Thursday 3 May 2007

A bit of Exmoor on the Preselis


A bit of Exmoor has arrived in the Preseli Hills! A four-legged bit to be precise, in the form of Maisy, a two-year-old Exmoor pony.

Maisy needed to be separated from her mother and Jo, her owner, felt she would benefit from learning a few herd manners from my Welsh ponies.

She arrived this evening, all feisty hooves and squawking neighs. We gave her a short time on her own to work out the lie of the land then added Pippin and Bullseye to the field. They spotted the little brown interloper and immediately gave chase. Think Robbie Williams pursued by two avid teenagers – fast, wild-eyed and furious!

But that was too much hard work and soon the three settled down to snatch a few mouthfuls of grass and pull faces at each other.

Pippin, as the oldest mare, immediately assumed the role of herd leader, keeping Bullseye and Maisy apart. Bullseye, as the only boy, just wanted to flirt and play with the pretty, beige eye-shadowed teeny girl pony. Maisy meanwhile, looked adoringly at Pippin, like a hero-worshipping schoolgirl, asking: “Please can I be in your gang?”

Pippin has obviously read all the Monty Roberts books as she immediately sent the upstart packing with an evil, ears back, head-tossing glare. It was all fascinating and was exactly as Monty describes.

Night has fallen now, so they have to protect each other. Tomorrow morning they’ll surely be best friends. It’s always worrying introducing new ponies to each other, especially as we don’t do it very often. Ponies have so much ammunition, with hooves and teeth, but I don’t think they really mean to do damage; it’s all posturing. But no doubt, as soon as it’s light, I’ll be out to check them!

6 comments:

  1. Lovely pony, I hope Maisy settles in. You've made me all nostalgic for my pony days, not that I was ever very experienced, but went through a pony-mad phase like most girls.

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  2. Oh i hope they had a good night. Maisy's lovely.

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  3. Good grief - it is bad enough introducing new chickens to each other and they are small but can be really nasty with one another - I wouldn't be able to cope with ponies.

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  4. Maisy is gorgeous! I'm sure they're firm friends already.xx

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  5. hope you will soon be able to tell us how they are settling together. lovely pic.

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  6. Drove over Exmoor on Tuesday and saw lots of the poor things huddling against the wind and rain.
    Re the suncream - we now have to have some time exposed to the sun otherwise we don't produce enough vitamin d apparently.

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