A lovely week with EnergEyes

This week we have had a lovely group of people staying at the Calvert Trust called EnergEyes. 

They are a charity group who run social and sports activities for people with a visual impairment from Weston-Super-Mare and the North Somerset area.

This is their fourth visit to Calvert Trust Exmoor and they are enjoying a great activity holiday experiencing everything we have here from archery to abseiling to canoeing, although visiting the stables is the highlight of everyone's week of course!

The EnergEyes group in our indoor arena

Yesterday they spent the morning in the stables. They met yours truly of course and also did some riding. Once they were on their horses they got to know their horse by feeling along the horse’s neck and down their back.

Getting to know Safari

Then they practiced steering and even did a spot of fishing! Not in the river but taking fish off a post and hanging them on another.  The fish are not real by the way!

Jean, who is completely without sight, riding Jack by following Abi's voice.

Some of them went for a ride down the track outside the arena. They have also spent time with Louise learning how to tack a horse up, (that means putting on the saddle and bridle to get the horse ready for riding). They all thought the bridles were especially complicated!  

My New Trick!

Sometimes several of us horses and ponies get put out together in the outdoor or indoor arena.  This is great for us, we get to socialise and have a gossip!

Hendrix copying me

People like to see how we behave together and some of them try to work out what we are saying to each other and who is friends with who. I of course am friends with everyone; all the other horses love to spend time with me! 

I'm the leader of the pack! (well, herd!)

Brin, who is my best friend, sometimes gets a bit jealous of the other horses when they are chatting with me but I have told him it’s because I am so great they want to be my friend!

Everyone wants to be my friend!

______________________

I've learnt a fabulous new trick; I was out in the indoor arena with Rooster the other day, and as you all know he is very tall. I do like him and wondered how it feels to be his size, luckily I was next to the mounting block and I had a flash of inspiration! 

Before anyone could say "Shetland pony" I was up the ramp and standing on top of the mounting block next to Rooster! What an amazing view I had from up there I can tell you.  I must try it when I am in the arena with Brin, that will surprise him!

My new trick!

I'm back, and I've got a new job with the newspaper!

Hi guys, the mighty atom is back on the blog!  Thank you to Rooster who did a sterling job telling us all about his life. 

We are all busy here now and the weather is just perfect for ponies, we've been out in the fields a lot enjoying the fresh grass.  The riding and driving horses have all been out a lot in the outdoor arena working and taking people for rides and drives down the track, and I've been doing lots of agility outside. 

I've also got a new job!

The lovely people at The North Devon Journal phoned me a few weeks ago and asked if they could use the things I write in this blog in their newspaper.

Teddy say's that's called 'syndication', i thought it was pretty exciting.

The first piece, which i wrote specially for the paper as an introduction all about me, went into this weeks Journal; how fabulous is that!!

I'm really looking forward to seeing all the stories about me and my friends here in the stables in the paper in the coming weeks and months,apparently I'm going to be in every other week!

Guest Blogger Rooster 2: My life at Calvert Trust

Hi everyone, its me again, Rooster.

This December Safari and I came to live at Calvert Trust. Now I thought I had seen every kind of place but let me tell you there is nowhere quite like this place! 

Meeting Pilgrim was a surprise; I didn’t realise a pony could be so small! Most of the horses here are pretty hairy compared with my racing buddies, especially Jack with his moustache and Duchess with her feathers!

Duchess showing off her feathers 

All the horses here have very special jobs.  We are here to help anyone to ride and drive who would like to give it a go and also so that people can spend time learning what fantastic creatures we are. I am quite tall but once people realise how gentle I am they all seem to love me. It took me a few weeks to work out what was going on but now I absolutely love my job.  The best thing is we get to do plenty of slow and gentle work which is great for me! I can still remember how fast I used to go though and have reminded the staff who work here on a few occasions!

Me enjoying a ride in our arena with my friend Justin

Guest Blogger Rooster 1: A little about me

I am delighted to have this opportunity to tell you about myself folks, thanks Pilgrim for asking me.

Saying 'hi' to Pilgrim

I'm an old gentleman now, but I think I have lived an interesting life. I was born in Ireland and I am a thoroughbred. For anyone who is not sure what that means; I was born to gallop and LOVE to run!

I have done a fair bit of racing during my life both in Ireland and in England, so as you might expect I am a well-travelled chap. I moved from Ireland to England when I was about 7 years old, and have raced at quite a lot of different places. 

All ready to go out

I was quite good at racing, but like everyone I started to feel my age and needed to slow down a little.  Now obviously that is not very good for a racehorse! So it was time for me to find another job.

The next chapter of my life was spent going for lovely long rides in the countryside with a very kind man. I also met Safari while I was doing this job and we became the best of friends. It was lovely to have time to make friends because in racing you spend so much time travelling around you rarely get to put down roots.

My friend Safari doing bareback riding in the arena

Pilgrim may have told you about Safari? He is a spotty horse who also moved here to Calvert Trust with me. I was so pleased he was able to move here too, I would have missed him terribly if we had to separate.

Pilgrim say's I can have another go at blogging, so next time I will tell you about my life here at Calvert Trust Exmoor.

Exciting News!

Hi everyone, I have some very exciting news to share with you!! 

On Monday some of the Calvert Trust staff went off on an adventure!  They went to Cheltenham Racecourse for the Visit England Awards for Excellence 2014. Obviously, I would have been a superstar if I had gone but two things stopped me; it was way past my bedtime and because it was held at a racecourse I thought that I might get asked to gallop really fast!

I decided to ask Nicky, who is in charge of the stables, to go as my representative. So off she went on Monday afternoon with some of the other staff and trustees.  They came back home with not one but two awards! We won Gold in the Access for All Category and Highly Commended in the Tourism Experience Category.  Everyone here is very pleased to have got these awards.

Our team receiving the Gold award

Nicky was telling the other staff in the stables about the evening, I heard her say that they had a lovely time.  She said they all had a really nice dinner; well it didn’t sound like anything I like to eat but then humans don’t have the same tastes as me! 

Me with our Visit England awards!

Yesterday afternoon I had a look at the awards.  I think I would like to have them hung up in my stable but I am not sure that will happen!  Maybe I could just have one that is for the cutest pony instead!!

More about Bob...

Hi everyone!

Do you remember a couple of years ago I introduced you to Bob? I thought I would bring you up to date with what he's been up to.

He's definitely the quietest horse we have here at the stables; I'm not sure what sort of horse he is but he doesn’t ever make a noise! I have tried to have a chat with him but it’s always been a bit one sided!

He's not very chatty is he!?!

Bob  is only about as tall as me, he has been here at the stables for a few years now but he doesn’t ever move very far. He lives in the middle of the yard, never gets fed and doesn’t need mucking out! Bob is made from an old barrel with a saddle attached. He is used to see whether people can sit on a horse before they get to try the real thing.  

The good thing with Bob is he is very still and quiet, but he gives people a good idea of what it is like to sit on a horse.  He also has a head with a bit and some reins on it.  This means people can learn about how to ask a horse to turn and stop. Bob never gets upset if someone makes a mistake!  Bob is very patient and will let people practice for ages on him before they get to do it for real. Lots of our visitors here have sat on Bob and he is a very important member of the stables team.

Me meeting Bob, with Rooster and Safari watching!

It's been a while since I've had a guest blogger; having just seen him in the photo I've decided I will ask Rooster to tell us a bit about his life for the next blog post.

See you soon!

I'm a film star!

One of the staff here at Calvert Trust had a video camera in the stables today, so here is the first ever piece of footage of me!

I know i'm not doing very much in it, but its an exciting new development, I'm becoming even more of a superstar!

I'm hoping to star in many more films in the coming months!

A strange machine in the stables...

The other day something quite odd happened here, I had to ask Teddy what was going on.  The vet arrived with a machine of some kind, and then another vet arrived to help her.  Teddy said they were taking an 'X-ray' of Bertie's knee. 

A few weeks ago Bertie had an argument in the field with one of the other horses and ended up getting kicked.  His knee has been a bit swollen since then. Teddy says an 'X- ray' is a sort of picture of the inside the horse so they can see bones and stuff and tell whether anything is wrong!  I think the vets must be really clever (maybe even as clever as Teddy). Hopefully Bertie will be fine again soon.

Last week I was very busy with our visitors, and it looks like i'm having just as busy a time this week too!  I've done some agility and also I showed Kerri (one of our Instructors) how good I am at jumping! She thought because I am small I wouldn’t be able to get very high. I'm not called the mighty atom for nothing, I proved I am small and mighty with a great big leap!!

Me showing Kerri how to do agility, I'm such a superstar!

Nearly time for my new trainers!

I had a lovely groom after my breakfast hay today, which made me feel great! I am losing my Winter woolliness at the moment so all the long hair which protected me from the wind, rain and cold is starting to fall out.  I was brushed for ages but I still have loads of hair falling out!  Soon I will get my summer coat which is shiny and sleek, much shorter coat than my winter one to keep me cooler in hot weather.

Me in My summer coat. Gorgeous aren't I!

After breakfast the Farriers came to do some shoeing.  They were very busy as lots of us horses and ponies needed new shoes and a trim. I wasn't due for shoeing today but I'm looking forward to next Friday when I will get my new shoes done. I have special shoes because I am such a special horse; unlike the others with their metal shoes my tiny feet get plastic shoes. The staff in the stables call them my trainers!