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| Ginger Spice being a show hunter. |
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?
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| 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!
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| Quantock Titch (4 1/2 months old) - Day 1 |
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