb side) and he ignored her. By the time we had gone down the road a bit further, she settled into trot and was as good as gold. I literally only took her a few hundred yards so that we could gauge her reaction to cars and give her a short but good experience. I am so pleased with those ponies!
We are hopefully going to get them all out this weekend as long as it does not snow and is not too icy. I want to maybe put Pepsi and Shirley together next weekend. From then on, they will just need mileage to get them used to everything before shows. I am hoping to hire somewhere so that a few of us with young ponies can get together and practice.
We have everything going on at work and our contract is going out to tender so fingers crossed we win the contract and I still have a job in August. I need to think of a ‘plan B’ if it all goes wrong though. I have too many ponies to feed now!
