When my workplace, Oakham Veterinary Hospital, announced plans for an open day I immediately volunteered myself and Diva (Melland Queen of Scots) to take part.
Diva is a lovely, friendly character and I felt she would be a good ambassador for the Shetland pony breed and for the practice too.
We arranged for some sheep hurdles to be delivered and rubber mats put down in the pen they created to keep her comfortable throughout the day without bedding being blown everywhere.
As the open day was to raise funds for several charities, I had a think as to how Diva and I could help. I bought a beany Shetland pony toy and decided to do a “Guess Diva’s Weight” competition with the toy going to the nearest guess. When we arrived, I put Diva on the weighing scales and took a photo of her with the weight displayed as proof for when the winner was announced towards the end of the day.
Diva’s presence proved very popular with both children and adults. The children were delighted to be allowed to stroke her. One little girl came back so many times that when her dad lifted her up, I let her brush Diva’s mane. It was lovely that something so simple could put a big smile on everyone’s faces. The adults who came over to see Diva reminisced about riding Shetland ponies as children.
At one point I took Diva into the sand school for a play. As usual she went bombing around, bucking and squealing, to the delight of the spectators.
Some charities had trade stands at the practice for the day and so Diva got to meet the organisers of The Mutts Nuts Rescue and Prickleback Urchin Hedgehog Rescue.
As the day went on people kept entering the “Guess Diva’s Weight” competition, and it was fun to see what people were putting. Some guessed she was about the same weight as a large dog and others as if she was a big horse! The fun thing was that a little boy called Arthur who was trying to win the toy for his little sister got the weight spot on!
I would love to take Diva out and about to more events as she didn’t put a foot wrong and we both enjoyed it enormously.
Equine insurance specialist now able to offer live prices and immediate cover. Equesure Insurance has launched a new insurance product for horse trailers valued up to £15,000.
The annual trip to Your Horse Live was completed and even my partner enjoyed a bit of it! Okay, he mainly enjoyed the cake stalls (and they were amazing – we took three bags of cake home with us), but also liked the rescue village and heavy horse yard. We got to go into the stable with two donkeys for pats and cuddles and we both loved it.
Five years ago, I had the absolute dream of having my own acreage, but this has honestly been the biggest learning curve, relearning so much about how to better look after our horses and what the land requires. Hopefully, I can give some insight into things I have learnt, mostly by trial and error and lots of mistakes.
After five or six years away from the British showjumping circuit, I’ve rejoined, and this time with my little Connemara standing just about 15HH – and he’s been amazing!