Diva is a very lucky little Shetland pony in that she lives on a yard which also stables a real-life unicorn. She’s caught glimpses of this mythical beast over the past months, but this week she actually managed to go and say hello!
The unicorn masquerades by day as a show-jumper called Baltimore VDM, who is the stable star at Team STX owned by Vicky Jolly-Laing.
Baltimore explained that he is only allowed to show his horn on very special occasions, so although he enjoyed meeting Diva, he couldn’t have his sparkly horn on display for her. He was so charming that Diva promptly forgave him and spent quite some time batting her eyelashes at him.
Since chatting to Baltimore, Diva is suffering from delusions of grandeur and seems to think that the next time she goes to a show, it will be in the Team STX luxury horse box. However, I do think she fancies the human living space rather than the horse section. As you can see, she is about the same size as one of the wheels!
Inspired by Baltimore, Diva and I had a trot around the arena and I led her over some trotting poles which she did foot perfect. Baltimore had apparently told Diva that he jumps up to Grand Prix level, so she thought she had better get some practice in.
You’ll have to look out for more of Diva’s exercise regime in the future, as she intends to spend the winter getting into tip-top condition for next summer’s showing campaign.
No doubt poor Mabel and Florence had to hear all about Diva’s unicorn adventure when they were in the field the next morning.
I think Diva might be a little bit in love with Baltimore, and I have to admit that I am too!
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Once again I threw Arlo in at the deep end, affiliating him purely for the Arena UK second round show, and once again he pulled it out the bag. How lucky am I to have such a wonderful little horse? We haven’t really competed this year. I don’t really compete over the winter, and also my horsebox was away for repairs up until the beginning of June, so I had no transport even if I’d wanted to.
With the dry ground we don’t seem to be having much luck with shoes, as little madam managed to pull both her front shoes off within 12 hours the other day! We entered the arena with two shoes on for a schooling session and left it with one missing (took about an hour to find it). Then that afternoon, as I went to put some hoof ointment on, I looked down and had to double take, thinking I was looking at the wrong hoof. But, no, the other shoe was missing too.
After having a long wait and some lunch at the onsite café, it was time to get ready for the Joan Wolfe Overall Supreme Shetland Pony Championship. I got changed out of my usual showing outfit into black trousers and a maroon top with white spots, as you are expected to be a bit more “bling” in the evening.
We were all set to go for our next outing, and were super excited. That was until I heard the dreaded clunk of a loose shoe! I checked it over, praying it wasn’t too loose, but, nope, it was going to need a refit.