Treating Horse Lice

I have undertaken LOTS of internet research yesterday and today on the subject of lice and have come up with a summary of what to do.

If your horse is itchy, has lots of scurf,has rubbed bare patches in his fur, suspect lice.

If you have a hairy monster, as a precautionary measure you can dose with louse powder at the beginning of winter and spring.  This may repel the lice, but not eradicate an infestation.

If you have a lice breeding programme happening on your much beloved ponio, it can take many months to sort, so the consensus is to hit it hard with something more potent and expensive, rather than fanny around with organic lotions and potions which end up costing you more than if you had gone in with the hard stuff first off!!

Sulphur powder (for preference Flowers of Sulphur) can be dusted into the fur and put in the food (2 table spoons a day for a week to 10 days, then drop to maintenance dose of 1 tablespoon a day) to sort out any skin problems and has been used for hundreds of years (hence the use of pig oil and sulphur on feathered horses legs to repel mites.  But I didn't find any convincing proof that it will kill off a current lice infestation.

The British agents most often in use seem to be Coopers Spot-on, only licensed for cattle and sheep, but seemingly recommended by many a vet for use on horses, under their supervision.  You need a herd number to buy it on the internet and more than likely at a farm supplies outlet, like Scats, but it will be cheaper than buying it from the vets. You just pour a small amount along the mane, back and top of tail area.  It lasts for a long time but can cause hairloss or bleaching, so possibly not the first choice for show animals.

Deosect, which is some sort of petrochemical related product by the smell of it (and by the instructions to don chemical warfare garb!) is what I used today on both Titch and Patches. Easily bought at Scats and possibly online, but I wanted it TODAY!  You make up a dilution of it. For my ponies it was 2.5ml in 125ml of water and either spray or sponge on. One bottle is going to last a very long time!  Apparently it takes minutes to work and you reapply in 14 days to catch any eggs that have since hatched.

If you have a really bad infestation you should chat to your vet as he may think it necessary to inject Ivermectin, but this carries risks.

There is advice to treat anything that has come into contact with your horse, rubbing posts, brushes, headcollars, rugs, etc, but I was not sure what to treat it with.  As a cattery I have and indoor flea killer that I happen to know kills all sorts of creepy crawlies in there, called Indorex also from Scats.  So I will be using that. One vet also recommended putting any items in a plastic bag and freezing it for a few days, then washing it on a boil wash.  I dusted Patches rug with lice powder as I have not seen any evidence on him, but thinking about it I will spray that with Indorex tomorrow when I get a moment.

Had this problem occurred in the warmer sunnier weather of summer (?!) Dermoline Insecticidal shampoo would have been my first port of call.  Funny how they suggest a shampoo for a problem that occurs on hairy monsters in the cold weather (well warmth, under said hairy winter coat or turnout rug)!

I also read about one lady that felt the only thing to do for her miniature hairy shitlands was to completely clip them out and then treat.  I think that would be very effective, but I'm not sure what my baby pony would think about that!

UPDATE: after 3 treatments of Deosect at 14 days apart, Titch is now not at all itchy, so it must have worked.

Itchy Titchy.

Yuck, yuck, yuck!

I noticed that Titch was a bit scurfy soon after I bought him and assumed it was perhaps because he hadn't had the best nutrition and his skin was not so healthy.  Then recently I really started studying the scurf and found it all to be exactly the same size and attached to the hairs on his mane.

After a bit of internet research I have now convinced myself that the scurfiness and the fact that he is itching himself every few minutes can only mean he has ... lice. :(

I have liberally doused him in louse powder only to find it is as much use as a chocolate fireguard.  What seems to come out tops is a product for cattle and sheep called Coopers spot on (for which you apparently need a holding/herd number) or Deosect or Ivermectin wormers.  Also suggested was lice shampoo and rather organically, Sulphur powder.  So until I can get hold of the vet I will try the sulphur powder as well as the louse powder.

I thought I was over all the creepy crawlies when the children started secondary school!

I will be consulting the vet as soon as they open on New Year's Eve. Great timing Titch the itch!

Trot On

I'm not doing a great deal with Titch at the moment, except all the things I normally do with him.

I have my daughter home from uni at the moment and she loves coming out for walks with Titch and I, so I made good use of her the other day.  She walked behind Titch while I was leading him up a hill and I asked him to trot and clucked, whereupon she shooed him mildly from behind and he did indeed trot.  We did it again and then I tried it when she was walking in front of us, saying trot and clucking with my tongue and sure enough he trotted.  I tried it several more times and he has never not responded by trotting, so I now feel we are another step closer to being able to take him to a local show next year.

He has been out for a walk with me and 5 teenagers laughing, shouting and being, well, teenagers, and coped fine with it.  I would now like to set up a situation where a stranger wearing a hat walks up to him as if they were a judge, while he remains standing still.  I cannot believe how fast he learns, even without food rewards.  He does love a good scratch as a reward and pulls the most comical faces of ecstasy!

Yesterday we went out for our longest walk so far - 50 minutes.

Titch spent the next hour like this...

He is learning to stay a few yards away and wait while I put his feed bucket down.  I have always done this with our dogs and it seems a good idea so that he respects my space and doesn't rush at me.

He is excellent when we meet horses coming the other way and is quite happy to let them walk away without him. This will be useful for when he goes hunting and maybe has to leave early, or for showing when the other horses leave the line to do their individual show.

Foal measurement at 6 months

We did it we did it! I loaded Titch in the trailer, shut all partitions and doors, and we went up the road and back.  He was whinnying a bit, but was fine when we got back home.

He has definitely decided I look like fun to play with when I am poo-picking.  I must stamp on this heavily as it is kind of funny now he's a foal but will be very un-funny when he is a strapping 3 year old.

Look away now if you are squeemish...

YAY! He finally has two nuts, so he could have his op, the simpler version rather than a full anaesthetic.  I will probably wait till either early spring before the flies get too bad so they do not bother the wound, or Autumn for the same reason, but saying that we are so wet here that I would have to chose a week or two when it was not at all warm for the flies to stay away.  I will wait to see what his behaviour is like as that may influence when I make 'that' decision.

This evening I spent some time sacking him out with a lightweight rug again in his stable, where he is confined and can get away but not get away entirely.  He had forgotten that he was totally ok with it last time.

6 month measurements

middle of knee to coronet band15 " = 15hh

point of elbow to ergot + point of elbow to floor = 55" =12h7" = 14.3hh

current height of whithers 124cm = approx 85% of his final height = 124/85 x 100=147.6cm= =14h2 1/2

current height of bum 130cm = so if that was 85% of his final height= 130/85 x 100= 152.9cm=15hh

So I think it is fair to assume he will average out to be 14.3hh

And if he could make it just one more inch, to 15 hh then I would be an extremely happy lady.   I always said of Spice that if only she was just one hand taller, ie 15hh, then I would be a very happy lady!! Just got a few years of watching and training before I can make sure of this with Titch!!

I have read in a few places that if colts are left a while before gelding they tend to fill out and be broader (the effect of testosterone I guess), but if they are gelded earlier they tend to grow taller and less broad.  So do I go for broad because it will give more surface area on which to put my long legs, or go for tall so that I am riding a 15hh-er rather than a 14.2hh -er?

The other day in the field he trusted me again to crouch near him as he lay on the ground.  I was bolder this time and gently encouraged his neck and head to lie down, so he was flat out in the winter sun, looking all fluffy and totally at ease with me touching him all over and standing up next to him, walking round him.  Lovely to have that trust.

Whilst cruising about on Youtube I found an inspiring video of a woman training a mule...to lunge in self-carriage and perform Passage.  For those of you interested, many horses never get to be taught this and for a stubborn old mule to do it has proved to me that with the right training any equine can have a go.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82Nz702CvUM

More Loading Practice

Still resisting the urge to put a rug on him, but don't want to spoil him...

Over the last few days I have been taking Titch for walks with our dogs and on his own, and getting him happy about loading onto the trailer. He has been really happy to load with all doors open.  He always has his breakfast in there. Yesterday I closed the back door up and he was fine. Today I put his 'travel boots' on, closed the front divider, loaded him and closed the back door.  He managed to turn himself around in that space to look backwards.  He couldn't work out how to turn around again and any other horse would have panicked, but I managed to fling the rope from his head collar over his head and lead him to a bit where there was more space and turned him around.  Phew! Once he was facing forward again I closed the front door too and he was fine, but I immediately went around and opened it again and unloaded him, whereupon he ate grass.  Good boy!

First time standing in trailer with both front and back doors closed and front partition in place

I did a bit of rug training with him in the field, but I think the fact that he had so much space to escape worked against me. I circled him many times dragging a rug on the ground.  At first he turned away from me, but when he realised I was just circling him he settled...until I got a bit nearer.  So I repeated the circling until he was ignoring me and eating grass again. When I went to lift the rug up even slightly towards his shoulder though he moved away, so I changed it to just my hand stroking his shoulder - fine with that. Here I ran out of time.  So at least I had ended on a good note.  Maybe I need to go back to touching him with smaller pieces of material in the stable till he is soooo bored of it, then try again in a bigger space.

Ugly Duckling

Today I have one very wet foalio. I am daring myself every day to ignore the careful thoroughbred owner's inner voice that says 'rug them up to the eyeballs'.  I am assured by my native pony-owning friends and the vet that I don't want Titch to get too comfortably warm under a rug as he would stop using his food energy intake to keep himself warm, meaning he could get fat and that could be ruinous to the growth plates in his legs, potentially causing lameness in years to come.  Better to keep him slightly lean to try to even out his growth spurts. But the mother in me wants to wrap him up in a duffel coat!!

At nearly 5 months, his bottom is measuring 12.2hh and his whithers probably only 11.3hh!  He looks a bit wet and wonky at the moment.

Titch looking fat and fluffy before this wet weather

Bit bum high and wet!

Titch's fluff all wetted down - he looks slimmer now.

That fluff makes a useful thatch to keep the undercoat dry

Trailer Trash

...Or to be more precise 'trailer angel'.

Having been over the pallet bridge a few times yesterday, I decided that the bridge was too slippery this morning after the frost and may put Titchy off climbing onto things that were not the floor he was used to, so this morning I found a different 'bridge'.  It was the one attached to the back of the trailer, ie the actual back door of the trailer undone! Titch thought it was a lot less slippery than the pallet thingy. He sniffed it, tested it with one front hoof and then realised it was fine and climbed straight up, got a mouthful of food and then realised he had to go in a bit further to get another gobful of food, so followed me straight in to the trailer.

I am starting to pinch myself - why is he being so easy?  What happens to horses to stop them being trusting, as Titch seems to be at this stage, but less trusting as they get older? Is it a developmental process, like when dogs turn 1 year old and suddenly decide not to like all dogs they met as a puppy and start to distrust other dogs approaching them?  Is it something to do with sexual maturity? I'll keep you posted on that one.  In the meantime here is Titch's first trailer photo...

Prepare to Mobilise

Running with the motto 'failing to plan is planning to fail' I drew up a plan to get Titch on the trailer eventually, because in Spring he might like to go to a pony party!  I know he walks across plastic sheet fine already, so today I fed him from a makeshift 'bridge' - a very sturdy pallet with the slats very close together so his little trotters can't go through the gaps. He sniffed it, then ate a handful of breakfast placed on it, then tentatively followed his bucket of food over it a few times, finally earning lots of 'good boy!'s from me when he was happy to stand with his front feet still on the pallet, for which he got the bonus of being able to finish his breakfast right there and then, without having to perform any more.  I will do this for the next few days until he is reliably at ease walking over it both width ways and long ways and then see if it will translate to the trailer ramp, touching with his nose, being fed from it, touching it with his feet, standing front feet still on it, standing all 4 feet still on it and then progressing inside, where he will find all sorts of food.

I hope the ground will harden off a bit after all the rain we have had in the last week, or at least enough for me to park the trailer in the field as a kind of field shelter, cum food station, and only when he is happy using it off his own bat can I then lead him on, hitch up the trailer to the car and start mini journeys around the garage and back.

This could take a few weeks...Although this evening he managed to eat his tea with his boots on (more than I was allowed to do as a child!).

After tea mum put some boots on me and they made my back legs not pick-up-able from the ground. But after a few tries I made all four of my legs work again.

In my head I have a lovely memory of Spice and Elly and I at a show in the pouring rain.  We were giggling to ourselves because we had set up our chairs in the trailer to have our picnic with a calm as normal Spice, out of the rain and rather smug that we hadn't had to fork out on a proper lorry in order to get somewhere dry to sit down! Spice the wonder horse loved having us in her makeshift stable with her, especially as she could scrounge some of my trademark healthy picnic carrot sticks off us!

A Day at the Pony Sale

This is a video of the exact sale I bought Titch from.  This was, I think, the youngest (short, curly mane) and most vociferous of the foals that day, quite confident, roaming about in the shed yelling (for his Mumma?), not huddling in a corner.  It moves nicely! Very flashy! Cute! One of the more expensive foals that day.

A typical group of Quantock hill foals, though in 2012 there were a few different colours as well, dun, palomino, skewbald too

Predicting Foal's fully Grown Height

The suspense is killing me already! Only because I really hope this lovely little chap will grow to be a bit bigger than Spice so I can sort of get away with riding him.  Whilst I'm not averse to a bit of pony squishing, being not quite 10 stone (and 5'9") I do get a bit conscious of looking like a Mexican riding a donkey.

How Titch may look when loaded with me and my hip flask in a few years time!

I am taking bets as to his final measurements but you will have to wait till he is about 5 for the final measurements.

His breeder thought he would make 14hh.  I hope he is wrong.

Here are a couple of methods I found on t'internet...

Method 1 - measure middle of knee to coronary band. Every 1/4 " you measure corresponds to 1" of full grown height - This method will make Titch 14.2hh


Method 2 (which should be done at a year) - measure elbow to fetlock, keep tape at elbow and swing other end of tape up to predict wither height.



Method 2 put Titch at 14.3hh from his 5 month measurements. I hope this method works. I will re-do it when he is 1 year old.

Method 3 (Read more:http://ihdg.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=ght09&action=display&thread=102019&page=1#ixzz2B5484iKy)
'In the book 'Horse Nutrition and Feeding' by Sarah Pilliner there is a table of percentages of height at 6 months, 12 months and 18 months to adult height. Sadly it doesn't mention cobs! however according to this TBs and Arabs have attained 84% of mature height at 6 months, Anglo-arabs 83%, and Shetlands 86%.

At the time I read this, I had a 6 month old Sec D colt standing 13 hands - I worked out using 85%, I think, that he'd make 15.2hh which was exactly right, as it turned out.

So, if 12 hands is 85%..... I make that 14.1...?'

I'll try this in a month's time.


What I do know from measuring Titch this morning is that he has 7" bone, ie circumference of leg beneath front knee - a good stocky kind of breed like Irish Draught should have about 9" of bone. If Titch is already 7" at just 5 months I wonder if this will change as he grows up...?  How stocky and hairy will he be?

After our measuring session and the usual morning routine I took Titch for another walk up to the end of the lane and back, then thought I would offer him the opportunity to check out the hose on our return, like you do.  He sniffed it - totally ok. I turned the water on and that made the hose even more appealing!  Now any of my other horses, including Spice the wonder horse would avoid a hose if at all possible and preferably trot off in the other direction, but our little Titch thought he would quite like drinking from that hose! No not scared, not even a teeny bit, just very thirsty and loves hoses.  I did wash off his feet once he was fully bevved up and that was fine too, but I will leave washing him off totally until we get some lovely warm days next summer.

See, how can S.A.D get you as November begins, when one has so much to look forward to?

Summer Sheet and Velcro

Having left Titch alone for a few days (apart from usual brush, pick out feet, electric toothbrush rub all over body, 'tie' him up, then lead him in or take him out to field), today seemed like a good time to pick it up again. I did the usual routine and then developed the tea towel and/or white plastic feed bag on the back to include having a folded up summer sheet on his back.  He had reverted a little to not remembering that it is all right to be touched anywhere on his body with anything, so I went back a step and just rubbed him all over with the summer sheet folded smaller and incrementally made it bigger and more flappy and made it move more expressively as it laid on his back.  

I am so pleased I didn't notice that he has a bit of white in his left eye when I bought him, else I might not have.  some people think it is connected with wicked horses, but now I see it just helps him express his feelings.  I normally start on his left side and the white in this eye makes it soooo expressive (for which I mean cute!).  I can tell immediately what he thinks of whatever I am touching his body with.  He has a kind of Princess Diana look to this eye when he looks shyly up through his eye lashes because he is a bit unsure. This informs me to go a bit more quietly or back a stage till he is happier.  Anyway, I took it gently and before long he was quite happy to plod around the stable after me with the summer sheet on.

I seized the moment and put on some old fetlock boots as they are small, but with the added extra of velcro.  I have had a horse that was scared of the sound of velcro, so therefore Titch will get to know it very well!

I can stand on a plastic bag - easy!

Yes, it is a bit more rustly when it moves, but I'm a big boy and I'm fine with it now.

And now I can wear a summer sheet - errr, but it's not summer anymore mum.

What are these things? Velcro, you say?  What's that then?

Unfortunately my camera phone is not as good as my SLR, but it is what I usually have to hand, so apologies for the poor quality and distortion that makes him look even more fugly than he really is!!

New Friend Fireworks?

Well that was the best, most uneventful horse introduction I have ever experienced!  I drove an hour each way to borrow a friend's pony, so my Titch feels like he is a horse and not a horse/human following me around all the time.

The idea is that Patch will teach Titch (I know, bit of a tongue twister when later I have to go and 'catch Patch and Titch'!) any manners he is lacking as he matures a bit, but to be honest, as long as there is grass I don't think there will be any problems.  All we had today on their first meeting was a brief sniff, one obligatory girlie scream and both blokes got on with the important business of noshing. Completely unlike my girls when we first got them together.  For days with them there was an awful lot of handbag throwing and flouncing off with a great deal of shrieking and striking out going on.  So this time I was prepared.  I had even got my camera AND camcorder ready to record for posterity how Titch might move when he shows off, but nothing could have been more sedate and well... boring!

Tonight they have become inseperable with Titch shadowing Patch's every move - how sweet!

Hairy Ponies and the British weather

I like this kind of horse keeping!  No rushing out with rugs every time the sky looks a bit full of rain.  Being the clever native that he is, Titch just worked out which way the wind was blowing and snuggled in to the best wind-blocking hedge.

I did nothing with Titch today, after yesterday's overload.  I was still impressed with what we did get today though.  He watched calmly as I poo-picked the field, no showing of hooves; He is starting to associate end of day in field with coming to gate, so that he can come in for his tea (I tried to kid myself that it was because he had learned that when I call him he comes, but in fact only the sight of his feed bucket elicited the right response).  I slipped my long rope through a tie up ring without tying it up, so that he can start to get the hang of being tied up without the risk of him pulling back and breaking his neck. He was great standing there while I moved the wheelbarrow then went back to him, and picked his feet out.  Good boy! I am still having to pinch his tendons to get him to lift his foot, but he is starting to get the hang of it occasionally.

The long rope passed through a tying up ring, so that if he decides he wants out he can step back and then I can reel him back in to position.  If he were properly tied up and panicked he would pull back so hard he may damage his head/neck

I got some great reaction from friends who had seen my photos of Titch in the kitchen with a couple of mums saying to their little ones 'DON'T even THINK about it!'.  But the funniest story was when another friend, as a child, took her pony called Popcorn in to her mums living room and it disgraced itself right in front of the fire!! So I am not the only crazy person then... And no, Maggie, I will NOT be taking him up the stairs to bed - he'd never fit round the bend in the stairs....!

Walking a Foal up the Lane (and in the Kitchen!)

Making use of my lovely daughter being home from uni today we decided to take Titch out for a walk, so that Ellie could take some photos. Today was our longest walk yet. Here is our photo story of today.

I is gawgus!

We went for a walk today

I like ash leaves

Yum!

Going up a very steep slope

Walking in a very big field

In the woods

Mum thinks she taught me how to walk in puddles but in the woods where I come from this is what we drink 

Autumn walk

That tree is lying down.  It must be a tired tree!

I will follow you anywhere but that sleepy tree is too big to get over.

We found a tyre in the woods...

...and I don't know why they thought I would be scared of a for sale sign.

Mum says I have a very red bottom

This might become our Christmas card photo

Wokefield Common pony

I is nice and SLOW!

 Mum mentioned something called a cup of tea...so we went in the kitchen

And I stood by the Aga

Mum was very pleased with herself!

Erm, Mum, are you supposed to have dogs in the kitchen?

Then it was time to leave

I thought it best to wipe my feet on the way out

I became a patio pony again

I hope you enjoyed our photo story!

Titch Needs a Horsey Friend

I have been trying for several days to get Titch an equine companion, since my daughter forbade me to buy Titch's sister as well! My mare, is definitely not suitable. she would reprimand him alright, but she may not know where to stop and might have to be reported to 'foal-line'.  My friend, the owner of the most suitable companion pony, Patch, has been away on holiday, but on Sunday we should be able to organise for these 2 boys to meet finally.  Patch is a quiet gelding about the same size as Titch who is happy to be caught in the field and is a real sweetie.  I'm hoping this side of Titch continues to develop.

Today was a quiet day for Titch, aside from the usual morning routine of mucking out around him, brushing him, rubbing the electric toothbrush all over him (he is a hairy one, so will need to get used to the sound of clippers!), picking his feet out and moving out of the way when asked. He finds being in a stable incredibly warm with his thick hill coat on, so was quite relieved to spend the day out in the field in the wind and mizzle.  I poo-picked the field, pulling the wheelbarrow along behind, which Titch thought was fascinating, following me all around the field and sniffing.  At one point I think he got me muddled up with one of his old herd playmates and was trying to goad me into playing with him by getting another wiggle on, coming up to me and bucking so I could see whether his back hooves needed picking out again.  For this he got a 'Grrr!' and some very loud body language! Patch, I hope you are up for a bit of rough foalie play...

Patch the playmate?

Patchy!

I am also wondering about how far little Titch should be walked.  He must have walked miles as a feral foal in his herd and some of it would have been on roads, but all our walking here starts on lanes.  Will this wear his hooves down too quickly? I'd love to take him the mile and a half to the village so he could hear and see more sights and sounds. He walks so slowly it would probably take all day mind you.

Now try to catch your pony...

So having thought Titch was fairly used to having the headcollar on and off in the stable, I decided about 5 days ago to let him have relative freedom out in the field again, just for a short while, as by now he had been in on hay either in Somerset or here for about 1 month.  I tentatively walked him around the field boundary and showed him where the water was, but he was paying much more attention to the grass, of course!  However when his half hour of grazing was up he did not wish to be caught!  He acted as if he had never seen a headcollar before!  He seemed relatively at ease enough to not just pee off galloping round the field to get away from me but was doing something like a turn about the haunches away from me so I just couldn't quite get near enough to make contact. I knew the last thing I should do was lunge at him so I had to toddle off back indoors to have a quick read of Sarah Weston's book.  Ha! So let's try laying the headcollar on his back first.  Nope, that wouldn't be allowed either, so I played the same game in the field as I had in the stable, shadow him if he moved away, until he stopped then walk myself away.  It mostly worked but early on he did get away from me.  In fact he got a bit of a wiggle on and his tail shot up in the air as he pranced away. If he had two fingers...well you know what gesture he would have been making at me! Anyway, my persistence paid off and what was supposed to be a 2 minute operation to recapture the ginger foal, turned into a 30 minute dance. I'm sure any neighbours watching would have been chortling throughout this 'game'.

A quick email to Sarah Weston for advice and I was armed with a different strategy, which over the next 3 days worked.  Of course. Thank you Sarah!

Headcollar and Leading

Titch came with a headcollar on but I bought another and started practising putting it on and off over the top of the original.  That took a few days, where at first he would walk backwards away from the headcollar, until I read about Sarah Weston's tip, which made it very much easier.

Wearing a riding hat and gloves, I began to lead him around in the stable. At first, obviously he did not understand what I was asking, so I stood a way in front of him with eyes still lowered so as not to further halt his forward motion. I held the rope gently and ran each of my hands in turn along the rope from him towards me, so I was not pulling him but creating a bit of a vibration as the rope drew through my hands.  I encouraged him with the words 'come on then, Titch, come on then' and really invited him with my heart to come and get a face scratch.  The split second he looked in my direction I slackened the rope and softened my stance as his release/reward.  I went again and this time kept going till he took a step forward. Again immediate slack in the rope and soft stance from me as his reward.  Slowly, slowly catchy monkey! Step by step we went, over several sessions and several days, so that by day 8 I felt confident enough to lead him around our yard and back to his stable.

The next day we extended that by taking him a bit further, so that now he has walked out on about 6 days going further each time and starting to see a bit of the world.  Yesterday we had to pull over on our very narrow lane to let the bin waggon come past.  Thankfully they switched off their flashing orange lights, but Titch was so not bothered and just kept munching his favourite thing - autumn ash leaves fallen from the trees and hazel leaves.  Today we walked up to a new house-build, where he touched an empty wooden cable reel, a stack of bricks, some plastic, walked over the plastic, which I then dragged behind me all the way home.  We stop every now and again to visit the larder that is our lane's hedgerow and move off again when I chose, using the now familiar phrase 'come on then Titch, come on'!  He is already putting my other horse to shame who spooks at logs and pigeons flying away and anything else really!

Touching Titch for the first time

So Quantock Titch had arrived. He had eaten and slept during his first night. What now?

On entering the stable he got up from lying down and came over to me, but definitely did not want to be touched...yet. He sniffed my daughter and I and half flinched and looked away as I gently stretched out a hand to his shoulder.

Despite frequenting the carparks with his herd, I suspected the only time Titch had been touched by a human was by the hill farmers, who brought them all down from the hills to be weaned, very much considered livestock.  I learned that he had been brought down from the hills with his mum and the herd 3 weeks earlier, when he had been weaned with all the other weanlings in his barn.  That would have made him just 3 1/2 months old. Life is tough as a hill pony.  If you are born late, you are weaned early to tie in with the pony sale.

So being touched was not high on Titch's priorities, so we just stood hanging over his stable door till he was ready to approach us. Gently, slowly I managed to touch him on the shoulder.  What a feeling!  I understand about rewarding horses by releasing them.  By that I mean that a horse feels rewarded if you leave it alone, and so I used this to extend the area he felt safe to be touched in. Touch his shoulder, walk away.  If he did not want to accept, I shadowed him, my gaze lowered, until he stopped moving away, then I immediately walked away, in order to reward his stopping.  In this way I got closer and closer, touching his shoulder, neck, cheek, face (nice face rub!), along his withers, back, hind quarters, back to the withers, shoulder, leg, and so by day 2 or 3 he was fairly comfortable with the format of the 15-20 minute sessions several times a day, where a human wanted to touch him all over and rewarded him for not moving away. By day 4 he was so much more comfortable,I could stroke his tummy, waggle his tail, even touch his nether regions with no negative reaction.  What a star! I was even able to tap his hooves on the outside, though picking them up is still something we need more practice with.

I had to get a book! When on a steep learning curve, I always get a book to help! I checked out the internet and it seemed that Sarah Weston was the British expert on handling feral foals, so I got her book 'No Fear, No Force', which has helped immensely.  I have done some horsemanship with my adult horses but was not sure how much to do with a foal.  Sarah's book certainly expanded my expectations.

Rash decision or carefully calculated plan?

Ginger Spice being a show hunter.

This mad idea all started early in the summer of 2012 when I allowed myself to dream that my daughter's beautiful Quantock Hill pony, Ginger Spice, could provide me with a newer, bigger version of herself. Should I breed a foal from our beloved Spicey? Should I risk her health just to get a foal?

Unfortunately that seedling idea came to a crashing end on July 4th, when I turned up at her field early in the morning to find that somehow our darling girl had broken her leg in the field.  The vet was very sympathetic, but quite sure there was nothing more we could do for her but to put her out of her misery. This was quite simply the worst day of my and my daughter's life.

I became very aware over the following days of there being no legacy.  My gut instinct was telling me to buy another Quantock Hill pony, as Spice had been so sure-footed and sensible and I felt like she really cared whether we were safe or not.  She even rescued herself from a burning stable in which she lost her buddy.  She could turn her hoof to most things, hunting, showing, dressage, hacking, cross country and generally being a much-loved and trusted superstar.  Surely all hill ponies have that streak of sure-footedness and an instinct for survival...

But the usual doubts entered my mind, and I talked myself out of it all again.  How could I ever replace Spice?

Ginger Spice being shiny!

One day while trawling the internet for images of Quantock Hill ponies because I was missing Spice (again), I came across some pictures of the Quantock Hill Pony sale and my gut instinct re-emerged.  Where and when was it held? I checked my diary and was free that day.  Well, even if just for the experience, I was going, by hook or by crook.  I sent off for the catalogue.  But on the day I took no cash and no trailer so I would not be tempted...(in denial again?)

Two and half hours' driving later I found the sale, in a farmyard.  Very west country!  And larger than I expected.  I spent the next 1 1/2 hours just watching the 30 weanlings in one of the barns.  It was so interesting seeing how the weanlings interacted and how all had different characters.  I watched the domineering but beautiful liver chestnut colt, who kicked out at any of the other youngsters who tried to eat any hay.  That was HIS.  I looked at the differences in body shape, bone (stockiness of the legs), eyes.  I saw how the stockier legged ones sort of huddled together quietly (perhaps they were from the same stllion/herd), how the palominos stuck together and how the 2 most beautiful ones had, ahem, livelier personalities!  It is notoriously difficult to predict how a foal will end up looking unless you know both parents.  We were seeing no parents, not even the mums, so suffice it to say it is a big gamble buying from a sale.  Someone once told me that the key conformation points are still important though, like angle of the shoulder, hoof/pastern angle and angle of hip.  Armed with this information I picked out the ones I liked the look of and then took into account their character and narrowed it down to about 4 or 5.  I sneaked off to get a buyers number (so who was I still trying to kid that one of these darlings was not coming home with me?!)

When time came for the auction itself I thought I would just watch first and see what sort of price they would fetch and then decide if it was something I wanted to take a risk on.  Unfortunately, one of the ones I had my eye on was the first into the ring and I had a rush to the head.  Not wanting to loose this one all of a sudden, I felt myself bidding.  And almost as suddenly the bidding stopped... with me!  He was mine!  Oh god, what had I just done?  I couldn't turn back time now.  I decided to just tell my daughter, no-one else, not even my husband.  I also wanted to buy his sister too, but my daughter's sense prevailed and I stopped myself (still wish I had bought her though!).  AND the auctioneers accepted debit cards. Phew!

Quantock Titch (4 1/2 months old) - Day 1

How on earth would I get this little ginger pony foal home?  Luckily the farmer's son was going my way and finally, just before midnight that same day, Quantock Titch found himself in his new home - a very roomy stable for the night.  We decided rather wisely to keep the top door shut, but when we went back to wonder at him again half an hour later all we could hear from the other side of the door was  hay being munched.  And he hasn't stopped eating since!