Horse Life Stories - Bertie

Hello again folks, here is another of my 'horse life stories', this time its all about Bertie and his amazing quest!









Love Pilgrim x

Bertie was born in 1999 and is now 17 years old.  He's a piebald cob gelding and he stands at 14.1 hands high. Piebald is horsey phrase; it just means Bertie is black and white.

Bertie

Before Bertie lived here at Calvert Trust Exmoor he had quite an exciting life; he was imported from Ireland as a youngster and lived in the Welsh hills at Plas Equestrian. 

When Bertie was old enough he started his training to be a riding horse, training alongside the endurance horses at Plas Equestrian. This training made him the perfect horse for Bertie’s first adventure!

His rider Becky had always dreamed of travelling internationally by horse back.  Becky planned a trip that was not only going to be great fun but also raise money for a wonderful charity.  The route was London to Tokyo, covering 15 countries, 15,000 miles and lasting for 4 years! 

Bertie and Becky

On April 1st 2009 Bertie an Becky set off from London, sometimes sleeping under the stars, sometimes stopping off with people along the way who had heard of the wonderful adventure Becky and Bertie was on. By the fourth week they had made it to France, and with a few ups and downs they travelled through France, stopping off to explore the local areas. They even managed to visit Belgium via a a slight unplanned de-tour!

By week 18 they had travelled 1,083 miles and had been staying in Besançon, North East France for a couple of weeks.  Becky  had a slight re-think, and now wasn’t planning to ride the whole way, she decided to convert a cart into a caravan.

Whilst staying in Besançon Bertie learnt how to pull a carriage, and soon they were ready to set off on the next stage of the trip.

By the 25th week they arrived in Switzerland, having  completed 1,526 miles. On their travels through Switzerland they encountered some horrible weather, so rather than carrying on Becky and Bertie set up camp to explore the local area.

By week 29 they had travelled through Switzerland and covered 1,712 miles, but Becky had fallen ill and this was where their journey had to end. Bertie and Becky returned to the UK towards the end of 2009, what an amazing adventure they had both been on.

Bertie joined Calvert Trust Exmoor in the winter of 2010; after a month’s trial to introduce Bertie to his new surroundings and all the new experiences he would face Bertie was ready to work. He was soon becoming a fast favourite with the centre guests and our regular riders.

Although Bertie is now 17 years old he loves to play with the other horses and can quite often be seen winding us all up in the field! He especially loves to play with Milo as he is a youngster and will play back, unlike some of the others who get a bit fed up with him!

 Bertie has been here 5 years now and he is wonderful at everything he does, he has given many guests fantastic experiences and we’re sure Bertie will be here for many years to come, making people smile.

Pilgrim's horseshoe icon was created by stolkramaker from Noun Project

Horse Life Stories - Hendrix

Hello again, here is another post in my 'horse life stories' series, this time its my stable mate Hendrix.  

love Pilgrim

Just like Rooster and Brin, Hendrix also had a different name before he joined us here at Calvert Trust Exmoor.

Poor old Hendrix is actually called ‘One too many’, but he says he prefers his Calvert Trust name and I think I agree!

Hendrix is 9 years old (he was born in 2006) and is a traditional gypsy Vanner pony, standing at 13.2 hands high. 

He's black in colour and has a big white blaze down his face. The other distinguishing thing about Hendrix is he has different coloured eyes, one is blue and the other is dark brown. The name for a blue eye in a horse is a wall eye and it certainly makes him stand out.

Hendrix grew up in Worcestershire on a working farm so from a young age he has always had lots going on around him.  He was broken to ride and drive at the age of 3, doing lots of hacking around the farm and pulling a small cart up to the village. This was all good earl experience for Hendrix, ready to carry on with the rest of his training when he got a little older.

At 4 years old Hendrix came to live at Calvert Trust Exmoor, after a month’s trial he officially joined the team in March 2011.  Although Hendrix could already be ridden and pull a carriage he had to start lots of new training to get him used to life here at the stables.

The job Hendrix needed to do the most was to be a driving pony so the stables staff started off by long reining and lunging with Hendrix to get him used to his surroundings and a bit fitter; its quite hilly round here compared to farm he grew up on!  

Hendrix then progressed on to carriages, starting with the 2 wheel carriage, and showed that he could work well with guests.  He also started to do lots of ridding, bringing a bit of variety to his life.  Now Hendrix is the main carriage horse here; he can pull either of the carriages and does lots of riding too.

This year Hendrix has also done a bit of extra work away from the stables. For his first outing he went to try his hoof at dressage at a local show, we were all very impressed as Hendrix and Kerri came away with a first rosette!

Hendrix also went on holiday for a few nights to Devon County Show where we were 2015 charity of the year, each day Hendrix and a team of instructors put on demonstrations to the public in a big arena, showing everyone what we do here in our centre group sessions. They took the four wheeled carriage and demonstrated wheelchair accessible carriage driving.

Hendrix in action at Devon County Show 2015

Hendrix is quite a character and loves to play with the other horses in the field, he can also be a little cheeky in the stable and bang the door with his hoof if he wants some attention or thinks he needs feeding again! Hendrix is a huge favourite here and a very special member of our team.

Pilgrim's horseshoe icon was created by stolkramaker from Noun Project