Week 12 – March 24th

Hooray! The warm weather has come back.New Mum says we have to make the most of it because it’s going to get cold again soon.

At least there don't seem to be many Huh-rabbits about. Here is a picture of one of them New Mum took last year, It was obviously deciding which plants to eat next.

Read about us at www.thepercydaleponies.co.uk or look at New Mum’s horse stories at www.percydalehappyhorses.co.uk .

Week 11 – March 17th

It’s still very cold but at least this week has been quite dry.

New Mum has spent a lot of time in the woods with us. She is putting all the branches and stuff that blew down last week into a big pile. She says the two Petes will cut them into logs when they come down again. We don’t know what New Mum does with the logs. She takes them down to the stable where she lives and we don’t see them any more. Her stable must be full of logs.

The stables that people live in don’t look the least bit like our stables. Next time we manage to get through the electric fence we’re going to see if we can sneak into New Mum’s stable to see what it’s like.

Woofer has been very noisy just lately. New Mum says something must be bothering her. She thinks Woofer can hear noises she can’t. We can hear strange rumbly noises from the other side of one of the woods. That might be the noise that New Mum can’t hear.

Read about us at www.thepercydaleponies.co.uk or look at New Mum’s horse stories at www.percydalehappyhorses.co.uk .

Week 10 – March 10th

Oh dear! Where has our lovely warm weather gone? This week has been getting colder and colder and we are having showers of very cold rain and some really chilly windy days. We are very glad that we haven’t lost our warm winter coats. The rain runs right off the tough long hair and stops the short fluffy warm hair underneath from getting wet. Even in the worst rain our skin is actually dry and warm.

Read about us at www.thepercydaleponies.co.uk or look at New Mum’s horse stories at www.percydalehappyhorses.co.uk .

Week 9 – March 3rd

The weather is still nice and warm.

We’ve been watching New Mum working in her garden. She spends a lot of time digging up some plants and throwing them in a big black bin thing and then putting other plants in the places she’s just cleared. It seems an awful lot of work for nothing. Why doesn’t she just leave the other plants there?

New Mum says our friend Tommy is having terribly wet weather and hasn’t been at all warm.

Bella and Poppy are being ridden by Zoe and Hollie at the weekends. During the week it is too dark when they come home from school. We think it would be much better if they didn’t go to school and spent more time with the ponies.

Read about us at www.thepercydaleponies.co.uk or look at New Mum’s horse stories at www.percydalehappyhorses.co.uk .

Our Diary. Week 8 February 25th.

We have been having some lovely warm weather. The grass has started to grow quite a lot and our skin is getting itchy from being too warm. New Mum keeps checking to see if we are moulting yet. She says if the weather stays like this we should start moulting soon.

New Mum says the weather has gone mad because it shouldn't be this warm in February. She keeps muttering 'I hope this isn’t the summer.'

We think this is silly because summer comes after the daffodils and bluebells have gone and when  all the trees have leaves on them. Our daffodils haven’t even got flowers on yet and the bluebells aren’t growing at all.

People sometimes have some very strange ideas!

This is a picture of what our daffodils look like in the Spring.

This is what it looks like now.

Read about us at www.thepercydaleponies.co.uk or look at New Mum’s horse stories at www.percydalehappyhorses.co.uk .

The Percydale Ponies: Our Diary. Week 7 – February 18th

The Percydale Ponies: Our Diary. Week 7 – February 18th

Our Diary. Week 7 – February 18th

We had a very exciting time this week. We found out that the white ribbon stuff that bites when you touch it is called electric fencing. One day it wasn’t working so we were able to sneak our way through it into New Mum’s garden.

There was lots of fresh juicy grass there because nothing had been eating it ever, apart from the occasional Huh-rabbit. They don’t eat much because they are only little and they seem to like New Mum’s special plants better than grass.

New Mum was not pleased when she found us. We pretended that we didn’t know she was there and trotted off to parts of the garden which were furthest away from her. In the end she brought some tasty titbits into our field and waited until we couldn’t resist the tasty smells and went back into our field.

She spent ages working on the hedging on her side of the electric fence to stop us getting through again.

We waited until she disappeared then we went exploring until we found another place to get through. New Mum chased us all the way to the top of our field and was very cross so we decided to stay out of the way for a while. We didn’t know that she had a plan.

Next morning she put a new box down by the gate where the old box used to be then she went away.

When we tried to go into the garden again the electric fencing was working again and the white ribbon bit us when we touched it.

Oh well, getting into the garden was fun while it lasted.

New Mum is being nice again and gave us some carrots as a treat.

Read about us at www.thepercydaleponies.co.uk or look at New Mum’s horse stories at www.percydalehappyhorses.co.uk .

Our Diary – Week Six

It’s been another really cold week but we haven’t had any snow and hardly any rain so we don’t mind. It’s rather good really because New Mum gives us extra horse cubes which taste much nicer than hay. Every time she comes out we go to the gate and try to look as if we are starved and suffering but it doesn’t seem to work. She just comes over and scratches us in all our favourite places then goes off doing things with plants.

She says we must have hidden powers because when she gets outside she can’t see us anywhere and starts working. The next minute we have ‘materialised’ (whatever that is) and are standing there right in front of her when she turns round.

On Thursday she brought two big bags up to the wood to collect little sticks. She said they were ‘kindling’ but they were really just little sticks.

We went up to help her. It seemed very boring so we tried to make it more interesting by picking up the bags and tipping the little sticks out or running off over the field waving the bags in our teeth. She laughed and said we were little pests and put the bags where we couldn’t reach them.

This is our friend Tommy. He lives a long way away from us in Cumbria. New Mum says he is as naughty as we are but she loves us all.

Read about us at www.thepercydaleponies.co.uk or look at New Mum’s horse stories at www.percydalehappyhorses.co.uk .

The Percydale Ponies’ Diary – Week Five

New Mum says this week was the second coldest on average for at least four years.

Every day she comes up to the wood to collect logs from the big pile the two Petes cut last year. One Pete is New Mum’s eldest son and the other Pete is her brother.

When they were cutting wood we tried to encourage them by nibbling their jackets and wtching the trees fall down but they chased us away. They said New Mum would be cross if a tree fell on us. In the end we wandered off to eat grass with the Huh-rabbits.

Here are two pictures of Zoe and Bella. Zoe’s Mum took the photographs. The first one is when Zoe first got into the saddle and the second one is when Bella was being ridden properly for the first time. Everyone was very impressed with how good she was.

Don’t forget to read about us at www.thepercydaleponies.co.uk or read some of the things New Mum has written at www.percydalehappyhorses.co.uk .

 

Week Four of Our 2012 Diary

Hello again.

Remember the other week we told you that our friend Bella has been tacked up and We were very excited this week to find that Zoe has actually ridden Bella. And Bella was absolutely perfectly well her Dad led Bella round with Zoe just leaning over the saddle. Then he told her to gently swing her leg over and see if Bella minded. The big day was this Saturday when Zoe rode Bella on her own without being led.

Good for Bella and Zoe! We’ll put in some pictures next week.

We have had quite a pleasant winter but New Mum says next week is going to be very cold and not at all funny. She said that means loads more hay and horse cubes. That is a very nice thought because the grass is not at all interesting at the moment.

Some funny animals are eating the peanuts that New Mum puts out for the birds. They are called Huh-squirrels. We know that’s what they’re called because New Mum says ‘Huh-squirrels’ every time she sees them. We think they must be related to the Huh-rabbits that get into vegetable garden and eat her plants in summer.

New Mum says they are all nice to look at but she wishes they would stay in the woods.

We’ll put in some pictures of the Huh-rabbits and Huh-squirrels as soon as New Mum finds them.

See you next week if we aren’t buried up to the withers in snow.

Don’t forget to visit www.thepercydaleponies.co.uk or read some of the things New Mum has written at www.percydalehappyhorses.co.uk and send your letters and pictures to ponies@percydale.com .

The Percydale Ponies’ Diary – Week Three

The high point of this week was the visit of the man who sees to our hooves. The reason why we like him coming is because New Mum gives us loads of carrots. New Mum says he is a farrier. At first we thought she was calling him names but it seems it is the name of what he does as a job.  

As soon as New Mum comes up the field carrying our head collars we know he is on the way as it is the only time we wear them. Unless we’re feeling a bit lazy we go down to meet her or trot off to the place near the field shelter where the farrier trims our feet.

Sometimes we have to wait for ages before he arrives which we find very annoying because we can see the bag of carrots and we can smell the carrots because New Mum has cut them up in slices and she has a big pocketful of them but we aren’t allowed to eat any until the farrier is actually working on our hooves.

If we have to wait too long we go down to the gate where we can see him coming up the path and then race back up to New Mum. The first one there gets his feet done first and so has the first go at the carrots.

Whoever has to go second plays tricks on the farrier by sneaking up behind him and chewing the end of his belt or nibbling the leather apron thing he wears round his waist.

When he gets cross the next trick is to sneak up behind New Mum and try to get at the carrots in her pocket.

It’s nice to get something really tasty to eat because there isn’t very much grass about so we have a lot of hay. New Mum gives us horse nuts for breakfast and tea but we don’t think she gives us enough. She says it’s because too many would make us too fat. This is us in winter looking for grass.

Don’t forget to visit www.thepercydaleponies.co.uk or read some of the things New Mum has written at www.percydalehappyhorses.co.uk and send your letters and pictures to ponies@percydale.com .

The Percydale Ponies’ Diary - Week Two

Our friend Bella was saddled and bridled for the first time this week and she was very good and didn’t make a fuss.

She is a registered Welsh Mountain Pony. She was completely black when she was born but every year she grows more and more grey hairs when she moults. One day she will be completely white. New Mum says that white horses and ponies are called grey which seems silly to us but people seem to have a lot of very strange ideas. If they want to call white horses and ponies grey we’ll just let them get on with it.

Hollie and Zoe, (New Mum’s grandchildren) were the first people to put Bella’s saddle on. They did it the proper way by getting her used to being stroked with the numnah and then having that on her back. Then they leaned on her and got her used to feeling pressure where the saddle would be. When they gently put the saddle on she didn’t mind at all.

After that Hollie and Zoe’s Dad put on her bridle. She looked a bit surprised when the bit went into her mouth but quite enjoyed playing with it with her tongue.

New Mum says what do we know about it as we have never worn anything more than a head collar. We say that you can know how things should be done without actually doing it yourself. So there!!

Bella with Hollie and Zoe's Dad. You can see she's definitely getting whiter. This photo was taken last summer. It will be interesting to see how different she is this year when she loses her winter coat

Read about us at www.thepercydaleponies.co.uk                  or read some of the things New Mum has written at www.percydalehappyhorses.co.uk.

Our 2012 Diary - Week One

This is the first week of our diary. At least we didn’t have any snow and ice. Ice is not good for us because our hooves are quite small and we slip around a lot. The big horses are heavier and their big feet press down on the slippery parts like ice treads.

The worst thing to happen was three days of gales and rain. Usually when it rains we go into the wood and shelter there but this week it was too scary. The trees were shaking and groaning and bits kept dropping off them. We could have gone into one of the field shelters but they are too close to the trees and the noise of things falling on to them scared us. In the end we spent most of the time close to a really big hedge.

This week we are showing you a picture of us with Tango. Tango was already here when we first came. She is very old. She was one of the horses who showed us the best places to hide from the wind and rain and where to go in summer to get away from flies when the sun was too hot.

The man who comes to do our feet gave Tango to New Mum to be a friend for Kerry. (We’ll show you a picture of her another time.)

Tango had been neglected and had to be rescued because her feet were so painful that she couldn’t stand up. The farrier (that’s what New Mum calls the man who does our feet) looked after her until she was better and then brought her to live here. She’s very big but is quite friendly unless we try to sneak some extra food from her feed bowl.

Even though she is very old she is quite fast when she decides to have a good gallop. New Mum says she should be called Thunder not Tango.

See you all again next we., Don't forget to visit us on www.theopercydaleponies.co.uk or write to us at ponies@percydale.com. We'd also like to see your pictures.

The Percydale Ponies 2012 Diary

At last all the fuss and bother about New Year is over. It’s January 1^st 2012 and it’s a horribly wet day. 

It was not bad at first this morning. New Mum was yawning all the time when she brought out our breakfast because she was up until late watching the fireworks on television. She had to turn the sound up very high to drown out the noise from the fireworks going off all around us. Woofer doesn’t mind bangs on TV but real fireworks are a different thing. She shivers and shakes, dribbles and tries to dig her way out through the floor and the walls so New Mum has to quieten her down and give her something else to listen to.

We are very brave and aren’t at all afraid of fireworks.

This is a picture of us having breakfast in the field shelter. We look a bit grubby because we have been rolling under the trees up in the top wood. New Mum says she is looking forward to Spring so that she can give us both a good grooming so that we look a bit respectable. In Winter she can only brush the mud off because grooming stops our coats from being waterproof.

You can’t see the shelter very well in this picture but it is quite big. It was built for two big horses and three ponies so there is plenty of room.

The wild daffodils are already starting to grow up in the wood and across the fields. New Mum doesn’t expect that to happen until February or March. Perhaps this nasty weather will go away soon and we will have some nice sunny days.

We’ll write some more next week.

Bubble and Squeak (The Percydale Ponies)