Happy first birthday Titch! Measuring time!

Titch's big day rightly had to be overshadowed by my son's 17th (Ahh, they share the same birthday!), so apologies for the lateness of this post.

Not much has been happening in Titch's world apart from growing and eating.  In fact he has been left to fester a bit as I broke my collarbone 3 months ago.  It is still not healed and can at times be very painful.  So I have elected not to take Titch out on his in-hand walks. He comes to call for his breakfast and tea, so I had no need to keep putting the headcollar on him.  HOWEVER, that was a mistake as he has regressed and thinks the headcollar is going to kill him again. Cue more headcollar training. He grudgingly and somewhat mistrustfully allows it near his head if he can be tempted by a polo now.

I only realised this when I tried to get a fly rug on him as he is being bothered by midges. That was an unreasonable request in his eyes, so I thought I would put a headcollar on and get him used to a rug again, bit by bit, which is when I found I couldn't get the headcollar near him.

Apart from that I wanted to measure him to see how much too small for me he might turn out. Another reason this post is a bit tardy is that I wanted to deliver to you all the supposedly definitive 'year old' measurements that predict his adult height. So we have done a bit more work on the headcollar and today I managed to catch him and do the measurements.

Using the string test measuring from point of elbow to ergot + point of elbow to the ground, it predicts that he will grow to 15hh. Yay! I am happy with that, especially if he turns out to be in any way chunky.  However he has gone all lean and foal like again at the moment, definitely bottom high (the bottom always grows before the front end, in fits and starts, till they stop growing).

Using the middle of the knee to coronet band method, I found the results on the same day to be too changeable, depending on how he was standing, so I'll jettison that method.

His current height is 13.2hh at the withers and 13.3hh at the bum.

It is now early June and he is still loosing baby fluff, but I think he is going to be quite sleek once it all goes.

I am having to treat him for lice again. I am hoping this is the last lot of treatment as he is starting to hate being sprayed, but I suspect, unless I shave off his mane they are going to keep coming back. Yuck!

Here are a couple of photos.

Head looks big here because of all the beard!

Looking a bit more in proportion but still foal like.

9 month measurement and crashing fall

I measured Titchy today and he has grown in 3 months.  His withers are now 12.3hh and his bum is 13.1hh. I thought his nuts, or what is left of them looked a bit better today and as his temperature is stable and normal over the last 4 days I am starting to calm down about any complications.

The view from leaning over Titch

Titch aged 9 months - can't show a full body shot as too ugly!!

The only complication in my life at the moment is that whilst out hacking my spooky thoroughbred, she sort of spooked (again), and launched herself off a 3' bank, onto the tarmac road, promptly crashing to the floor and landing like bambi ( managed to stay with her till this point - very proud :) ), then just after we parted company she galloped off home again.  Needless to say she is very sore behind with a massive haematoma over her stifle, which the vet drained today, knowing it would just refill.

I, on the other hand, spent all yesterday afternoon at A&E as, having landed on my shoulder when Hetty pressed the 'eject' button, my shoulder was very painful.  I have apparently ruptured my (big word alert!) acromio-clavicular joint capsule and torn the cartilage therein. OUCH! No riding for a good few weeks, which is ok because Hetty can't be ridden for a few weeks, dove-tailing nicely. Thanks Hetty!

Gelding a Foal and Locking Stifles

So, because Titch has been getting more and more nibbly and pushy (baby stallion behaviour) when I take him out for a walk, and because now is the right time of the year, and because he is never going to add anything wonderful to the equine gene pool, I had him gelded 10 days ago. The vet sedated him standing, twitched his nose and used local anaesthetic in 'the area' and it all went without a hitch.  He was done standing up, well, swaying! Titch was 8 1/2 months old, there are no flies to bother the wound site and he is fine.

Day 3 his sheath swelled up to about twice normal, but the vet was only concerned if his scrotum swelled and it hasn't.
10 days on from the op the site is still draining and the sheath is looking a bit enlarged, having gone down to normal size again.  I was warned to keep a close eye from day 10-14, but hopefully this is just a blip. To reduce the original swelling I cold hosed Titch's sheath and took him for a daily 10 minute walk, though I gather that twice a day is optimal.

The day before the op I noticed that one of Titch's back legs was stiff in its entire length and he struggled to get going walking. I recognised this as a locking stifle.  I have seen both back legs do this now, but the vet says they often grow out of this as they get bigger and become more muscled.  I do hope so.

About 2 weeks ago he was looking very nearly level front and back, but now he is majorly bum high again. He is looking a bit poor too if I'm honest, but the spring grass has just started coming through to put some roundness on him.

Stop Nipping me!

I am now trying to walk Titch and Uncle Patches out twice a week.  Titch's front end appears to be levelling up a bit with his rear end as he grows.  And uncle Patches is in danger of getting too fat and laminitis in the spring if he doesn't wiggle off some pounds now.

Titch has now decided it is sort of fun to try to nip my elbow as I lead him. NO! I make chicken wings with my arms and send him backwards to spell it out to him.  Now all I have to say is 'No' and he is already backing up, but as yet it has not stopped him trying to nip me!  Maybe he is now at the stage where his nuts need to come off.  But he is not aggressive about it.  It is more like what a baby does when they are exploring everything with their mouth.

I am getting the distinct feeling that he might be a sort of 'nappy' pony when he is full grown.  If he decides he wants a bit of that green grass over there on one particular route, he plants his feet and will not budge! In the early days, to let him rest his brain when I first took him out on walks, I let him eat at this particular verge once or twice.  Now he thinks he can always stop there. WRONG!

Food Time Manners and Snow

We are now refining Titch's manners a bit.  He can follow me in to the stable without hassling me for his bucket of tea, he parks like a statue next to the wall and waits (10 seconds today) for me to say he can have his tea.  This was a hard lesson for Titch as his belly rules!!  I had to be consistent and make him go back to where he had come from if and as soon as he made the very first step towards me uninvited.  I am still working on this with my big horse!

He can also walk back to the word 'back' and a bit of arm flapping.  I am hoping to make him respond to a wiggle of one finger eventually.

He is a fairly low reactor (which is a good thing!) so I had to force the issue to make him charge about in the snow, but I think you'll agree the photos I took are great.

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!