The Not-So-Secret Diary of Diva the Shetland Pony - Happy New Year!

Christmas and the New Year fell nicely this year to create two long weekends of bank holidays. Obviously the horses still need looking after every day. I offered to do one of the livery horses, Harry, to enable his owner to go away for Christmas, and I also did evening hay and feeds for the owner of the yard’s horses so her grooms could have the afternoons off. So all in all, I was going to have a busy time.

I enjoyed not having to worry about the time when being down at the yard. I did treat my three – Mabel, Diva and Julius – to a carrot or two on Christmas morning. I almost had a little disaster when happily sharing out the parsnips when I realised I hadn’t left any at home for my dinner!

Harry’s owner very kindly did my three for a couple of days after Christmas, so I had two days totally horse and pony free! Flora, my little rescue dog, certainly enjoyed having a lie in and being the centre of my days!

Over the New Year weekend, I once again was seeing to Harry. He is such an easy horse to handle and isn’t messy in his stable, so not difficult to muck out. I took Flora down to the yard with me, and whilst I mucked out, I put her in the stable where I store my hay so she could have a sniff around in case there were any rodents lurking. When I glanced in to check she was okay, I discovered her investigating the very top of the stack!

For competition purposes, all horses’ age is as of January 1^st no matter when they were born. It is hard to believe that Mabel is now twenty-four years old as I have owned her since she was five, or that my little baby Diva is now five! Julius is maturing nicely at eight years old.

Diva, Mabel, Julius and I wish you all a very happy and successful New Year!