The Not-So-Secret Diary of Diva the Shetland Pony - Florence Goes to School

Florence, Mabel’s daughter, is currently furthering her education whilst Michelle is busy with training her point-to-pointers. I would say Florence has gone to boot camp, but the photos and videos we receive show her clearly enjoying herself and being pampered.

I decided to buy her a nice new cosy rug to take with her. Unfortunately for Florence, I checked out the January sales and found the exact make and size of the rug I wanted, reduced by 65 per cent. What a bargain! The catch? It has a Christmas design with trees and elves and snowflakes. Sorry Florence let’s hope it soon gets dirty on the outside.

The lockdowns prevented Florence from going out and about as much as we would have liked, so going to Miles-Taylor Eventing is doing her the world of good. Florence has only ever lived with me or Michelle so going to a new yard could have been a challenge, but she settled in straight away. The freezing conditions meant that she was taken to an indoor school on a couple of occasions for her schooling sessions. Although when she was being shown in hand as a youngster, Florence had competed indoors, this was the first time she had been ridden in one. She didn’t put a foot wrong and did some lovely pole work under saddle. The yard has lovely, safe hacking and so she has been out round the lanes in the days between school work.

Florence also enjoyed a ‘spa day’. After being worked she enjoyed a hot bath and being dried off under the solarium. At this rate she won’t want to come home!

One trip she certainly had fun on was a visit to the beach on a lovely sunny, although very cold day. The light was fantastic and the photos of her cantering along alone and in company are beautiful. I think she will have slept well that night and her ears must have ached as they were so tightly pricked forward the whole time.

We look forward to the daily updates and hope we will have her out competing later in the year.